Several research surveys were conducted by the CVVM as well as STEM research agencies in March 2016 to study perception of foreigners by Czech majority.

Perceiving foreigners as a problem

One of the surveys conducted by the CVVM focused on public attitudes to long-term or permanently residing foreigners in the Czech Republic. The first question asked whether foreigners coming in the country in last few years cause problems or not. The survey shows that share of Czechs, who consider foreigners a problem on the national level (currently 55 %), decreased in comparison with a similar survey from October 2015 by 14 %. Further, while only 35 % of Czechs do not consider foreigners a problem on the national level, 69 % of Czechs do not consider foreigners a problem on the regional level.

On the other hand, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency, the migrant crisis is making Czechs increasingly wary of foreigners. The number of people who think an ethnic group or minority should have the right to live in the Czech Republic according to its own traditions has dropped by almost a half to 25 % in the past two years. Only 25 % of respondents now say requests for Czech citizenship should be granted without regard to nationality or ethnicity. Three quarters of Czechs now consider foreigners to be a security threat. Another STEM´s survey also shows that a two-thirds majority of citizens (67 %) believe that tensions between Czechs and foreigners are very or relatively high. This proportion is significantly higher than in previous years.

CVVM agency also points out a correlation between attitude to foreigners and political preferences of respondents. One of the question asked whether a respondent would deny to have a foreigner for a neighbour:  43 % of respondents with left-wing orientation answered negatively in comparison with only 25 % of right-wing oriented respondents.   

Relation to various national groups

Another CVVM´s survey shows attitudes of Czech public to seventeen national groups that are living in the Czech Republic in significant number. The most positive relation was observed to Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles, the worst relation have Czechs to Arabs and Roma people. In comparison with identical October 2015 survey, worsening attitude can be observed towards Arabs, Greeks, Poles, Slovaks and Albanians, while Czechs´ relationship towards Ukrainians, Vietnamese and Russians has significantly improved. These trends and attitudes have also confirmed by findings of the STEM agency survey.

Employment of foreigners

Yet another survey of the CVVM has dealt with a topic of employment of foreigners in Czech Republic. While 34 % of Czechs think it is right to employ foreigners, 57 % express the opposite view. Support to employment of foreigners grows with degree of completed education and also with improving evaluation of living standard of respondent's household. These findings are in line with similarily oriented STEM´s research, according to which 66 % of Czechs consider the number of foreign workers in the country too high, and according to 60 % of Czechs foreigners steal their jobs.