The presence of foreign workers is the most relevant in the fields of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and automotive industry.
According to official statistics, currently there are nearly 60,000 foreigners working in the country, among them 13 743 Serbians, 9685 Romanians and 7233 guest workers from Ukraine. Even though intensive Slovak language courses are offered to tackle language barriers, reports show that cultural similarities and differences play an important role in the diversity of workforce.
The biggest aversion and prejudices are targeted at Muslim and African workers due to cultural and religious differences. As a result, workers from the African and Middle-Eastern regions are mostly absent.
Employing foreign workforce can sometimes cause complications for companies. In many cases new workers tend to migrate westward (especially to Austria and Germany, where wages are three times higher than in Slovakia) once they have acquired the basic skills and experience. One of such instances occured in KIA Motors’ Žilina plant. Another car factory, the PSA Peugeot Citroën Slovakia faced an unexpected, yet successful workers’ strike for higher wages with the active participation of foreign laborers.
