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Immigration became an especially thorny and publicly discussed issue with the so-called Refugee Crisis beginning in 2015. The stance of the Czech and Polish governments was dominated by strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric. Still, both countries have witnessed a steady increase in mainly short-term immigration from various Asian countries such as Bangladesh or Pakistan ever since. This paper analyses Czech and Polish migration policies against the backdrop of a historically constructed notion of anti-illegal immigration policy, and category of temporary migration, coupled with the problematic nature of debt-financed migration in Asia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Czechia and Poland (2018-2021), in-depth and semi-structured interviews with migration experts, academic and grey literature, official documents, and the method of Accidental ethnography, this paper argues that silencing of actual labor immigration in political communication while employing anti-migration rhetoric represents a discursive gap typical for liberal democracies. It further concludes that rendering migrant labor as a temporary commodity and turning a blind eye on recruitment of international migrants represents a continuity practice of migrant labor subordination within the nation-state, originating during colonialism and the advent of capitalism in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines Covid-19-related policies as a showcase for priorities in migration governance, the role of the state and employers' associations, as well as gaps in social security and social protection. Design/methodology/approach: This paper looks at how immigration interacts with the labour market in the Czech Republic through the prism of the varieties of capitalism framework and its relation to the concepts of labour market segmentation and flexibility. Findings: The findings show that pandemic-related measures focused on continuously adjusting a legislative framework granting access to third-country workers. However, protective measures that would guarantee migrant workers and their families access to social rights, such as healthcare, were lacking. In this context, several lines of segmentation are observed: between migrant workers in standard employment and those in non-standard employment, when looking at their access to healthcare; between migrants hired directly by employers and those working through temporary agencies in terms of their wages, stability and protection; and, at a sectoral level, between the skilled workforce and migrants that are pushed to low-qualified poorly paid, and routinised jobs. Originality/value: This paper expands the existing literature on the preferences and influence of governments, employers and trade unions regarding the demand for foreign labour in varieties of capitalism by adding the perspective of a Central European economic model. At the same time, its findings contribute to the understanding that labour market inequalities are not fostered on the supply side of migrant labour, through exogenous societal or cultural characteristics specific to countries of origin, but rather through institutionalised measures, practices and policies in countries of destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explore the issue of skilled migration and the approach of the Czech Republic when it comes to attracting and retaining foreign skilled workers. The global competition for talent has been a prominent issue in migration studies, mainly because it has been shown that qualified migration can have a positive impact both on the countries of origin and of destination. The Czech Republic, with its low levels of unemployment, might benefit from the human capital offered by the skilled migration, and yet, there is surprisingly little debate about the type of migration the Czech Republic wants to attract. At best, this debate is driven by short-term employer demands. Surprisingly, there is little research about skilled migration to the Czech Republic and other CEE states despite its clear benefits. This paper will explore the Czech policies and programmes dealing with skilled migration and the possible caveats of these programmes. The main aim of this contribution, done by qualitative and quantitative content analysis, is to analyze past and ongoing programmes of migration and integration policy of the Czech Republic regarding skilled migration. Furthermore, it attempts to shed light on the discursive, implementation, and efficacy gaps in the Czech policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the time politics involved in applying for a residence permit in the Czech Republic, with a focus on non-European Union (EU) applicants. It examines how governmentality and state superiority are represented and performed within the bureaucratic procedure of the application process. Based on the results, I argue that the application process bureaucracy is tied to time politics – practices that govern others through time. The paper is based on research realised in Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, and uses qualitative, ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with immigrants from non-EU countries who applied for a long-term residence permit. The paper examines time politics within this process, highlighting its unpredictability, disrupted temporal linearity and chrononormativity. In this context, the respondents describe the waiting period as a moment of being in between – temporally, spatially and socially. Therefore, I argue that the time politics experienced throughout the application process significantly influences the lives of applicants. The interviews revealed that the applicants were caught in a liminal position with an uncertain ending, exemplified by the impossibility of moving (temporally, spatially and socially) – a feeling often described as stuckedness. Consequently, this time politics and the temporal inequality and disadvantages experienced during the process contribute to exclusion from mainstream Czech society and produce structural invisibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores protest mobilizations related to the 2015 migrant crisis in the post-communist Czech Republic and Slovakia. Despite dominating anti-refugee sentiments and similar historical and political background in