Czech labour market for foreigners and the situation of Vietnamese employees

Abstract

Most of the European countries are now facing the common challenge from aging population. This affects the labour market and consecutively the economic engine. As a matter of course the Czech Republic has to welcome workers from outside sources to supplement its labour shortage. I've found that the majority of the migrant workers going to the Czech Republic are low skill ones and they concentrate in the lower tier of the labour market. The efforts of the Government to attract high skill workers have not been much successful in bringing more qualified foreigners to the country. The Vietnamese is the third largest migrant community in the Czech Republic with 60.301 registered people. For those who came here in the 70s and 80s, they have been legally and pretty successfully residing in the society. But for the new workers who were sent to work in Czech factories since 2006, the global crisis turned their lives into hardship. They lost jobs but they couldn't or didn't want to go home. They must hold on in this land with a hope to change their lives.

Most of the European countries are now facing the common challenge from aging population. This affects the labour market and consecutively the economic engine. As a matter of course the Czech Republic has to welcome workers from outside sources to supplement its labour shortage. I've found that the majority of the migrant workers going to the Czech Republic are low skill ones and they concentrate in the lower tier of the labour market. The efforts of the Government to attract high skill workers have not been much successful in bringing more qualified foreigners to the country. The Vietnamese is the third largest migrant community in the Czech Republic with 60.301 registered people. For those who came here in the 70s and 80s, they have been legally and pretty successfully residing in the society. But for the new workers who were sent to work in Czech factories since 2006, the global crisis turned their lives into hardship. They lost jobs but they couldn't or didn't want to go home. They must hold on in this land with a hope to change their lives.