Czechia is one of world's hardest places to settle in as an expat

Czechia is one of the trickiest places in the world to start a new life as an expat, a new study has found. Aspects such as language, local friendliness, and the country’s culture and welcome contributed to Czechia’s relatively poor showing in the ranking, although the country scored well in categories such as work, transit, and leisure.

The Expat Insider 2024 report from InterNations, a community supporting a large network of expats spanning 420 cities, assessed various aspects of life in five newly published indices, including the Ease of Settling In, Quality of Life, and Expat Essentials. InterNations asked over 10,000 expats – ranging from young workers to retirees, all from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds – their thoughts on life in their host country.

Overall, it found that Czechia was the 15th-”worst” country for expats – falling a dramatic 18 spots from the previous year’s ranking. InterNations revealed that Czechia was the seventh-hardest country to settle in as an expat. It scored particularly poorly in its culture and welcome score – evaluating the degree to which locals make foreigners feel welcome – at 47th out of 53 surveyed countries. 

Czechia also scored particularly poorly in local friendliness. According to InterNations, it is the third-least friendly country in the report, with only Austria and Kuwait displaying higher levels of unfriendliness from natives. It’s also relatively hard to make friends in Czechia – InterNations ranked it 40th (out of 53) in the finding friends category. 

Language is also a big issue for expats in Czechia. InterNations found that Czechia was the second-hardest country in the world to learn the local language and live there without speaking it. Only in Hungary was it harder. Below-average scores in the housing, digital life, and administrative tasks categories meant that, overall, Czechia was the fifth-hardest country to sort out the basics of life abroad.

There were parts of the study, however, in which Czechia performed particularly well. It was ranked as high as 15th for work culture and satisfaction, and 16th for work and leisure. It also scored a respectable 16th for career prospects – coming higher than the likes of Singapore, Germany, and Switzerland. In the overall Working Abroad Index, InterNations adjudged Czechia to be the 15th-best country for working in the world.  

Czechia also scored well in the Quality of Life Index, ranking 14th overall. Its standout performance was in the travel and transit category, in which it came eighth (besting Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates). It was also ranked the 15th-best country in terms of safety and security, outperforming Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden.

Director of the Center for the Integration of Foreigners Anna Marie Vinařická explained to Czechia media outlet Seznam Zprávy why some foreigners have it harder than others in Czechia. “A person working in a multinational company, which takes care of its expat employees, does not need to speak much Czech, because they can navigate solely in the English-speaking community. In short, they don’t really need to get too involved in Czech society; they live in their own social bubble.”

On the flipside, a migrant worker who has left their country due to poor economic prospects has “much more difficult conditions,” because they need to learn Czech. "Unfortunately, there is a shortage of available Czech language courses here. Czech is a rather complex language, it takes quite a long time to master it for proper communication, let alone at a level suitable for professional activity,” Marie Vinařická says. 

The sensitive debate between what an expat and migrant worker constitute – and the differences between both – is a separate topic altogether, although foreigners in Czechia will hope that the government continues to enact policies that make life easier for non-Czechs.