Poll shows more people think foreigners pose health risk, cause crime

Prague, Oct 9 (ČTK) — The Czechs’ fears of that foreigners may threaten their way of life and spread diseases have increased since the beginning of the year, according to a CVVM poll carried out in September and released today.

Fifty-four percent of the polled said foreigners may threaten the Czech way of life in September, compared with 42 percent in February and around 33 percent in March 2014.

Sixty-three percent of the polled said the foreigners pose a health risk in September, compared with 57 percent in February.

The percentage of those who blame foreigners for a growing crime rate is traditionally high, but it did not change much. The current number (65 percent) is more or less the same as in February and in March 2014.

Sixty percent of the September poll participants said foreigners raise unemployment, which compares with 70 percent in March 2014 and 65 percent in February.

On the other hand, the number of those who believe that foreigners do not enrich culture has increased, from 40 percent in March 2014 to 46 percent in February and to 57 percent in September.

The number of those agreeing that foreigners enrich culture dropped from 22 percent in February to 18 percent in September.

The total of those disagreeing with the idea that foreigners help solve aging of the population increased from 39 percent in February to 46 percent in September.

The number of people rejecting the opinion that foreigners contribute to economic development rose from 42 percent in February to 49 percent in September.

The negative opinions of foreigners are held more often by voters of the left and people who say their living standards are bad.

“In general, citizens with good living standards, supporters of the right and university-educated people take a more accommodating stance on foreigners, CVVM said.

It conducted the poll on 994 people over 15 years of age between Sept. 7–14.