the two countries, the mobilization patterns were fairly different in both scale and organization of migration-related mobilizations. To systematically explore and account for these variances, we investigate the short-term political conditions, focusing on 1) key features of the national political environment – discursive opportunities and political space, and 2) movement/countermovement dynamics. We build on the original protest event data during the most intense protests over migration in 2015. We show how a different political space and a different extent of openness of discursive opportunities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and interactions between the anti-refugee movement and the solidarity countermovement played an important role in the timing and scale of protests and their organizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development impacts of international scholarships for students from the Global South are most commonly understood through the expansion of human capital in the students' home countries for which the scholars' return analysed in this paper represents a key prerequisite. Utilising the theory of planned behaviour, this paper examines factors influencing the plans to return and actual postgraduation migration behaviour of 430 grantees of the Czech scholarship programme financed from the official development aid. One half of the current grantees reported plan to return, and only the 31% of alumni respondents actually returned suggesting a risk of brain drain. We found that economic integration rather than perceived sociocultural integration influences migration decision making of international students. We show how the propensity to return to scholars' home countries can be estimated from cross‐sectional data. A graphical path model was developed, which helps to understand drivers of postgraduate migration behaviour of international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyse the attitudes towards immigration among Czech youth and their changes on two distinct surveys of young Czechs (aged 14-19) held in 2011 and 2016, the years before and after a period of a greatly increased inflow of migrants to the European Union. In these surveys, special focus was given to changes in attitudes and factors influencing attitudes in each year. The results show that there was not a big difference in attitudes between both samples. Nevertheless, looking closely at the results, we found two main differences. The first was higher polarisation of answers in survey from 2016 than from the one held in 2011. The second one was in factors influencing answers, mainly in the statement on having an immigrant among close friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the Czech migration policy since the so‐called European Union (EU) migration crisis in 2015 and its key instruments when it comes to migrant workers from third (non‐EU) countries. On the basis of semi‐structured interviews with 80 experts on various aspects of migration policymaking, we identified three key features of Czech migration policymaking: (i) perception of migration as a threat, (ii) orientation on temporary labour migration and (iii) lack of coherent and systematic conceptual approach towards migration. Jointly, these features explain a central paradox of the contemporary Czech migration policy: the contradiction between a strong anti‐immigration political discourse and the actual numbers of immigrants that has been rising steadily. Similarly to other European countries, there has been a growing tendency towards selectiveness in Czech migration policy, manifested in recent instruments specifically focused on attracting highly qualified migrants. However, the selection criteria are mainly based on the country of origin, and the quotas for incoming migrants reflect the existing administrative capacities and short‐term needs of the current Czech labour market for low‐ and middle‐qualified professionals rather than long‐term economic goals and demographic needs. Since the global economic recession (2008–2010), Czech migration policies have still not genuinely considered the fact that it is people, rather than just 'labour', who come to the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's globalized society, immigration has become an increasingly prevalent issue within Central EU countries, sparking intense debates and discourse across numerous platforms. However, while these issues hold great importance within individual host countries, there is a distinct lack of literature available regarding particular migration flows. The aim of this paper is the quantitative and qualitative study of Russian cultural centers within the Czech Republic. As one of the largest third country national groups within the country, Russian migrants create an important impact on Czech socio-economic spheres. Through an analysis of pre-existing research, statistics, and historic developments, this paper offers an examination of the economic and demographic shifts that have lead to the rise and decline of popular Russian centers within the Czech Republic. The research shows that Russian migrants are primarily wealthy, educated, and intend on staying in the country long term for either education or work. Additionally, the existence of strong cultural communities and negative perceptions by the majority community somewhat delay the process of their integration. By analyzing the growth, demographics, and levels of integration within specific cultural centers, researchers are able to gather a better understanding of Russian migration as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the impact of the migration policies of the European Union (EU) on Central-Eastern European countries is presented. It explains how several European countries including Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have followed a common migration practice influenced by EU due to the absence of a comprehensive national migration policy. It discusses why Central-Eastern European countries need to adopt a comprehensive migration policy.

