The article on the Romani migration from Slovakia to the territory of the Czech Republic is based on the field research realized by the organization „Člověk v tísni" (People in Need) in
the year 2003. Analysis of this probe has shown that the non-asylum Romani migration was in the year 2003 much stronger than the migration of asylum seekers; that in the case of non-asylum migration this was in the first place an innovation migration, while in the case of
asylum seekers it was a so called survival migration. The non-asylum migration was usually a chain migration either of individuals or families and utilises family relations in the country of
origin as well as in the country of final destination. The information is being handed on not only through families, but also in settlements; some of them even specialize in some kind of
migration. The migration of Romani between the Czech Republic and Slovakia is bid-irectional, but more Romani migrate into the Czech Republic then to Slovakia, due to better economic situation there. Romani migration is a dynamic phenomenon and because of its character, based on close family relations of Romani residents on Czech and Slovak territory, it will for sure continue in future.
The article focuses on gender aspects of globalisation and global restructuring and criticises the masculine bias of mainstream theories of globalisation. It is aimed at adding a global dimension to Czech gender studies. It looks at the way in which globalisation is gendered and based on gender ideologies, and how global restructuring affects and change gender systems. Primarily economic globalisation is addressed, and the changes in the organisation of labour globally are examined. Global production is dependent on cheap women's labour in the factories of multi-national corporations in the global south. The process of rendering labour more flexible and informal is associated with its féminisation. Care work and migration are also becoming feminised on a global scale. The article also analyses domestic work performed in the United States and Western Europe by women migrants from developing countries. All these processes are occurring within the context of neo-liberal policies and the changing role of states amidst a global restructuring, which needs to be examined from a gender perspective.
The article, based on the study of a wide scope of literature available on the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia, as well as on the author’s own previous ethnographic research, describes the peculiar functional symbiosis of two cultural traditions: social organization based on the principals of matrilineal kinship and institutionalized male migration, viewed from both a structural and a historical perspective. It thus provides a summary of the current state of knowledge about the problem preliminary to further field research planned by the author beginning from July of this year, which will focus on new developments resulting from major socio-political changes in the Indonesian society in the last 10 years since the fall of the regime of President Suharto.
When reflecting on the symbolic integration of migrants into their host societies, sociological and anthropological discourses are challenged by the fact that recent migrants do not simply leave their homelands behind but make great efforts to maintain their attachments at a distance. In this article the authors examine a transnational migrant network of eight highly educated young women from the post-socialist region of southern Slovakia and devote special attention to the construction of their diasporic identity and shared life-world. They interpret the migration of these highly educated people not as a rupture but as a coherent continuation of their life course. In order to understand their recent biographical situation, it is necessary to consider the role that a particular form of habitus plays in migration. The authors claim that the experience of living in the culturally hybrid life-world of Czechoslovak Hungarians has played an important role in shaping their ability to live in the dual world of migrants.
The article deals with the topic of migration from cities to villages in the Czech Republic and Austria and the opportunities for the social integration of newcomers. It relates partly to the problems of suburbanisation but is not limited to just migration to suburban villages. The analysis is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2003-2004 using grounded theory, and it examines the subjective viewpoints of the incomers and their assessments of their situation. The author reveals two different patterns of motivation for migration, presents a typology of relationships between the incomers and the village community, and distinguishes three basic 'orientations' among the incomers: a village orientation, a city orientation, and an orientation towards self-sufficiency. These specific orientations emerge in the process of mutual interaction between the preferences of the incomers and the integration opportunities offered by particular villages; they are not exclusive and can change over time. The author closes with a summary of the differences between the situation in the Czech Republic and Austria, which may be a result of different structural conditions and different historical backgrounds.