Austria, similarly to other large neighbors, notably Germany and Italy, is with difficulty coming to terms with its new identity as country of in-migration. At the level of legislation and integration for non-EU immigrants as numerous obstacles exist towards effective integration in a  number of respects including housing, employment, and cultural and political rights.

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Austria, similarly to other large neighbors, notably Germany and Italy, is with difficulty coming to terms with its new identity as country of in-migration. At the level of legislation and integration for non-EU immigrants as numerous obstacles exist towards effective integration in a  number of respects including housing, employment, and cultural and political rights.

The key system of “social partnership” between employers, government and workers’ unions on which Austria’s government has been based since the second World War  has strongly shaped the direction of immigration policies.

It is within the intricate web of permanent official and non official negotiations within the “Sozialpartnershaft” that the opposed interests of the employers to import cheap workforce and unions’ willingness to protect Austrian workers’ positions led to an early system of quotas for guest workers. In 1961, a predetermined number of 47,000 foreign workers were agreed with the condition that, albeit at conditions of equal pay, they be expelled first, before Austrian workers, in case of job losses, and given one-year short term contracts. Negotiations on a yearly basis on such quotas and on generally at similar conditions continued up until the end of the eighties.

Unions remained exclusively Austrian workers’ representatives (foreign workers were not supported nor represented) and issues relating to immigration remained in the remit of the Ministry for Social Affairs exclusively, as the influx of foreign workers was considered, at least up until 1987, as simply a matter of  labor market policy.

In the late 80s and early 90s, considerations about public order and the exploitation of issues (and fears) about “invasion” by migrant workers and asylum seekers shifted competence on issues relating to migration partially to the Ministry of the Interior.

At the same time, the exploitation of “invasion fears”, especially from Eastern Europe and mounting xenophobic attitudes in the population by extreme right parties, also in coincidence with the refugee crisis from former Yugoslavia,  contributed to a brief season of open debate on the issue. Immigration came to be seen as a national priority, not just as a means to solve important long term problems of Austrian society but also (and in many ways exclusively) as a dangerous phenomenon which needed, mostly, to be stopped. The debate, was, however, also supported by discourse on the rapid aging of the Austrian population and the increasing realization that a rapidly aging country needed young people to support its economy and its health and social security systems, and that the only means to achieve that goal was a carefully constructed immigration policy, which went well beyond the concept of “guest worker” and aimed at inclusion and integration of immigrants and their families into society.

As a result three legislative tools were enacted which aimed at moving the issue simply from the remit of labor market policies to an overall policy of immigration control and an attempt at integration of long-term migrants (including some moves towards equal rights). The Asylum Act of 1992 reformed current legislation on Asylum and refugee status; the Alien’s Act and Residence Act of 1993 reformed all matters relating to immigration. These legislative tools aimed, inter alia, at stopping illegal immigration; at stopping the real or purported  use of  refugee protection as a means to obtain entry and residency in the country; at establishing of an overall immigration quota system which went beyond the old guest workers’ system. It also included some enhanced rights for long-term residents, however were relatively restricted in comparison with the contemporary legislation in other EU countries for migrants in comparable situations.

In 1997 a new Aliens’ Act (and a reform of the Asylum Act and the Foreigners’ Employment Act) were introduced, which were informed mostly by a discourse on “integration” of migrants; they responded to a strong wave in xenophobia, which had strongly eroded the consensus of the ruling Social Democratic party and was the main issue supporting the political discourse of the extreme right parties. The reform responded to the prevailing political climate, by weakening the rights of short term foreign residents with less than 8 years residence in the country (expulsion was made possible for such foreigners) and improving to some extent the position of longer term residents (for instance protection from expulsion for long term residents and for children of immigrants born in Austria). Strong limitations were put on family reunification. The reform was completed in 1998 with a reform of the laws on naturalization (Naturalization Act) which made it more difficult to obtain Austrian citizenship (main requirements became residence of at least 10 years, a controversial, compulsory test in German as a precondition of granting citizenship and exclusion of all foreigners who had been convicted to a prison term of at least three months) and reiterated the prohibition to hold dual citizenship.

Since 2000 issues relating to immigration and asylum (although the two areas are very neatly separated) are more strongly linked to internal security (with a special emphasis on the fight against illegal immigration and trafficking), in government programs and action. Moreover, controversial measures towards integration have been reinforced (for instance, since January 2003, compulsory and fee paying attendance of German language courses of 100 hours are required by foreigners residing in Austria since 1 January 1998) On the other hand, there does not appear to exist in government programs a specific interest in exploring ways to address disadvantage for foreign workers in attaining equal access to the labour market or equal conditions of work.

Thus, in recent years, while some improvement in the conditions of long term residents can be recorded, the political answer to growing popular hostility towards immigration has been to restrict rights for more recent immigrants and to impose measures towards some form of integration or (as critics define it) assimilation, of foreign workers in to Austrian society without decisive  corresponding moves to “open up” Austrian society towards acceptance of diversity and multiculturalism.

Analysis provided by: Antonella C. Attardo PhD (History of Law), Italy.

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