Slačálek and Svobodová's paper focuses on the ideology of the Czech Islamophobic movement as seen during the 2015-16 migration crisis. In their analysis of interviews with demonstrators and speeches by leaders of the movement, they discuss first how the movement imagined its enemies, and then describe its vision of positive core values. They conclude that the movement's key ideological features are: an emphasis on social and civilizational decline (declinism); a return to an assumed naturalness in economic and gender relationships (naturalization); and the open evocation of violence and severity (brutalization). In terms of Rogers Brubacker's distinction between xenophobic ethno-nationalism in Eastern Europe, and the xenophobic defence of liberal values in the West, Slačálek and Svobodová find that the Czech case fits the allegedly western pattern better than the eastern one, which may cast doubt on the whole essentialization of distinctions between 'western' and 'eastern' populisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Russia's military aggression against Ukraine set in motion a large number of refugees. Considerable amount of them came and stayed in Czechia. Refugees represent special vulnerable individuals often affected by war physically and psychologically. Due to the national regulations not allowing most of Ukrainian men aged 18–60 to leave the country, nowadays Ukrainian forced migration is relatively young and strongly gendered. Evidence suggests the higher probability for searching the safe refuge abroad among Ukrainian women with small children as well as those with relatively higher economic and cultural capital. The aim of this study is to identify the structural features of systemic risks associated with war migration by examining determinants of self-rated health among forcibly displaced highly educated Ukrainian women of productive age residing in Czechia. Methods: Data from one wave of the panel survey among Ukrainian refugees in Czechia conducted in September 2022 was used. Determinants of self-rated health including self-reported diseases and healthcare factors, lifestyle, human and social capital, economic factors, and migration characteristics were analysed using binary logistic regression. Results: About 45% highly educated Ukrainian women refugees in Czechia assessed their health as poor. The poor self-rated health was mostly associated with the number of diseases and depressive symptoms, and by social capital and economic factors. Having four and more diseases (OR = 13.26; 95%-CI: 5.61–31.35), showing some severe depressive symptoms (OR = 7.20; 95%-CI: 3.95–13.13), experiencing difficulties to seek help from others (OR = 2.25; 95%-CI: 1.20–4.23), living alone in a household (OR = 2.67; 95%-CI: 1.37–5.27), having severe material deprivation (OR = 2.70; 95%-CI: 1.35–5.41) and coming originally from the eastern part of Ukraine (OR = 2.96; 95%-CI: 1.34–6.55) increased the chance of these refugees to assess their health as poor. Conclusion: Social and economic determinants such as lack of social contacts for seeking help and material deprivation were found to be crucial for self-rated health and should be tackled via migration policies. Further, qualitative research is needed to better understand the mechanisms behind the factors affecting subjectively assessed health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the effects of migration since 1989 for Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Republics – countries which have been crucially affected by the opening of borders to the European Union. There has not only been migration from these countries, but also into these countries; the former has declined and the latter has increased in the last ten years. The paper argues, however, that this migration most often takes the form of short-term circulatory movements. It considers a number of factors which account for this and explain why migration is not as high as had been expected (and feared) and why it might be better described as mobility. The paper goes on to consider the effects of migration on the host societies, especially in terms of xenophobia, using the World Values Survey data for 1980, 1990 and 1995 and the New Democracies Barometer for 1998. Finally, the paper considers the role of migration in these countries in relation to an enlarged EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses migration flows with the purpose of defining functional regions at a micro level. It proposes an innovative approach to the processing of migration data. It includes a reflection on local level migration analysis in relation to local labour markets, and it is inspired by time geographical concepts and research into human spatial behaviour. Relevant identified migration flows are those that occur when a migrant only changes the place of permanent residence, and does not necessarily need to change workplace or most of the localities within a daily timespace context. The paper uses these migration data to delineate local migration areas (daily spatial systems) of the Czech Republic through the application of a standard rule-based procedure of functional regional taxonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Bulletin of Polissia is the property of Chernihiv State Institute of Economics & Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The delimitation of nodal regions belongs among the fundamental methods of studying spatial organisation. Nodal regions are defined as regions in which intraregional interactions are closed. With respect to the available information on spatial interactions, nodal regions are defined especially on the basis of data on commuting to work, migration flows, etc. Much less attention, however, has been paid to the theoretical and methodological questions of delimitation of nodal regions based on transport flows. In this case, transport flows that rank among the bearers of basic spatial interactions have high explanatory power, as they reflect not only commuting relations (commuting to work), but also service, business, recreational and other relations. The goal of this paper is to delimit nodal regions based on car transport flows in two regions in the Czech Republic and to evaluate their relevance in studying complex socio-economic relations within the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of structural channels in pushing Ukrainian migration along occupational lines to the Czech Republic. We argue that the integration of the Czech and Ukrainian construction sectors has generated international 'channels' that enhance the process of labour migration from Ukraine to the Czech Republic. Using a unique dataset constructed from primary data collected in