Prague, Dec 22 (CTK) – Most Ukrainians live in the Czech Republic permanently, but still they send hundreds of dollars monthly to their families back in Ukraine, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
In all, Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic sent 188 million dollars as remittances to Ukraine last year, LN writes, quoting a World Bank estimate.
Almost 105,000 Ukrainians are the most populous ethnic minority in the Czech Republic that has about 10.5 million inhabitants. They are followed by Slovaks with 96,000 and Vietnamese with 57,000, LN writes.
Over two-thirds of Ukrainians have permanent stay and the rest various forms of work permits and visas, it adds.
However, another tens of thousands of Ukrainians are illegally in the Czech Republic, LN writes.
Ukrainians are also the most numerous group of employees from the countries outside the EU. There are 35,319 of them here, followed again by Vietnamese with 23,639 persons, it adds.
Ukrainians are gradually turning from migrant workers to a permanently settled community. This is evidenced by the number of their children attending kindergartens (now 1,694) and elementary schools (4,039), LN writes.
They also dominate in the number of foreign students at secondary schools (2,126 persons). There were 2,256 Ukrainians studying at Czech universities in the academic year 2014/15, it adds.
Most Ukrainians (46,000) live in Prague and the surrounding Central Bohemia Region, the least number in the Zlin and Moravia-Silesia regions (1,000 each), LN writes.
“Some 70 percent of Ukrainians have a permanent stay here, which does not correspond with the idea that they only come here to earn money,” researcher Yana Leontiyeva, from the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, is quoted as saying.
The number of permanent stays among Ukrainians is continually rising, LN writes. Five years ago, the Interior Ministry registered such a status only with one half of all Ukrainian citizens with a legal stay in the Czech Republic, LN writes.
Leontiyeva said this could be caused by the relatively safe status of this permit, thanks to which Ukrainians have access to the public health insurance and can shuttle between the Czech Republic and Ukraine without the risk that their visas will expire.
To gain the permit, they must be first permanently settled in the Czech Republic, LN writes.
“To be granted the status, the law demands permanent stay in the Czech Republic for five years,” Leontiyeva said.
