UNIT 10 HOMOGENISATION OF CZECH SOCIETY – FACT OR FICTION
Ethnic make-up
With the division of the former Czechoslovak Republic at the start of 1993, the Czech
Republic became a relatively homogenous society. Almost 97% of the population are
Czechs and Slovaks, the latter constituting 3%. Other minorities are Roma (2-3%), Poles
(0,6%), Germans (0,5 %), Hungarians (0,2%), Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Ruthenians,
Russians, Jews, Croats, Greeks, etc. More details on ethnic composition as reflected in the
1991 and 2001 census.
In the past however the Czech lands were multiethnic. For nearly four centuries after
1527 the Czech territories were part of the Habsburg monarchy, later Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Czech aspirations for greater autonomy in the Empire grew during the nineteenth
century. The Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed in October 1918. Its composition
was multiethnic: 51% Czech, 23% German, 14% Slovak and 5.5% Hungarian, according
to a 1921 census. Historical development brought major changes in the ratio of
minorities. However, even after the Second World War, despite the Nazi genocide
directed at Jews and at Czech and Moravian Roma and despite the removal of Germans,
Czechoslovakia remained an ethnically heterogeneous state with two distinct nations,
Czechs and Slovaks. In 1992 there were 7% ethnic minorities, i.e. more than one million
out of 15 million population, not including Czechs in Slovakia and Slovaks in the Czech
Republic.
After inception of the Czech Republic the percentage of ethnic minorities still represents
approximately 6%, out of which the largest minority are Slovaks who are well integrated
and often also assimilated in terms of culture and language. Affected by assimilation in
terms of language are Roma, but also Germans, Poles and Hungarians, and other small
minorities. Only Poles who are concentrated in North Moravia have managed to keep
their schools in their mother tongue- a system from kindergartens and primary schools to
several secondary schools. Other minorities are geographically dispersed.
Apart from national minorities, whose members, in accordance with the definition of
national minority, have Czech Citizenship there are approx. 220 000 foreigners with a
long term or permanent stay in the Czech Republic, mainly Slovaks, Ukrainians,
Vietnamese, and Chinese. Number of illegal immigrants has been constantly raising in the
past years. Mainly illegal Vietnamese and immigrants from the Balkan negatively
influence the attitudes of the majority population (the issue of illegal Vietnamese traders
from Germany after 1997 has become a cause of interethnic tension mainly in Northern
Bohemia). According to an official report, the number of foreigners in the CR may be
much higher- another 200 000 of illegal workers and another 100 000 of transit migrantsi;
the total of foreigners being more than half a million.
i
Zpráva o migraci za rok 1998 (Draft Report on Migration in 1998), Office of the Human Rights
Commissioner, June 1999