The impact of political discourse on the majoritarian perception of immigrants in the Czech Republic
Abstrakt
The presentation analyzes how the representation of the immigrants can influence their integration into the majoritarian society. Once taken into account that integration is a two-fold process, depending not only on the motivation and the agency of the immigrant/refugee, but also on the majoritarian society's will to open to the newcomers; I believe it is important to study the factors that influence the majoritarian society.
While the media is important mediator between the citizens and the policy-makers, the official discourse is one of the most defining shapers of the majoritarian society's perception. My presentation will focus on the different perception of the reception of the immigrants since the 1960's in Czechoslovakia and later on in Czech Republic.
This will be shown on the case study of the Vietnamese immigrants in Czechoslovakia. How did the political discourse towards the reception of the immigrants changed since the period of socialist internationalism and how do the policy makers react during the so called refugee crisis? The historical analysis can show how the refugee and immigrant identity is related to the needs of national ideology and can be analyzed as a product of state's political, financial and diplomatic climate.