Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe - Multiple Choices

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Normative and Methodological Discussion of Migration and Integration
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years in Ireland (Waldrauch, 2004). Two additional things
need to be mentioned, though. When we calculate the
residence requirements it is not enough to look at the
required number of years of permanent residency for
gaining citizenship. We must also add the number of years
it takes to obtain the permanent residency. For example,
in the Czech Republic, it takes only five years of permanent
residence to get citizenship. But if you are an immigrant
non-related to a permanent resident or a Czech national,
it takes additional ten years to gain this permanent residence,
which is a binding prerequisite for obtaining citizenship.
Hence, in the Czech Republic, the hidden total of the stay
requirement for this category of immigrants is fifteen rather
than five years, although this will soon change.
Second, the requirement in one country is usually
different for specific categories of immigrants. For instance,
spouses of nationals are often put on the fast track to
obtaining permanent residence and citizenship. For the
sake of simplified analysis, I will focus only on immigrants
who come as complete newcomers with no family ties
in the country. I am choosing this category because they
belong to the most vulnerable of regular migrants and their
treatment is an acid test of the openness and liberalism
of the receiving society.
In the table below we can see the stay requirements
for immigrants with no family ties in the country
in the four states under analysis:
TABLE: RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGNERS
NON-RELATED TO CITIZENS AND PERMANENT
RESIDENTS.
Country Temporary Permanent Total
Residence Residence
Czech Republic 10 5 15 years
Slovak Republic 10 5 15 years
Hungary 3 8 11 years
Poland 5 5 10 years
Source: Czech Republic, Act No.326/1999; Slovak Republic,
Act No. 48/2002; Hungary, Act XXXIX of 2001; Poland, Act
on Aliens of 13 June 2003.
From the data presented above, we can see that
in two out of four discussed countries it takes fifteen years
to gain citizenship and become fully legally integrated.
Fifteen years!
And this is not the end of the story. For this stay
to be considered and counted, there must not be any interruption
for the entire required period. In other words, the
legal stay preceding the application must be continuous.
What constitutes interruption of the legal stay slightly
varies from country to country, but generally it can happen
in two ways: either the temporary visa of the foreigner is
not renewed, or the foreigner spends time abroad: (for a
longer period than permitted, when applying for residency).
This tolerated stay abroad generally ranges from two to
three months per year. Of course, there are certain exceptions
such as seeking medical attention, attending a court hearing
etc. which can serve as grounds for granting extension of
the legitimate absence.
Yet another important issue related to the length
and legal continuity of the stay, is the fact that a student
visa often does not count towards the calculated years.
In Hungary for example, the law explicitly defines that the
purpose of study cannot be counted as a stay towards
residence requirement. 2 If you are a foreign student in
Hungary, the time you spend there with this status will
not be considered.
These three features are problematic because they
potentially contradict binding European legislation and
impede rather than facilitate integration of immigrants by
imposing unnecessary requirements. I emphasize the
phrase 'potentially contradict' as the European legislation
is often worded in very general and ambiguous terms.
So how long should the required stay be? One
answer to this question might be derived from the Council
of Europe Convention on Nationality. All four countries
have signed and ratified this Convention and it contains an
Article specifically discussing the length of residence
requirement. However, the wording of the Convention of
Nationality is unclear. In Article 6, Paragraph 3, it states:
'In establishing the conditions for naturalisation, [each
State Party] shall not provide for a period of residence
exceeding ten years before the lodging of an application'.
From this and other related articles of the Convention, it is
unclear what is meant by 'residence'. Is it total residence
on both temporary and permanent visa or only the residence
with a permanent residency visa? If it is the former, then all
of the four countries breech the Convention by its current
laws as their total residence requirement is more than ten
years.
But, for the sake of argument, let us agree that
there is no Convention with clear standards concerning the
length of required residence. Another way of deriving the
desirable length of stay requirement, might be to consider
the goal of the residence requirement and see when and
how it is met. So what exactly is the goal of the residence
requirement? Leaving aside the cynical suggestion that
residence requirements are there to deter immigrants form
settling, we will probably agree that the requirements are
imposed to allow sufficient time for successful integration
prior to granting citizenship. How long, then, does it take
to become fully integrated? Of course, this is an empirical
question and I do not pretend to have an answer for it. The
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Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe: Unpacking the Diversity