Get a job or go home

During the boom years, the Czech Republic was an attractive place for foreign workers. The country’s car industry was particularly adept at attracting cheap labour from Ukraine, Slovakia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Moldova. But with the global economy in a tailspin, the government now wants foreigners who’ve lost their jobs to go home--and it’s willing to pay them to leave. The Czechs are offering a free plane ticket and $800 to jobless immigrants on the condition they go back to their home country. In all, the Czech Republic hopes to ship out some 2,000 foreigners over the next eight months, at a total cost of $3.4 million.

Reuters