Ukraine, we run multivariate models and test whether prior work experience in the Ukrainian construction sector increases the likelihood of obtaining a job in the Czech construction sector, net of other theoretically important controls. The results provide strong empirical support for the 'channelling' hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accommodation centres are much more than means of securing asylum seekers' housing needs. They are an embodiment of asylum and immigration policies. To understand these policies and their effects on asylum seekers, we need to ask what interests different institutional actors have in keeping asylum seekers in the centres. Based on the study of accommodation centres in the Czech Republic, in this paper I argue that the centres serve as tools of migration control. The prolonged confinement of a highly diverse group of people produced by the interconnectedness between asylum and immigration policies leads to asylum seekers' disillusionment about the asylum procedure and nourishes various illicit activities. The centres enable state institutions to determine the nature of assistance available to asylum seekers, including legal aid provided by non-governmental organizations. By actively promoting the image of accommodation centres as benign places, the state also controls the dominant representation of refugee reception. In everyday practices in the centres, control and assistance are closely intertwined and produce an oppressive environment that engenders asylum seekers' dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines long-term trends in fertility and recent reversals in natural increase, net migration, and general fertility across residential contexts in the post-communist Czech Republic. Long-term differentials are analysed on the cumulative fertility of cohorts whose fertility was completed before and after the change in political regime in 1989. The results show important effects education and residential context (urban-suburban-rural gradient) have on the cohorts with (almost) completed fertility. For the youngest cohorts with incomplete fertility, the factor of timing, education, and residential context are the strongest predictors of fertility levels. Although the results based on 2001 Czech census data show relatively persistent patterns across the cohorts, trends in natural increase, general fertility, and net migration between 1991 and 2007 show a reversal of longstanding trends due to the recent increase in the process of residential suburbanisation. We suggest that the increase in the number of babies born in suburban areas (and therefore the higher natural increase and general fertility there) is due to the selective residential migration of young couples and results not just from the larger cohorts of potential mothers but also, possibly, from the higher fertility of new resident couples owing to their more reproduction-oriented values. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings attention to the role of social networks in the migration of asylum seekers and explores how the embeddedness of the migrants in social networks both facilitates and constrains their mobility in different phases of the migration process. It reconstructs the migration paths of eight Armenian migrant families who arrived in the Czech Republic as asylum seekers during the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By examining the narrated stories of the Armenian migrants it shows that social networks formed an important context for employing various migration strategies in all phases of the migration process, and that the meaning and character of migrants’ social networks changed over time. In the initial phase of decision-making about migration as well as on their journey, it was mainly weak ties of random acquaintances that played a dominant role. The position of the migrants in those networks was rather insecure. They held a little control over the information they received, but in these vulnerable situations they had to rely on their weak ties, which strongly influenced their mobility. In the arrival and settlement phases the social context of the refugee camp hindered the cultivation of social ties outside the migrants’ circle on one hand, and facilitated development of bonding ties among the migrants on the other. Bonding social networks enabled inclusion of the Armenian migrants into various social spheres especially at the beginning of the settlement process. However, the bounded character of these networks was also recognized as excluding them from access to resources of the dominant society and preventing their social mobility in later phases of their settlement. Thus, bridging networks that provide access to certain resources of the dominant society were sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archeologické Rozhledy is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Processes such as declining and low-level birth rates, ageing, changing household compositions and sizes, as well as growing diversity in households, residents and migration have an increasing imprint on almost every aspect of urban development in Poland and the Czech Republic. This is especially true for the housing market, neighbourhood structures and the demand for technical infrastructure, certain social services and amenities. Inner cities are particularly affected by these changes. Most recently, they have been shifting from areas of long-term decline and ageing to places of repopulation, rejuvenation and increasing housing mobility - processes that only partly find their representation in official statistics and consequently in recent research. The paper analyses processes and patterns of sociodemographic change in East Central European inner cities, using the Polish and Czech second-order cities of Łódź and Brno as examples. It looks at quantitative and qualitative evidence using a mixed-method approach and reflecting empirical findings with the perceptions and priorities of urban practitioners. It argues, among other things, that inner cities in East Central Europe currently face a juxtaposition of persistencies (such as decline and ageing) and changes (such as repopulation and diversification) that lead to a complex pattern of sociodemographic 'de-mixing' and 're-mixing'. For the practice of urban regeneration, such evolving processes urge planners to re-think previous