Title: Illegal strategies of migrants from Vietnam and Ukraine.
1Illegal strategies of migrants from Vietnam and
Ukraine.
- Michal Nekorjak
- Faculty of Social Studies
- Masaryk University in Brno
2Common spheres of illegal strategies
- restricted rights the problem of entering the
territory of the Czech Republic and residence - the sphere of economic reproduction
- organized crime
- Within these spheres, some strategies of
Vietnamese and Ukrainians are common, in some of
them they differ.
31. Restricted rights the problem of entry and
residence
- The formal status of foreigners is stratified
(the concept of civic stratification) - The legislative forms different categories of
foreigners that have different rights and duties - The stratification of inhabitants according to
their citizenship reflects the attempts of nation
states to regulate migration and also various
notions of inclusion of foreigners into host
society. - The obstructions towards foreigners may be
perceived as preventive measures either - a) against their permanent stay
- b) against the competition on labour market.
4- Difficult accessibility of visa, residence and
- work permit and informal obstruction influence
- the strategies of immigrants as follows
- A) making use of the strategy of bribery
- B) making use of service of agencies and agents
- C) the choice of illegal stay
- D) the choice of quasi-legal status
5Ad (a) the problem of unequal rights is also
resolves by means of bribing
- alien police (and frontier guard)
- embassy
6Ad (b) using the service of agencies or agents
(clients or zit-vu)
- the problem of organized bribery
- the problem of fictitious promises
- the problem of organizing illegal employment
7Ad (c) the choice of illegal stay
- Illegal stay according to statistics in 2005
-
- Ukrainians 7000 cases (70 out of all cases)
- 40 -150 000 illegal immigrants estimated
-
- Vietnamese 600 cases (6 out of all cases)
- For Vietnamese illegal stay is rather
exceptional. This fact is related to enterprise
activities. - a) to obtain the status of a businessman is much
easier that to obtain the status of an employee - b) it is difficult be an entrepreneur with
illegal status
8Ad (d) the choice quasi-legal stay
- by mediation of simulated marriages
- fake documents
- quasi-entrepreneur status only formal status of
an entrepreneur, but a factual status of an
employee.This problem arises predominately for
Ukrainians (35 of them have a trader license) - Vietnamese by declaring paternity
92) The sphere of economic reproduction
10Both groups form their own institutions
- Vietnamese
- Their activities aim outside the Czech labour
market - They focus on the sale of imported (textile)
goods. Their goal is to make profit. - The Vietnamese form their own internal labour
market. And the secondary segment is offered to
the Czech population as well.
- Ukrainians
- They aim to the Czech labour market
- They organize employee networks (client system).
Their goal is the wages. - Ukrainian ethnic economy is less complex than
that the Vietnamese one.
11The VietnameseThe illegal strategies are
embedded in the production of profit. The main
entrepreneur activity is the sale of textile
goods imported form abroad (China, Vietnam,
Turkey, Hungary, Poland)
- Main strategies
- 1. Above-average time spent at work
- 2.The strategy of the low operating costs
- 3.Flexible reaction to demand
- 4.Lowering tax expenditure
- 5.Lowering customs expenditure
- Main actors
- central store entrepreneur
- market hall entrepreneur
- wholesaler
- shop entrepreneur
- stall entrepreneur
- employee
12The strategy of the low costs of enterprise
- minimal equipment and demands for running
- the goods at the cheapest figure the strategy
of high turn-over of the goods for low price - lowering labour costs
- a) self-employment
- b) employing their families
- c) employing immigrants debtor for mediation
- d) employing Czech marginalized labour
13Flexible reaction to demand
- Monitoring the trends of demand in particular at
the beginning of the 90s - Willingness to meet a demand for illegal goods
(the most frequent crime of Vietnamese according
to the statistics) - - the sale of goods with a fake trademark
- - bootleg CDs and DVDs, non-registered
cigarettes and alcohol
14Lowering tax expenditure
- paying minimal taxes
- non-declared amount of sold/purchased
- goods
- non-declaring the salaries of employees
- - illicit work (take-home)
- - non-standard employing work on contract
(švarcsystém)
15Lowering customs expenditure
- fraudulently declared low price of goods
(informal agreement with producers) - smuggling in the goods
- -non-declared goods hidden in containers
- - the strategy of overloading focusing the
import on one workplace of customs office which
will not manage to check all shipments - -taking the goods through third countries
with more moderate customs procedures (Slovakia,
Hungary) - - bribes for customs officers
- - goods declaration on fake documents
(different commodity)
16Space differentiation of illegal activities
- Frontier region vs. inland
- The Vietnamese are concentrated in big cities and
- frontier regions near Germany (and Austria)
- The sale of fake trademarks is concentrated
predominantly in the frontier regions, it is not
such a problem in the inland. The reason is - a) high level of demand of German and
Austrian citizens - b) worsened enforceability to observe the
law controlling institutions have a seat in big
cities
173) Organized crime
18The Ukrainians
- Several groups operate here so called
- brigades
-
- they intervene into the lives of Ukrainians by
- means of levying a charge from the clients (so
- called rocket)
- assaults
19Types of clients as for their relation to mafia
- The relationship between mafia and the clients
is ambivalent, ambiguous. It cannot be judged
only as advantageous / disadvantageous or - voluntary / involuntary.
20- 1) Passive
- forced relation
- 2) Pragmatists
- They adapt themselves to a given situation and
try to use the service of mafia for their own
benefit, particularly in the sphere of getting
administrative permissions or financial loans. - 3) Predatory
- Their relation to mafia is pragmatic. Neither
they are a part of mafia, however, their
practices are criminal. They prey on workers (do
not pay their salaries), threaten them or use
violence toward them. - 4) Mafiosi
- They come from the background of organized crime.
A part of - client firms belongs to mafia.
21The Vietnamese
- We have much less information about the role of
organized crime in - the environments of Vietnamese migrants.
- We know it participates in
- a) recovery of debts and protection of market
halls against rival - mafias
- b) they participate in organizing fake goods
trade - c) they help to obtain fake documents
- They provide the same type of service as the
Ukrainian brigades do - a) protection
- b) administrative service
- c) partial but direct participation in the
ethnic economy -