Clueless about Czech culture? No Czech citizenship for you!

Thu Nov 8 15:27:08 UTC 2007

07 Nov

Posted by: ADM in: Czech Education, European Union, Czech Language
Proficiency, Czech Culture, Czech Current Affairs

Rita Verdonk, the controversial former Dutch Minister for Immigration
and Integration, pioneered several extremely contentious immigration
policies and programs in The Netherlands during her controversial
tenure. Her apogee of success came following the 2002 murder of
anti-immigration (and openly homosexual) parliamentary candidate Pim
Fortyn by a Dutch extremist, and subsequently following the violent
stabbing of shock filmmaker Theo Van Gogh two years later. With a
population of 17 million, and with a rapidly rising Muslim subculture
of nearly 1 million, Verdonk decreed that any prospective immigrant —
Muslim or otherwise — to her country would have to undergo mandatory
Dutch cultural and linguistic training in their countries of origin
(read: Morrocco and Turkey) before touching down on Dutch soil. They
would be obligated to watch DVDs about Dutch society and uniquely
Dutch values in express-designed Dutch immigration absorption centres
in these various countries' capitals, depicting on-screen images of
various facets of Dutch living — things like The Netherlands' more lax
policies on soft drug consumption or same-sex partnerships, with
images of men and women kissing on-screen.

Needless the say, the policy went down terribly, even though it was
implemented (more like and rushed in) primarily in response to the
rage Dutch society harboured over the Muslims in their midst, the coup
de grace being Van Gogh's stabbing by Mohammed Bruyeri while the
filmmaker was out cycling. Here in the Czech Republic, there are moves
presently afoot to change the process by which married couples obtain
Czech citizenship. Presently — as the law stands — spouses of Czech
citizens are eligible for immediate permanent residency (trvaly pobyt)
and within five years are eligible for full Czech citizenship (without
voting rights, naturally). Newcomers to Czech society in this way
merely have to demonstrate a passive knowledge of the Czech language
in order to qualify for that same citizenship.

Under cover of the slower holiday season, Parliament is attempting to
hustle through amendments to the existing law. No longer will spouses
of Czech citizens be eligible for instant permanent residency. And
under the current proposal presently kicking around the Czech Senate
for final approval and signing into law (following President Klaus'
rubber stamp), it will now take prospective Czech permanent residents
eight years of continuous residency in the Czech Republic to qualify
for citizenship with Czech language fluency. In a manner of speaking,
this is similar to the Dutch initiatives of Madame Verdonk.

What's grossly missing here is a likely cultural component to the new
residency and citizenship requirements. Permanent residents should
know a thing or two about the Czech past, the Czech present, and the
country's cultural future. Considering they're seeking to become a
part of their adoptive society, this makes complete legal sense.

For the valued Czech citizenship and the preceding permanent residency
not to merely become means to an end, a policy of mandatory cultural
classes might be just what the doctor ordered around these parts.
We're talking about a policy of making the Czech Republic more regular
in the European context (notice how I didn't use the word
"normalized") — not just some Middle European vassal state where you'd
stop off for a beer and a steak if you're passing through from Berlin
to the Balkans for a fortnight, or the EU's soft underbelly…a place
you use as your pied-de-terre on your way to the West.

Whether cultural classes should be symbiotically tied to obtaining
citizenship, or whether gaining permanent residency in the Czech
Republic should be contingent upon first having this requisite
cultural and linguistic familiarity should ideally be up for citizens'
debate.

It's something our elected representatives sadly don't seem prepared
to do. And an objective assessment is needed of their present moves
and shakes. They cannot do this under cover of legislative darkness.

In any event, such a policy would go a long way towards cementing some
of the ideas of the founding fathers of the Czech National Revival. A
policy aimed at bringing back an intimate knowledge of Czech culture,
language, history, and ethos, a blowback against the German hegemony
of the time.

And Parliament's attempt to hammer through the new legislation before
the Acrobat's Holiday certainly comes from a noble and good place. But
my honest opinion is that its methods and approach are rather obtuse
and hard-edged. This is not the way to get this idea across. It's
extreme.

Last time I'd checked, we're still living in a democracy, where the
people have the power.

That Czechs are not demonstrating against this can only indicate one
of two things:

Czech citizens are in full agreement with the new policy, and support
it wholeheartedly.
Czech citizens have no clue what their elected representatives are up
to, and by the time they do cotton on to what's happening on the Left
Bank, the proposed law will be as good as written in stone.
The more things change, the more they stay the same?

You tell me.http://www.expats.cz/blog/?p=135

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