agendas and strategies for inner-city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Given the low levels of migration in the CEEC found in the literature, this paper raises the issue of who is willing to migrate in these countries. Using data on the willingness to migrate in the Czech Republic we show that variables measuring regional labour market conditions and amenities contribute little to explaining willingness to migrate, but that personal and household characteristics are more important. The least willing to migrate are the family-house owners, the less educated and the elderly as well as persons residing in regions with above-average unemployment rates. Improving the efficiency of the housing market and focusing on the problems of peripheral regions should thus be primary foci of a policy aimed at improving labour-market adjustment through migration. These policies are, however, unlikely to yield rapid results, since the willingness to migrate of all subgroups analysed (except for the less educated) reacts only weakly to regional labour market incentives and amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Migration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Western Europe, the first integration policies emerged in the 1980s as a reaction to the long-term settlement of foreign workers, originally perceived as temporary migration, transforming these countries into immigration ones. Based on this West-European experience, the article claims that Czechia has evolved into an immigration country in the last two decades, providing evidence from its integration policies. It shows how Czechia implements what is called "civic integration policies", a novel form of integration approach promoted by West-European countries since the end of the 1990s, inquiring into what aspects Czech civic integration policies resemble and differ from the West-European examples. For this purpose, the research offers a qualitative comparison with Austria as a representative of such a West-European experience. As a result, it brings new knowledge of immigrant integration policies in a region neglected in migration studies, while supporting the argument that immigration to Czechia has turned into a constant trend, requiring a complex set of integration policies in order to tackle this new reality successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of demographic changes in the Czech Republic as a result of population ageing and international migration. To do so, it develops a unique dynamic Overlapping Generations Computable General Equilibrium (OLG–CGE) model with detailed representation of individuals of different ages, educational attainment and occupations, as well as interrelations among industrial sectors in producing intermediate and final outputs. The numerical simulations show that the Czech economy will face a substantial reduction in its effective labour supply and changes in aggregate as well as sectoral demand patterns, leading to lower economic growth (4.4% lower GDP by 2050 in absence of technological progress), increase in unit labour costs (5.2% higher wages in absence of inflation) and lower competitiveness of the economy as a whole. Replacement migration may alleviate the pressure, yet the current gross immigration would need to increase by at least 8-17 thousand individuals per year compared to the UN projections (a 15–34% increase) without changing emigration patterns in order to offset the adverse long-term effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper adds to the literature on new immigrant destinations and the geographies of immigrant incorporation by studying recent changes in the settlement patterns of non-natives in the Czech Republic. This country has rapidly transitioned from a country of emigration to one gaining population from elsewhere. The speed of this transition is unusual and is worthy of study in and of itself. Similar to most other countries with significant immigration, newcomers tend to settle in large urban centres, so, not surprisingly, Prague is the principal gateway city. In the Czech case, however, settlement patterns do not follow a simple hierarchy; non-natives indeed are now found increasingly not only in secondary cities but also in non-metropolitan areas, especially to the north and west of Prague. These basic geographies are shaped by the direct settlement from other countries and also result from rapidly evolving secondary migrations within the country. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is one of the important issues that influence attitudes toward the EU. It is unclear, however, what causal mechanisms explain this link. Is the causal mechanism rooted in identity the only causal mechanism involved? Or do other causal mechanisms play a role as well? In an analysis of data from an original framing experiment conducted in Germany, Italy, and Czechia, I find that in Italy, exposure to information about negative consequences of immigration leads to more negative attitudes to the EU. This effect happens via causal mechanisms rooted in economic concerns and national politics rather than via the identity mechanism. In Germany and Czechia, the analysis finds no systematic relationship. Overall, this study shows that receiving information about negative consequences of immigration is related to attitudes toward the EU to a lesser degree and via different causal mechanisms than existing literature would have us expect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slovakia has experienced a six-year period of decreased labour market efficiency during a post-crisis period and growing emigration flows before and after a post-crisis period. There is also the concurrent issue of the lack of sufficient business activities in the southern, northern and eastern regions, and the economic development of some of the Slovak regions lacks diversification. We have analysed labour market conditions and emigration trends in Slovakia and EU neighbouring countries. The analysis of emigration trends has shown that among EU neighbouring countries, the Slovak migrant population tends to migrate mostly to the Czech Republic. We conducted regression analysis with the use of the ordinary least squares method to identify the main drivers affecting emigration from Slovakia to the Czech Republic as the primary destination country for Slovak migrants. The analysis has revealed