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Paper short abstract

The paper examines the position of Czech Roma after 2022 through a fatal Roma–Ukrainian conflict. It analyses anti-Ukrainian resentment, Roma marginalisation, and far-right mobilisation, showing how contested belonging and selective inclusion reshape hierarchies of deservingness in Czech society.

Paper long abstract

This paper analyses the position of Czech Roma in Czech society in the context of the arrival of a significant number of Ukrainian refugees after February 2022. Specifically, it elaborates on a particular conflict between young people in a Czech city, in which a young Roma man died and a non-Roma Ukrainian was identified as the attacker. This culminated in strong anti-Ukrainian sentiments among Roma in Czechia in the summer of 2023. The paper analyses these events in broader social processes on several levels. First, there are the broader anti-Ukrainian attitudes of anti-government far-right movements, which, paradoxically, mobilised Roma as partners in defending "national" interests. On the other hand, there is the specific Romani experience of marginalisation in Czech society, which, on the Roma side, led to a contestation of hierarchies of deservingness amid a dominant moral appeal for solidarity with Ukrainians. Thirdly, there are broader aspects of Roma-Ukrainian relations in Czechia. These stem from a deeper history of encounters in precarious socio-economic niches, the failure of the integration of Ukrainians into Czech society after 2022, and finally the issue of strong anti-Roma racism within Ukrainian society. Inspired by theories of racial hierarchies and relational racialisations, this article calls for conceptualising Roma sociability beyond majority-minority narratives. This leads to a more nuanced understanding of the various (and unexpected) aspects of their social belonging.