Czechs woo skilled foreigners

By Alix Kroeger BBC correspondent in Prague

The Czech Republic is to embark on a project to attract highly-skilled foreigners into its workforce and to hold onto those already working there.

The Czech Government fears the EU could tempt skilled workers away

Initially the scheme will offer a fast track to permanent residency for about 300 specialist workers from Croatia, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic stands at 10%, but the labour ministry says the project will target gaps that the Czechs themselves are unable to fill.

This is a region which has traditionally exported its own people. Now the Czech Republic is trying to attract immigrants - or at least a carefully selected few.

It is also launching a pilot project to help skilled foreigners stay in the country.

Most people will probably be working in medicine or information technology, but the government is deliberately not imposing any restrictions.

That is for the market to decide, it says.

The project will not help any workers attain employment, but once they have found a job they will be fast-tracked for permanent residency over two-and-a-half-years instead of 10, the Czech Government says.

However, the scheme will not apply to those who would make most use of it - the thousands of migrants from Slovakia and Ukraine who come here each year.

Like most countries in Europe, the Czech Republic is facing a demographic squeeze.

Its population is ageing and the birth rate is falling.

Brain drain

The International Organisation for Migration discounts fears of a "brain drain" once the Czechs join the European Union next year.

But there is likely to be an initial surge of emigration, probably by exactly those kind of professionals the Czech government is now hoping to attract from elsewhere.

The Czechs are still getting used to being a country of net immigration.

In a recent opinion poll, three quarters of Czechs said the presence of foreigners was a problem and 17% said foreigners should not stay in the country long-term.

More than half of respondents said immigrants should assimilate completely. while only 6% said foreigners should be allowed to live according to their own customs.