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# When your nationality becomes your job description: Talking about brain waste in Czechia
- URL: https://www.czechish.cz/people-first-not-just-a-workforce-czechias-invisible-talent-pool/
- Published: 2026-09-21T08:53:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-11T10:14:14.000Z
- Description: Why do highly educated migrants struggle to find work that matches their qualifications? Researcher Lucie Macková discusses the stereotypes, hiring practices and government policies that can derail careers in Czechia.
- Author: Elizabeth Zahradnicek Haas
- Tags: Conversations, #Wave 1 – Design

A Ukrainian job seeker with a mathematics degree recognized in Czechia, experience in quality assurance, and knowledge of both Czech and English. A former manager in telecommunications and banking, armed with an engineering degree and professional certification, applying for junior positions. A woman with two master's degrees and two decades of experience in arts production, willing to consider almost any job that pays decently.

These are some of the people looking for work in Czechia's English-language Facebook groups. Their anonymous posts tell a different story from the familiar headlines about the country's desperate need for foreign workers.

Some arrived years ago, built families here, or came through routes that have little to do with employment. Others may have been educated here. Their qualifications and experience don't disappear when their circumstances change, but they can become surprisingly difficult to put to use.

One job seeker describes months of unsuccessful applications:

“Since March, I've been sending out CVs, both with the help of consultants and on my own, and it feels like I'm constantly back at square one: so many rejections, automated messages, companies posting job openings when they aren't actually hiring, and so on.”

“I'm even thinking about leaving because this situation is literally crushing me.”

Researchers have a name for this: **brain waste**.

It's the subject of a new book, [The Lived Experience of Highly Skilled Migrants in Czechia (Springer, 2026), ](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-25221-0?ref=czechish.cz)co-authored by Palacký University Olomouc researcher Lucie Macková.

Their research examines what happens when highly educated people struggle to find work that matches their qualifications, and why some eventually give up and leave Czechia.

I spoke separately with Macková about the people behind the term brain waste, the assumptions that follow migrants into the workplace, and what Czechia stands to lose when it fails to recognize their skills.

*The following conversation has been edited, condensed, and organized by theme for clarity.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/87/f2/87f245f6-8af6-48c6-923d-c9d54587f7c7/content/images/2026/11/image-10.png)

Photo: Springer Nature

## When a degree isn't enough

**Your book describes highly educated migrants who end up working in fast-food restaurants or jobs far below their qualifications. What did you hear from them?**

Some of our respondents told us that as a foreigner, you will only get a job at KFC or McDonald's.

You can deliver food in the platform economy or work in those fast-food chains, but those are your only options.

And these were people who were really highly skilled, with master's degrees, some working on PhDs in very specialized fields.

They were taking whatever job was available, because a PhD stipend is low. They ended up in fields that didn't match their skills at all.

**You describe a trap in which people from certain countries are expected to do certain kinds of work. How much does nationality shape someone's opportunities?**

In our research, the people who don't look Czech struggled the most in finding jobs, with general discrimination and microaggressions in public spaces.

At the doctor's, for example, people won't recognize that this is a doctor who comes from Ukraine. They hear Ukrainian.

Even people from Slovakia heard that they were taking jobs from Czechs, or taking university places that could have gone to Czech students.

And it can be difficult for highly skilled people who come from countries such as Ukraine, which was seen in the 1990s and early 2000s as a country from which many low-skilled workers came.

There's a trap: if you come from a certain country, there may be an expectation that you'll work as a cleaner or a builder.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/87/f2/87f245f6-8af6-48c6-923d-c9d54587f7c7/content/images/2026/11/image-11.png)

Lucie Macková, Doctor of Philosophy Assistant professor at Palacký University Olomouc.

## The people missing from the statistics

**Do we actually know how many qualified migrants are working below their abilities in Czechia?**

**Macková:** No. There are estimates, but employee cards are not issued by skill level, so we don't know whether those people have a university education or are qualified in any field.

