Vietnamese "Guests" in Socialist Czechoslovakia: Apprentices, Contract Workers, and Illegal Entrepreneurs

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F25%3A10507731" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/25:10507731 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89125-0_4" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89125-0_4</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89125-0_4" target="_blank" >10.1007/978-3-031-89125-0_4</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Vietnamese "Guests" in Socialist Czechoslovakia: Apprentices, Contract Workers, and Illegal Entrepreneurs

Original language description

This chapter examines the adaptation of Vietnamese participants in socialist mobility-trainees, apprentices, apprentice workers, and students who arrived in Czechoslovakia before 1989. It explores their experiences as foreign &quot;guests&quot; in socialist Europe, focusing on the rules and requirements imposed by these programs. Drawing on a literature review and ethnographic research conducted in Hanoi in 2010 and 2011, the chapter argues that despite the collectivist and uniform nature of their stay, Vietnamese migrants developed their own coping strategies. They sought ways to meet personal needs, such as improving their families&apos; quality of life in Vietnam, adjusting uniform clothing and interior design, and preparing their own meals. The chapter highlights their pursuit of alternative economic activities to enhance their economic situation in Europe, including illicit trade with scarce goods and the production and sale of denim clothing. These activities, though prohibited by socialist ideology and considered criminal acts of illicit business or speculation, were crucial to their adaptation. Additionally, the chapter discusses how these activities were perceived by the majority population and the role the majority played in them. While focusing on Czechoslovakia, this chapter also serves as a case study for the broader adaptation of Vietnamese socialist workers in Central and Eastern Europe given the similarities across these countries.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50401 - Sociology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA21-06818S" target="_blank" >GA21-06818S: Migrant integration in non-metropolitan areas at individual, diasporic and institutional levels. Vietnamese settled in the Czech borderlands.</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Vietnamese Diasporas along the Former Iron Curtain: From Builders of Socialism to Builders of Capitalism

ISBN

978-3-031-89124-3

Number of pages of the result

24

Pages from-to

77-100

Number of pages of the book

222

Publisher name

Palgrave Macmillan

Place of publication

Cham

UT code for WoS chapter

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