‘People like us?’ Tensions and Transformations in Racialization and Othering in a New Immigration Context

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F24%3A00139549" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/24:00139549 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/superdiversity-institute/events/2024-conference" target="_blank" >https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/superdiversity-institute/events/2024-conference</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

‘People like us?’ Tensions and Transformations in Racialization and Othering in a New Immigration Context

Original language description

In this paper, we discuss the transformative potential of tensions that result from the growing presence of people with a migratory background in a new immigration context. Applying a novel epistemological and methodological approach, the “reverse sociology of migration,” which privileges the voices and perspectives of people with a migratory background, combined with a critical cultural sociological perspective centered on the meaning-making processes of social actors, we explore how these people negotiate tensions related to their positioning in the society and how they incorporate, reproduce and transform racialized classifications. In other words, how do they face the unspoken question: are they “people like us”? We situate our study in Czechia, a relatively new context of reception for immigrants, where anti-immigrant sentiments have been increasing rapidly in recent years. Using qualitative in-depth interviews among residents with a migratory background from different regions and countries - the Middle East/North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Slovakia, Vietnam and Ukraine - we unpack the different forms of racialization and Othering they experience. We combine theories of cultural racism and symbolic boundaries to critically examine different grounds for boundary work that shape immigrant experiences with Othering and racialization in Czech society as well as their responses to it. We pay close attention to how they draw boundaries in relation to different Others – both native-born and immigrants - and how they make sense of their position in the society they inhabit, employing cultural repertoires internalized before migration, as well as those available to them in their new country.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50401 - Sociology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA23-05449S" target="_blank" >GA23-05449S: People Like Us? A Reverse Sociology of Migration in Czechia</a><br>

Continuities

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

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

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