Migrants in the Networks of Social Relations: A Case Study of the Migrants from Armenia Living in Brno
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| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The collapse of the former Soviet Union has brought about many significant changes to the economic, social and political processes that in some parts of the region even lead into armed conflicts, political fights and socioeconomic recession that left the inhabitants caught in the situation of constant fear and insecurity, lack of basic products a possibilities to sustain themselves and their families as well as prospects for future. This was also the case for most of the population of Armenia for whom these changes together with the consequences of catastrophic earthquake meant collapse of many important economic, political and social institutions. This brought significant deterioration of living conditions of majority of the inhabitants that were among the main factors pushing them to leave their homes searching for temporal or permanent safety. Social networks were among the most important sources for the people who became migrants and drove some of them also to the Czech Republic, and further also to the city of Brno and its surrounding which they perceived as a space of relative safety, stability and prosperity. The paper presents a case study of eight families who left Armenia in the course of the 1990s and who live in Brno and its surrounding now. Departing from the theory of migration networks and the biographical approach to study of migration it follows the migration paths of these migrants and focuses on the role and meaning of social networks in the whole migration process. The aim of the study is to show how the embeddedness of the migrants in social networks operates in facilitating as well as constraining their mobility. The research showed that social networks, especially those based on the common origin, play variously important role in all phases of the migration process and their meaning and significance also change over time. Social networks, mainly the social capital based on common ethnic origin derivable from them, strongly determined the paths of the migrants and they were perceived as important facilitators of mobility in all the phases of the migration process – in the course of decision-making, during travel to destination countries as well as throughout the inclusion process in the new communities. However embeddedness in social networks based on the same origin was eventually also perceived as a barrier for their incorporation into wider Czech society and when one was trying to accomplish original plans for return back home. It turned out that despite many institutional as well as financial constraints some migrants maintain transnational connections with their families and friends both in Armenia and other parts of the world and the contact with the country of origin mediated through personal relations as well as media and memories constitutes an important part of their daily life. |
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