Nationality and Rationality: Ancestors, 'Diaspora' and the Impact of Ethnic Policy in the Country of Emigration on Ethnic Return Migration from Western Ukraine to the Czech Republic

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F62690094%3A18440%2F19%3A50016120" target="_blank" >RIV/62690094:18440/19:50016120 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://www.ceemr.uw.edu.pl/vol-8-no-1-2019/articles/nationality-and-rationality-ancestors-diaspora-and-impact-ethnic-policy" target="_blank" >http://www.ceemr.uw.edu.pl/vol-8-no-1-2019/articles/nationality-and-rationality-ancestors-diaspora-and-impact-ethnic-policy</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17467/ceemr.2019.01" target="_blank" >10.17467/ceemr.2019.01</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Nationality and Rationality: Ancestors, 'Diaspora' and the Impact of Ethnic Policy in the Country of Emigration on Ethnic Return Migration from Western Ukraine to the Czech Republic

Original language description

Ethnic return migration is a widespread strategy for migrants from economically disadvantaged countries. This article is about those ethnic return migrants who might successfully migrate thanks to their ancestors; their decision is based upon economic, pragmatic or rationalistic incentives aside from their diasporic feeling of belonging. Although this phenomenon has already been studied, scholars still mostly refer only to the benefits proposed by immigration policy as a key to understanding it. The impact of policy in the country of emigration on ethnic return migration is understudied. This article fills this gap. I found that when the Soviet Union introduced an attractive policy for Ukrainians/Russians in terms of study or work opportunities and the inhabitants in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic were quick to proclaim themselves as Ukrainians or Russians, the dissolution of the Soviet Union quickly changed this motivation. Ukrainians with Czech ancestors started to aim at obtaining official status as Czech members of the diaspora because of the benefits proposed by the Czech government (mainly permanent residency). However, it is difficult to prove the required link to one’s Czech ancestors due to Soviet-era documents in which the column with the Czech nationality of people’s ancestors is often missing. These observations lead to the conclusion that an attractive immigration policy aimed at the diaspora should not be treated as the only comprehensive explanation for ethnic return migration. Ethnic policy in the country of emigration also shapes this kind of migration and – in this concrete case – could even discourage ethnic return migrants.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50404 - Anthropology, ethnology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Central and Eastern European Migration Review

ISSN

2300-1682

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

8

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

PL - POLAND

Number of pages

17

Pages from-to

117-134

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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