A narrow majority of Czechs consider the integration into Czech society of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion as successful, according to a poll conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (CVVM). However, the prevailing opinion is that the country has taken in more Ukrainians than it can handle.
More than half of the participants in the survey said refugees from Ukraine were a problem nationwide, but only less than one-third of those surveyed consider them problematic in the place where they live.
Ukraine has been defending itself from Russian military aggression for almost three years.
While 51% of respondents said Ukrainian refugees are integrating successfully into society, two-fifths say they are not. Fewer people think integration is successful than last summer, when 55% of survey participants thought so.
60% said the Czech Republic has accepted far more people from Ukraine than it can handle, while 32% say the number is reasonable. The numbers changed only in the autumn poll compared to the survey last spring, when 58% of Czechs considered the number of Ukrainians admitted to be unmanageable and 35% considered it adequate.
According to 56% of respondents, refugees from Ukraine are a problem from the perspective of the entire Czech Republic, while 36% say the opposite.
“A significantly smaller proportion of the population perceives refugees from Ukraine as problematic in their place of residence,” the authors of the survey pointed out. 57% do not consider Ukrainian refugees a problem in the place where they live, while 30% do. In the spring of 2024, these figures were 57% and 24% respectively.
Czech attitudes toward accepting refugees from Ukraine are similar year-on-year. Roughly 10% of Czechs still want to accept the refugees and let them settle in the Czech Republic, while almost two-thirds are in favour of accepting them until they are able to return home. Roughly a quarter of people would rather refuse to accept refugees from the war in Ukraine.
“Receptivity towards accepting refugees correlates with increasing levels of highest completed education, increasing satisfaction with the political situation, increasing satisfaction with one’s own life, increasing income, and with an improving assessment of one’s own household standard of living,” said CVVM.
Last autumn, 29% of Czech citizens were interested in the development of the situation regarding Ukrainian refugees, which was the lowest proportion on record. In the spring of 2022, after the Russian army invaded Ukraine, 66% were interested in the situation, falling to 40% last spring. According to CVVM, interest in the refugee situation is very strongly linked to interest in developments in Ukraine.
CVVM surveyed 1,008 people aged 15 and over between 12 September and 28 November last year.
