Abstract:

In the coming decades, the Czech Republic will face the negative consequences of rapid ageing and population decline, which will have enormous economic, social and security impacts on the Czech state and society. The projected decline in population could ease the growing immigration from abroad, but the arrival of foreigners is meeting great fears and rejections in Czech society. Especially after 2015, when Europe faced the migration crisis, the theme of migration has become a major social and, more recently, political and security issue. Migration has been successfully securitized and most of the Czech public perceive migrants as a security threat. Paradoxically, there is a situation where, on the one hand, the need for working-age people will grow, on the other, society and the state refuse to consider international migration as a source that could alleviate the population problems of the Czech Republic. This article aims to describe the real status of immigration into the Czech Republic and to confront it with the concerns articulated in the public and domestic political scene.