The lives of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic: Slovo 21 and researchers from the Faculty of Science at Charles University present the results of a long-term study

What challenges are war refugees from Ukraine facing in the Czech Republic? And how have their perceptions and behaviors changed more than two years after the start of the war in Ukraine? These questions are addressed in a research report published today by the organization Slovo 21. The uniqueness of this research lies in tracking changes among the same respondents over time and monitoring their subjective attitudes.

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The report, "War Refugees from Ukraine in the Czech Republic (2022–2023): Situation and Subjective Attitudes," presents the results of research conducted by Josef Novotný, Anna Levková, and Dušan Drbohlav from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development at the Faculty of Science, Charles University. The research was organized by Slovo 21, an organization that has been dedicated to integrating minorities into mainstream society in the Czech Republic for 25 years. "Since the beginning of the war, our activities to help Ukraine have kept us in close contact with refugees across the country. Therefore, assisting with data collection was a natural continuation of our work," explains Amra Mešić, project coordinator at Slovo 21.

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The research was conducted in two rounds. In 2022, data was successfully collected from 1,037 Ukrainian refugees, with the first wave of research funded by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. In 2023, further data collection took place with the support of UNHCR resources, during which 129 respondents from the original sample were re-interviewed to determine how their lives had changed a year after arriving in the Czech Republic. Additionally, responses were obtained from another 221 refugees, and the research was supplemented with a qualitative component. Although the sample of respondents is relatively limited and statistically non-representative, it provides an important perspective on the evolution of Ukrainian refugees' attitudes toward issues such as returning to Ukraine. In this regard, the data shows that while 75% of respondents planned to return during the first round of the survey in 2022, that figure dropped to just 50% a year later in the second round.

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The research also focuses on the labor market (including estimates of the extent of illegal employment of Ukrainians), Czech language proficiency, housing, and agency employment.

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The results further show a significant increase in the proportion of respondents who can communicate in Czech in everyday situations and understand written text, as well as a substantial increase in the share of employed refugees, though a large portion still find it difficult to secure appropriate employment. "This could suggest that acquiring Czech (and interventions targeted at this) may not be enough on its own to secure appropriate employment if other significant barriers are not addressed (e.g., salary and other inequalities, recognition of qualifications, lack of contextually relevant experience, etc.)" (Novotný, Levková, Drbohlav 2024).

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The research findings will be presented by the research team today at 10:00 a.m. in the Architects' Hall at the Old Town Hall in Prague. The event will be attended by representatives from the UNHCR Office in the Czech Republic and Ukrainian refugees. The event is held under the auspices of Deputy Mayor of Prague, Alexandra Udženija. The research report itself is freely available for download on the websites of Slovo 21 and the Geomigrace team.

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‍You can read the research here.

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Contact person:
Amra Mešić
725 021 171
amra.mesic@slovo21.cz