that unemployment rates in both countries, labour market regulation which was introduced in the Czech Republic as well as EU enlargement in 2004 are the most significant triggers for emigration in Slovakia. Based on the results obtained, we have discussed possible ways to stimulate economic growth and prevent future emigration from Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the spatial behavior of unauthorized migrants in their attempts to irregularly cross the Czech state's 'green' border (including walking trails) into Austria and Germany, between 2005 and 2007. It demonstrates the importance of select demographic and human characteristics of the migrants, as well as the physical features of the environment, in their crossing. Our main premise concerning the importance of smuggling and the more sophisticated means and strategies employed among migrants using smugglers' services (vis-à-vis those without smugglers) was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the outward labour migration from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia to predominantly EU15 countries. It describes the incentives for emigration and evaluates the effect of the EU accession in 2004 for all three countries using the regional data. Our empirical estimation suggests that while outward labour migration from Poland was positively related to lagged emigration and negatively related to employment rate and average real wage, this relationship was less obvious and significant in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In addition, our results also imply that the EU accession had only indirect impact on emigration for three countries in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: For decades inner cities in East Central Europe have been characterised by physical dilapidation, ageing in place and selective outmigration. Post-socialist transition added to these developments by further outmigration due to suburbanisation but also provided new opportunities of residential change. In Polish and Czech second-order cities there is selective in-migration by younger households which remains so far almost hidden to the official statistics. Among them a new type of inner-city dwellers can be identified, that is transitory urbanites. They take the inner city as a perfect residential place in their current phase of life and value its characteristics both in emotional and pragmatic terms. But they do not expect to stay there for good and might leave the inner city in the future for another urban area or suburbia. However, while being present now they bring about residential change in the inner city and pave the way for future in-migrants of similar social status and age. From our material and observations, we can formulate the hypothesis that their importance has increased decisively during the last decade. Our paper draws on empirical research from in Łódź and Brno from 2006 to 2009. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nations are viewed as metaphorical families having common ancestors. Czechs, for example, share the legend about a forefather Čech who brought his people into Czechia. Analysing the Czech ISSP 2013 data we examine how the importance of having Czech descent depends on Christian denomination, openness towards immigration, perceived commonality with 'significant Others', foreign-born parents, and socio-demographics. Results of the analysis suggest that Czech ancestry is less important part of national identity among younger cohorts, people living in big cities and towns, descendants of foreign-born parents, and people who are in favour of immigration from poor countries outside the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blatant dehumanization has recently been demonstrated to predict negative outgroup attitudes and behaviors. Here, we examined blatant dehumanization of Muslim refugees during the 'Refugee Crisis' among large samples in four European countries: the Czech Republic (N = 1307), Hungary (N = 502), Spain (N = 1049), and Greece (N = 934). Our results suggest that blatant dehumanization of Muslim refugees is (a) prevalent among Europeans, and (b) uniquely associated with anti-refugee attitudes and behavior, beyond political ideology, prejudice, and--of particular relevance to the refugee crisis--empathy. We also find that blatant dehumanization of Muslim refugees is significantly higher and more strongly associated with intergroup behavior in the Eastern European countries (especially the Czech Republic) than in Spain and Greece. Examining a range of outgroup targets beyond refugees, our results further illustrate that blatant dehumanization is not purely an ethnocentric bias: while individuals across contexts feel warmer towards their group than all others, they rate several high-status outgroups as equally or more fully 'evolved and civilized' than the ingroup. Our research extends theoretical understanding of blatant dehumanization, and suggests that blatant dehumanization plays an important and independent role in the rejection of Muslim refugees throughout Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2015, 1.5 million refugees arrived at Europe's borders. This article examines how and why this humanitarian crisis was transformed into a "racist crisis". It begins by recounting a highly publicized event in the Czech Republic which saw police forcibly removing hundreds of people from trains at midnight in the border town of Břeclav, before inking numbers on their arms and transporting them to detention centres. Thinking with this scene, the article develops the conceptual framework of "racial stigma" to capture some of the multiple practices that characterize border regimes in contemporary Europe. Racism, it argues, is the stigma machine of sovereign power in neoliberal Europe. The article concludes with some reflections on how Europe's current "racist crisis" reanimates both historical spectres of race and spectral geographies of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of immigrant children into the education system is a process that is accompanied by serious debate, especially in advanced countries, which have large shares of immigrants and a long history of immigration. The poorer educational outcomes of foreign-born children are largely explained there through their socio-economically disadvantaged background compared to the native-born population. This