After World War II, nearly 2.5 million ethnic Germans were expelled from the Sudeten region. The emigration wave from Czechoslovakia after the communist takeover in February 1948 included some 60,000 people; another 100,000 persons left the country after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968. Emigration slowed during the 1970s to about 5,000 annually, but during the 1980s, some 10,000 people (according to Western estimates) were leaving each year. Average annual legal emigration in the years 1965–69 was 9,457; in 1970–74, 5,899; in 1975–79, 3,734; and in 1980–85, 3,240.
The Czech Republic encountered its first refugee influx in 1990; since then, more than 22,000 have applied for asylum in the country. The number of people applying for asylum sharply increased in 1998. The net migration rate for 2000 was 1.0 migrants per 1,000 population. In that year there were 236,000 migrants living in the Czech Republic. The government views both the immigration and emigration levels as too high.
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