Abstract
Since the early 1990s, due to increasing immigration to the Czech Republic, a middleman system has been established in order to organise (irregular) labour of migrants mostly from Ukraine. Due to its extent, the breadth of activities involved and interconnection with Mafia structures, this system is relatively specific and plays a significant role within the labour migration environment.
With respect to the fact that the middlemen and the migrant workers are mostly from Ukraine, we regard the entire system as a type of ethnic economy. This system has two hierarchic levels, the first of which deals with the procurement of irregular migrant labour.
The second level is based on the relations between middlemen and organised crime. The paper tries to explain the causes for the establishment of the middleman system of labour organisation, to describe its operation, and the roles and mutual links among individual actors.