The Organization for Aid to Refugees (Organizace pro pomoc uprchlíkům – OPU) is outraged by recent remarks made by Czech MP Tomio Okamura, the chair of the "Dawn of Direct Democracy" (Úsvit) movement, about immigrants. The group considers the politician’s statements racist and xenophobic.
OPU believes the MP is obviously trying to build his political career by following the model used by ultra-right politicians abroad. Okamura has said he believes foreigners who lose their jobs should return to their native countries and not be "parasites" on the Czech social welfare system and that the country should not "automatically" grant citizenship to newcomers.
Okamura has objected several times in the past to criticism of him as a racist and xenophobe. "We are outraged by the remarks of Mr Okamura as well as by the unbelievable response to his words," OPU director Martin Rozumek told the Czech News Agency.
Rozumek believes the MP "is obviously determined to build his political career following the model of ultra-right politicians abroad." Speaking on a Sunday discussion program on the Prima television channel, Okamura said that as a country, "we don’t have the money for adequate support for our Czech citizens, but we give money to foreigners who don’t even work here."
On the floor of the lower house, the MP has also said it is not desirable for foreigners without work to remain in the Czech Republic and draw welfare. The head of OPU, however, says that Czech immigration policy is currently unfair.
"On the one hand, [the policy] aims to maximally employ cheap, often exploited migrant labor, and on the other hand to make sure they share as little as possible in the public coffers to which they contribute," Rozumek said. The NGO leader pointed out that employed foreigners, just like Czech workers, pay withholding contributions and should have the opportunity, in case of need, to receive some support from those systems.
That principle is also established by an EU directive which is supposed to become part of Czech legislation. Demographers believe the Czech Republic will not be able to function in future without an influx of foreigners.
The society is aging and Czechs are beginning to die out. The number of children born is currently not replacing the number of people who die.
Within a couple of years the Czech Republic could face the threat of a lack of a labor force. In his blog, though, Okamura criticizes the notion that foreigners should be able to receive citizenship after a few years there.
"Is it really necessary to ‘automatically’ grant citizenship to everyone who asks for it?" the Úsvit boss asks rhetorically. According to OPU, however, the Czech Republic is actually one of the strictest states in the world when it comes to granting citizenship.
Data from Eurostat back up that assessment. The proportion of immigrants who become Czech citizens compared to the total number of foreigners living in the country is the lowest in the entire EU.
Elsewhere in the EU, an average of 23 persons out of 1 000 persons born abroad are granted citizenship annually, but in the Czech Republic only four out of 1 000 are. According to the representatives of nonprofit organizations, the reason is that the rules are too strict, not that foreigners are not interested.
NGOs believe that a current amendment to the Law on Foreigners could change that. Foreigners without citizenship are currently unable to vote in the Czech Republic, not even in municipal elections in the places where they live.
Foreigners in the Czech Republic cannot participate in politics or buy into public health insurance, but must be insured commercially. Rozumek says such obstacles prevent the full integration of newcomers to the Czech Republic.
Okamura has objected several times in the past to charges that he is a racist and xenophobe. The MP says he is just "telling it like it is".
"Unlike everyone else, I was a victim of racism and xenophobia throughout my entire childhood… just look at me, I’m not a racist or a xenophobe, I can’t be one," Okamura said on last Sunday’s Partie ("The Game") television program. The MP is the son of a Czech mother and Japanese father.
