Up to 260,000 refugees from Ukraine could settle permanently in the Czech Republic. According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 365,000 refugees with temporary protection were living in the country at the end of March.
A new study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) finds that war refugees from Ukraine have had a positive impact on the Czech labour market. The country has long faced a shortage of skilled workers. However, the study also highlights barriers to integration – including language difficulties and the limited recognition of qualifications. It further notes growing pressure on the social and healthcare systems.
As of the end of March, the Ministry of the Interior had registered 364,602 people with temporary protection. In addition, 330,283 people from other countries held temporary residence permits, while 378,418 had permanent residence permits. In total, more than 1.07 million foreigners were living in the Czech Republic at the end of the first quarter. The study forecasts this figure could rise to 1.19 million by 2030 and 1.36 million by 2035.
Ukrainians and Slovaks make up the largest groups of foreign nationals in the country, but significant numbers of Vietnamese, Russians, Turks, and Britons have also settled in the Czech Republic. The number of foreigners with a residence permit has increased by more than 142 per cent over the past decade. At the end of last year, the Czech Ministry of the Interior recorded almost 1.1 million foreigners, compared to 452,000 in 2014.
According to a survey by CVVM (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění), the willingness of refugees to settle abroad increases with the duration of the war. In December 2022, only 43 per cent of respondents said they ‘definitely’ or ‘rather’ wanted to stay in the Czech Republic or another country. By November 2023, this proportion had risen to 75 per cent. Meanwhile, the desire to return to Ukraine within the next two years fell from one third at the end of 2022 to just 10 per cent in November 2023.