article examines whether the observations for those countries also apply to the Czech Republic—a country with a relatively short immigration history and immigration flows from different source countries than those in Western Europe. Regression analyses conducted on PISA 2012 data focusing largely on the maths skills of 15-year-olds reveal that the performance of immigrant children in Czech schools roughly compares to that of their counterparts in Western Europe. While their PISA outcomes were lower than those of Czechs, this was because immigrant children have poorer conditions at home or in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Framed within debates on space, youth mobility and globalization, this article examines representations of space in rural youth’s narratives of their own future. In contrast to other research on youth in ‘peripheral’ areas, it is found that positive representations of both own locality and country prevail among the youth in the communities investigated, and that spatial mobility is sought for in limited ways. It is argued that the wish to remain ‘local’ among the youth and their positive views on own locality are in part predicated on relative favourable regional economic conditions, but should also be seen in connection with their increased engagement with global ‘electronic’ youth culture. The representations of rural life at the core of the youth’s expressions of belonging rest on an image of the rural idyll, however, which is often conflated with an image of the perfect middle class family. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses a newly-discovered collection of administrative documents and correspondence from the Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian Historical Archive Abroad], which was active 1924–1945. The collection is housed in the Slavonic Library in Prague. It is important for both the history of the archive itself and the history of the Russian emigration. An inventory list of the collection is now available on the library's Web site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International law defines refugees and their rights and the legal obligations of states that receive them. However, the actual formulation and implementation of asylum law are based on the politically and historically contingent constructions of the status of 'refugee' that are determined largely by nation states. This article analyses the legal-political construction of 'refugee' in the post-communist Czech Republic during and after its accession to the European Union. It examines the role of the state and the non-governmental sector and explains the gradual shift that took place towards treating asylum as a matter of migration management rather than a fundamental human right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study focuses on the research activities of the Department of Ethnic Studies of the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the application of research results in the decision-making sphere during a time of major institutional change. The discussion covers a series of studies on migration issues, covering both immigration and emigration from the Czech Republic, funded by grant agencies or directly by decision-making bodies. The article notes the difficulties in relating the requirements and logic of basic research to the needs of policy makers, and recounts the gradual and broadly successful emergence of “bridging” institutions (grant agencies, science boards, common committees, controlling bodies, etc.) that reflect the mutual needs of the research and policy communities and allow stimuli for work, knowledge, and social experience, as well as intellectual influence, to flow freely in both directions. The form of communication is also shown to be of great importance, since effective bridging requires that scientific knowledge should be as usable as possible in policy-making and that the questions raised by decision-makers should come in such a form that scientists are able to answer them. Within this general picture, the specific contribution of social anthropologists and ethnologists to the decision-making process is to humanise them, by taking as a basis specific situations in the field and the fates of specific individuals and groups; to provide decision-makers with a methodological stimulus to consider the reality they relate to in a more sophisticated way; to bring a different social experience to bear, given the narrow circles in which decision-makers tend to operate; and finally to make the knowledge produced in scientific networks directly available to decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of international migration and its societal and political impacts bring a greater need for accurate data to measure, understand and control migration flows. However, in the Czech immigration database, the birthplaces of immigrants are only kept in freeform text fields, a substantial obstacle to their further processing due to numerous errors in transcription and spelling. This study overcomes this obstacle by deploying a custom geocoding engine based on GeoNames, tailored transcription rules and fuzzy matching in order to achieve good accuracy even for noisy data while not depending on third-party services, resulting in lower costs than the comparable approaches. The results are presented on a subnational level for the immigrants coming to Czechia from the USA, Ukraine, Moldova and Vietnam, revealing important spatial patterns that are invisible on the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which compares the potential of migration in Poland and in the Czech Republic. The study used the information for rural-urban and inter-regional migration to determine international migration propensity. It mentions that propensity to migrate is correlated with migration potential in terms of worsening economic conditions. The comparative analysis revealed that Czechs are not inclined to migration as they attribute a lower migration potential value.

The article looks at migration as a possible solution for the ageing of the population in Czech Republic and other European countries. According to the author, ageing population impacts the economy and the economy impacts population development. Based on the analysis of the data gathered, ageing in Czech Republic and in European Union (EU) can not be prevented by immigration.