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The chapter discusses the opportunities Czech NGOs have for participation in designing and implementing public policies and the capacities they have for producing policy analysis. The ideas of new public management (NPM) resonated strongly in the Czech third sector. However, while in many countries NPM forced NGOs to ground their activities in depoliticized knowledge at the expense of traditional members’ interests, the Czech NGO sector was born directly into the NPM era. However, the recent economic crisis, accompanied by declining trust in democracy and growing dissatisfaction with politicians’ performance, led to the emergence of several new forms of NGOs and activist groups. These groups introduced new attitudes towards policy analysis while opposing the traditional institutionalized involvement of established NGOs, questioning the relevance of scientific expertise and focusing on empowering citizens and communities.
This chapter discusses the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the labour market integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (MRAs) in the selected countries addressed by the book. It examines the positions of CSOs and their perception by newcomers. Our findings suggest that CSOs can work as important actors enhancing not only integration into the labour market but also integration through the labour market. However, such a capacity is unevenly spatially distributed, Moreover, CSOs either individually or collectively, frequently raise the problematic situation of illegal practices on the part of employers, exploitation, human trafficking or underpaid wages. Furthermore, CSOs help to mitigate and, often together with MRAs, struggle against the hostile context of a widespread atmosphere of xenophobia. Although we conclude the CSOs primarily work as enablers of the MRAs’ integration in the labour market, our critical analysis also suggests that CSOs can in some nuanced ways hinder the labour market integration. Last but not least, we focus our attention on the enablers facilitating or barriers hindering the migration-related initiatives of CSOs and therefore on the process indirectly influencing MRAs’ labour market integration.
