Číslo 1, roč. 109 (2022)

The swing-rock revival band The Turnarounds can be considered one of the significant examples of the music and dance activities in the contemporary Czech Vienna field. This study is a music anthropology contribution about the identity of the third and fourth generations of the descendants of Czech migrants to Vienna. The study responds to the questions of whether and how The Turnarounds’ members refer to their Czech identity and to their own, (if partial) Czech roots, to their ancestors’ migration experience, and to their own (in)activity in the associations created by other members of this minority. Drawing from an analysis of the activities of The Turnarounds, the study shows the relationship between third- and fourth-generation Viennese Czechs’ sense of belonging, their subjective concept of their homeland, and their aim of targeting an audience in the majority society of Vienna and thereby situating themselves in Austria’s intercultural music scene.

This paper deals with the cosmopolitan, Anglophone institution of a youth theatre among Anglophone migrants in the Czech Republic. While Anglophone migrants are privileged due to the English language and its position in the globalized world, all children and young people with migrant parents struggle with establishing their position among their peers, where it is essential to be included. In the Czech context of a homogeneous society, Anglophone teenagers are often considered different and their position in a peer group may be questioned. When the teenagers enjoy the Anglophone, safe environment of the youth theatre, what makes them ‘other’ in the outside world makes them ‘normal’ in the theatre group and strengthens their cosmopolitanism. The homogeneity of Czech society pushes them into more privileged social landscapes.

This paper focuses on the identity construction of second-generation Muslims in the Czech Republic. This generation consists mainly of young Muslims who are the descendants of migrants who came to Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1990s as part of student and labour migration. Their socialization took place in the context of their Muslim family, but they were primarily socialized in the Czech environment. Thus, second-generation Muslims move between several cultural frameworks, transnational fields located in the space in-between. They negotiate their identity situationally and must cope with their parents' country of origin, ethnicity and national identity. Through these interviews of second-generation Muslims, I would like to show how these young people with a migratory experience treat ethnicity when reporting on their otherness and what strategies they apply when negotiating key social identities. I created this data based on semi-structured interviews.

“Confessions of the Vietnamese” is a Facebook community that creates a space for young Vietnamese migrants to get acquainted with each other, discuss their daily life experience, and share a wide range of emotions. Intergenerational conflict is present as a topic in approximately one-third of the posts on the “Confessions of the Vietnamese” page. Based on a qualitative analysis of these posts, we have determined what the conflict zones are, and we have uncovered the intergenerational problems between parents (first-generation migrants) and their children (1.5 generation and second-generation migrants), who are often seen by Czechs as the “model” minority. The language and cultural barrier between these children and their parents, as well as the parenting style of the Vietnamese, are some of the key factors causing distance and potential conflict among them. This often causes misunderstandings on the cultural level which lead to feelings of frustration and distance.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019/2020 has undoubtedly influenced the international migration trends of young people. Notably, there has been a distinct influx of migrants returning to Ireland. While Ireland has a significant history of mass emigration and well-documented periods of return, the recent experience of returning during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a novel phenomenon worthy of investigation. This paper draws upon 20 semi-structured interviews of returning migrants from across the Republic of Ireland, with the aim of better understanding their experiences, motivations and intentions for returning ‘home’ during a global health crisis and to assess the potential effect this may have on the future livelihoods and reflexive mobility strategies of Ireland’s young people. To conclude, this paper highlights the imperative for policymakers of future relevant research on this subject as the pandemic continues to unfold, presenting a unique set of circumstances and challenge

The area of return migration is attracting considerable interest, not least because of the surge in returns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The characteristics of recent returnees and their motivations have yet to be established. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on return migration to the Czech Republic and offers one of the first investigations into the realities of return in this particular case. The present study is expected to contribute to our understanding of the role of transnationalism and migration networks in return migration. We also want to highlight the uneasiness between the voluntary/forced migration dichotomy when it comes to discussing recent events. Feelings of being stranded and of helplessness were also common for many (voluntary) returnees at some point during their pre-return phase. Data were collected during the first half of 2021 and the responses were gathered through semi-structured interviews.