Support for Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic is stable, similar to a year ago, 55 percent of citizens appreciate that the Czech Republic allows people who fled Ukraine before the war with Russia to stay.
Their experiences with Ukrainians have not changed either, they have mostly mixed feelings about meeting and dealing with them. The majority of the public then agrees that the state should support the easy involvement of Ukrainians in the labor market. It emerged from a June survey by the STEM agency, whose results were provided to ČTK.
73 percent of respondents are in favor of the state supporting the easy involvement of Ukrainians in the domestic labor market. However, the prevailing opinion among the public is that the state should ensure that no new refugees come to the Czech Republic, and that it should actively reduce the number of Ukrainian refugees in the country. Three fifths of people think so. According to 54 percent, the state should offer Ukrainians who show an interest in it the opportunity to settle in the Czech Republic in the long term.
“People perceive Ukrainian refugees in different ways. If they strive for work and language integration, the openness of the Czech public towards them is great. However, some people feel that some refugees are not trying hard enough for integration,” said Jaromír Mazák, director of its research, regarding the agency’s findings.
Czechs most often meet Ukrainians in civil life when shopping or using services. Workers and people from Prague and the Central Bohemia region meet them more often. “On an individual level, we observe that those who meet Ukrainians at work or school on a daily basis have a more positive relationship with them, but meeting Ukrainians on a daily basis in civic life is not associated with a more positive relationship. The opportunity to establish closer ties is probably important there or a more personal contact,” added Mazák.
Regardless of the location of the meeting, two-fifths of those interviewed have mixed feelings about the meeting with the Ukrainians, less than a quarter perceive the meeting positively and roughly one-fifth negatively. Compared to last June, the results have hardly changed.
Personal conflicts with Ukrainians or conflicts between Czechs and Ukrainians have recently been recorded by a minority of people, 28 percent. Seventy-three percent of people also state that their personal situation was not affected by the arrival of Ukrainian refugees.
The performance of Czech authorities and institutions associated with the arrival of refugees was rated three by more than half of the people. 22 percent of people gave them a one and a two, and 24 percent gave them a four and a five. In a year-on-year comparison, the authorities have improved. The share of fours and fives fell by 11 percentage points, while the number of ones and twos decreased by three points.
From June 17 to 27, STEM asked thousands of people about questions related to Ukrainian refugees.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
