Prague and the Czech Republic growing more popular as a relocation destination

The Czech Republic now boasts more than 500,000 expat workers.

Reports by three major Czech Republic ministries have confirmed that the number of migrants living and working in the country is at its highest ever. Over half a million expatriates, mostly from other European states, are employed in international company head offices and consultancy firms as well as on construction and infrastructure projects. The majority are living and working in the Republic’s major cities and its capital, Prague, with a majority transferred from their home countries to take up managerial and specialist positions.

Some 80 per cent of all foreign workers in the republic arrive from Eastern European countries including Russia, Romania and the Ukraine. Around 7,000 German expats are estimated to be working in Prague, with a further 15,000 British, French, Italian and Spanish professionals taking up managerial positions in the capital and the city of Brno. Ukrainian workers and expats from Romania and other former Soviet Union states are generally seen as unskilled labour, whilst those from Slovakia and Russia are seen as expat professionals.

The former Vietnamese workforce in the republic has now declined from 50,000 to around 30,000, mostly due to changes in the way work visas are allocated to applicants from Asian countries. As Eastern Europe opens up to foreign multinationals and other companies, Prague is being seen as a good place to establish regional head offices serving subsidiaries in other former Eastern bloc states. As a result, an increasing number of expat professionals are being transferred to the Czech Republic to supervise global projects, a move which has increased expat appreciation of the quality of life offered in this less well-known expat outpost.