Paper short abstract:

In our contribution, we focus on two educational initiatives targeting at privileged groups and offer elite knowledge linked to two different cultural spheres 'West' versus 'East'. Our aim is to show how participation in the activities of two educational initiatives translates into the construction of Europeanism and the sense of belonging of specific young people, usually descendants of migrants.

Paper long abstract:

Some migrants’ descendants in the Czech Republic are exposed to a specific experience; their enculturation takes place at the intersection of belonging to different ethnic, racial, cultural and social classes, their migration networks create institutions that correspond to their position in social space, transnational space. These institutions offer the transmission of knowledge and identities that can enhance but also weaken their feelings of belonging.

We focus on two educational initiatives that are linked to practices related to the country of origin (namely the Youth Theater - The United Kingdom and the Youth Diplomats - Russian Federation). Both focus on strengthening the elite knowledge tied to the socio-cultural circle of the country of origin. Although these institutions are defined as open, non-selective, their profile focuses on children and young people from privileged cultural and social classes.

We want to show how the aspect of privilege entres into the negotiations of Europeanism, and how is potentially ethnic or racial identity treated here. We ask how young people understand their experience of specific transnational knowledge educational activity, how it is situated in Europe or the world and how it does/does not contribute to overcoming the idea of ​​dividing the world into West and East.