And people come in different categories: on a spouse visa, or as refugees. They may have a university education, but they don't show up in the statistics.

Very few people come on the EU Blue Card, which is meant for qualified workers. We know those people are qualified, but the process is so time-consuming, and people often get better or quicker offers from Germany or other Western European countries.

So we really don't know how many skilled workers there are in Czechia.

**If the government doesn't know what qualifications people already living here have, why does it keep introducing programs to recruit workers from abroad?**

In my opinion, the government isn't really trying to use the qualifications of the people who are already here. It introduces new work-migration programs instead.

There is a quota for people coming from the Philippines, for example, that is increased every year. But there are Ukrainians and others who are highly qualified and already here, and they may end up in low-skilled jobs.

Once they start working there, it can be very difficult to change their professional trajectory.

> As far as I'm aware, there are no programs right now that let qualified people who are already here develop their qualifications and match them with companies that need those skills.

Companies are looking for exactly those skills.

It's not happening, and it's a huge issue: how do you apply the potential that's already here?

**You also mentioned women returning from maternity leave. Are their qualifications being overlooked?**

There are several groups. Women returning after maternity leave, as you mentioned.

And language is a barrier in some professions. In some multinational companies, particularly in Prague or Brno, English is enough. There are fields like IT where that works.

But if you want to work in healthcare, for example, you have to know Czech. Even in a profession like physiotherapy, you have to speak with patients.

In our research and experience, language is still the greatest barrier. These people have the skills the labor market needs, but language holds them back.

**What about unconscious bias? Can you test whether a foreign-sounding name affects someone's chances?**

There is unconscious bias in hiring.

My PhD student is currently running an experiment: she is sending fictional CVs to companies and seeing which candidates they respond to, whether they favor candidates with Czech-sounding names or not.

She's still analyzing the data. Similar experiments have been done in Germany and the Netherlands.

**You also describe the “integration paradox”: highly educated migrants may be more aware of discrimination and have greater freedom to leave. Could Czechia end up losing the very people it wants to attract?**

There is something in the literature called the integration paradox.

It says that the more privileged people, highly skilled migrants, are more aware of the discrimination against them. They may have better education, and they may be more aware of their rights.

And highly skilled people also have more power in a way: they can move. They can change companies, or change countries, especially within the EU.

## Who gets ahead and who gives up?

**I've encountered plenty of qualified people who are really fed up and ready to leave. How representative are their experiences of the people you interviewed?**

I wouldn't say they represent the majority of the people we spoke with.

Many foreigners work in positions that match their skills and are happy.

But there is a sizable part who struggle to find positions that match, and as time passes, they're happy to do any job to support themselves and their families.

And with AI, I think it will be harder to find entry-level positions. It's a tough labor market right now, even for Czech graduates.

**People in these groups describe endless interview rounds, unpaid assignments, ghost jobs, and AI screening that may penalize gaps in a CV. What are you seeing?**

There is an issue with AI, and overall there are fewer and fewer positions that would normally go to junior people. Companies are letting people go and not hiring anyone else.

They would probably dismiss foreign workers first, because they don't know the language. That depends on the sector.

In some cases, these companies work with Czech clients as well as international ones, and they also outsource some services to other countries.

## People first, not just a workforce

**If Czechia wanted to make better use of the qualifications people already have, what could it change?**

In Germany, there is more emphasis on language training. People who come through different routes have the opportunity to learn the language faster, and free of charge.

Companies could also be more open to English. Sometimes there is just an administrative barrier, such as an HR department that doesn't have its documents in English.

It would be a very small thing to solve, but it would help.

I also think it would be really helpful to have a database of available positions, where people could register their skills and be matched.

The EU has a talent partnership that matches people outside the EU with open positions. It could be done by the labor office.

**We keep reading headlines about how desperately Czechia needs foreign workers. But your research shows how little we know about the qualifications and careers of people already living here. Should we stop using the term “foreign workers”?**

“Foreign workers” is still a very broad category.

I think we should say these are primarily people first, not just a workforce, and that is something the government often forgets.