February the 24th, 2026 – There are many opinions flying around about the relatively sudden influx of third country nationals into Croatia, but how exactly do Croatia’s citizens feel about foreign workers?
As Index vijesti/news writes, the overall opinion of Croatian citizens about foreign workers remain very divided, according to the latest HRejting survey conducted for HRT. The survey, conducted by the Promocija plus agency from February the 16th to the 18th on a sample of 1,000 respondents, reveals different views on their impact on the economy, culture and everyday life, as well as on their need to learn Croatian. The statistical error of the sample is +/-3.53 percent with a confidence level of 95%, HRT reports.
More of croatia’s citizens think that the impact of foreign workers on the economy is negative
When asked how they assess the impact of foreign workers on the Croatian economy, around 37% of respondents believe that it is negative. Slightly fewer, 32%, believe that the impact is equally positive and negative, while a quarter of those surveyed see a positive contribution from foreign workers. Less than 6% of respondents either didn’t know or didn’t want to answer this question.
the language remains a sticking point
The survey also showed a clear attitude of Croatia’s citizens on the need for foreign workers to learn the Croatian language. Over 70% of the respondents believed that language skills are essential for foreign workers to function both at work and outside of work.
About 12% think that this will be difficult to implement in the short term given the number of foreign workers in the country, and about 8% believe that only those who are in direct contact with clients should bother to learn Croatian. About 4% of respondents believe that the Croatian language is much too difficult to learn on the job, while slightly fewer believe that foreign workers don’t need to learn the language at all because it will shorten their stay in Croatia and cause labour market issues.
the impact of foreign workers on life and culture
When it comes to the impact of foreign workers on culture and life in Croatia, 33.5% of respondents rate it as negative. 29% of respondents consider the impact to be both negative and positive, while 28% rate it as positive.
Despite divided opinions about the broader social impact, Croatian citizens’ personal experiences with foreign workers are mostly positive. Almost 42% of those surveyed rated their experiences, whether business or everyday, as positive. 17.5% of the respondents had equally positive and negative experiences, and 13.5% reported exclusively negative experiences. At the same time, a significant share of 27.5% of the respondents said that they have had no personal contact with foreign workers.
