The aim of the article is to examine the consequences of resettlement of Romanian Czechs from the Banat region to Czechia after 1989. Special emphasis is put on the role of various (individual, institutional) transnational practices and relations, migration networks and the Czech origin of returnees in their migrationdecision making and adaptation process. On the background of notions of 'ancestral return' or 'counter-diasporic migration', the study also discuss key questions whether the counter-diasporic migrants are rather returnees or the fi rst migrant generation of Romanian Czechs, what the shared narratives of home are and how they, along with diasporic consciousness, affect migration of Romanian Czechs to the ancestral homeland. We argue that the experience with migration to the ancestral homeland exposes migrants to rethink their own identity as well as the relationship to a country of imagined exile and a country of imagined home. The study presents results of research conducted in Romania in 2012 and Czechia in 2013 and 2015 combining qualitative (monitoring, interviews with key informants, participant observation) and quantitative methods (questionnaire survey).
The first cohort of Czech second-generation Vietnamese has only recently reached adulthood. Raised by Czech nannies, they received early socialization into Czech society, while Vietnamese culture remained unfamiliar. With this childhood experience, the generation grew into young adulthood questioning their identity/identities. Caught between social and normative pressures from both the Vietnamese community and Czech society, the formation of associations by second-generation Vietnamese can be a means to respond to their disadvantaged position. Based on in-depth interviews with leaders of these associations and participant observation of their activities, the article examines the goals and activities of second-generation associations (SGAs) and compares them with first-generation immigrant organizations. SGAs are shown to fill the gap of parents as key role models of socialization in Czech society and as platforms to enhance the self-confidence and sense of social responsibility of second-generation Vietnamese in Czechia.
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