Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky
At the IRIS International Conference held from September 4-6, 2024, themed “Bordering Society: Understanding and Reimagining Migration, Displacement, and Diversity in an Age of Rapid Transformations,” our team, led by Nadya Jaworsky from Masaryk University, presented groundbreaking research titled, “‘People Like Us?’ Tensions and Transformations in Racialization and Othering in a New Immigration Context.”
We explored the lived experiences of migrants in Czechia, a country grappling with a recent surge in anti-immigrant sentiment. Using an innovative “reverse sociology of migration” approach that centers migrant voices, we combined a critical cultural sociological lens to reveal how migrants from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Slovakia, Vietnam, and Ukraine negotiate tensions and reshape racialized boundaries in their new social environment. Our findings offer a fresh perspective on how immigrants interact with cultural repertoires, both from their homelands and their host society, to redefine their identities in response to “unspoken” societal questions: Are they “people like us?”
Our study not only highlights the resilience of migrants but also provides invaluable insights into the symbolic boundaries and cultural processes shaping identity, belonging, and transformation in Czech society. This exciting research is just the beginning, and we look forward to deepening our understanding of these dynamics in the future.
Radka Klvaňová showcased our latest findings at the 21st IMISCOE Annual Conference and the 16th ESA Conference, engaging with international scholars on migration, boundary-making, and hierarchies of Otherness.
At the CEEISA-ISA International Conference 2024, held from June 18-21 at the University of Rijeka in Croatia, Ivana Rapoš Božič presented a pioneering approach to migration research centered on the perspectives of migrants themselves. In her talk...
