Experts estimate there as many illegal as legal foreigners in the country

The number of foreigners residing illegally in the Czech Republic could be as many as 400,000, or nearly the same as the number of legal foreign residents. The estimate was provided by migration experts from Charles University attending an international conference on immigrations trends in Prague. They say immigration to the country is predicated not only by the Czech Republic’s economic strength but also by the migration policy, which since the 1990S has shifted from “liberal, to restrictive, to restrictive-integrative", in the words of one of the sociologists present. The influx of foreigners however has been stalled since 2008 by the economic crisis, she added.