Download the Policy Brief here.

This brief is based on the findings of the report “Governance of Migrant Integration in the Czech Republic: Moni­toring report on progress towards the 2030 Agenda in relation to migration” which acknowledges the contribu­tion of migration to sustainable development.

“Leave no one behind” is the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 17 agreed Goals represent a universal call for actions to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and pros­pects of everyone, everywhere. Many targets in the Agenda are relevant to migration or mobility, including Goal 10.7 to facilitate orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration, target 4.b focused on the expansion of trans­national scholarship programmes, Goal 8.8 regarding the protection of migrants’ labour rights, and target 10.c, which seeks to reduce the fees for sending remittances to countries of origin.

As of 2019, the Czech Republic is closest to achieving the goals on Poverty Eradication (Goal 1), Reducing In­equality (Goal 10) and Water and Biodiversity (Goals 6 and 15). Conversely, the Czech Republic is furthest from reaching the goal on Gender Equality (Goal 5), Quality Education (Goal 4), Resilient Infrastructure (Goal 9) and Climate Action (Goal 13). It is important to underscore that this assessment is based on currently available data. Data gaps exist, for example, on Sustainable Production and Reducing Inequality (Goals 12 and 10). Results could change if more complete datasets were available.

The 2030 Agenda promises to leave no one behind, meaning that the migrant population needs to be system­atically included in the review of targets. Indicators do not reflect the specific situation of population groups, hence any migration-specific disadvantages may remain hidden behind population averages and do not create any pressure on governments to address the vulnerability of migrants. Goal 17.18 specifically emphasises the building of local and national capacity to improve migration data in the future. Monitoring the local and national integration process of immigrants with better data and dedicated financial resources, together with publishing data on a regular basis on migration-related topics is an essential prerequisite for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Czech institutions collect considerable amounts of data on immigrants, but lack the mechanisms to centralise, disaggregate and cross-reference all data collected from various branches of the government. The timely, reliable, and comparable data disaggregated by migratory status are necessary to guide policy makers in implementing plans of action to tackle the migration and integration issues.