Paper short abstract:

The paper presents data based on interviews with Africans living in Czechia and evaluates their feeling of safety, unsettledness, unsafety in relation to education, work opportunities or racism in Czechia. Findings show a position of ambiguity in a country which is hegemonically white.

Paper long abstract:

Africans have been living in Czechia for decades and although there is a substantial history of relations between African countries and Czechoslovakia/Czechia, the community of Africans in Czechia is still rather small. The significance of this community in Czechia was recently highlighted by the global movement dubbed, Black Lives Matter, but unfortunately there were rather minor responses from Czech politicians and Czech society more generally.

As part of a broader project that investigates African identities in Czechia, we present data collected through semi-structured interviews with Africans living in the country. The paper aims to evaluate the extent to which the Africans in Czechia feel (un)safe or (un)settle in the country, particularly in terms of race relations, education, and work opportunities.

The findings suggest that Africans find themselves in a dilemma: in their home countries, insecurity, in broader terms, has made them to Czechia, yet this supposedly safe alternative has not particularly welcomed them. Africans find themselves being met with racist undertones as aliens and immigrants who can never be Czech on account of their race or language. Consequently, Africans are in a quandary whereby on the one hand, they feel that it is hard to stay (due to racist attitudes), and on the other hand, they feel that it is hard to leave to their home countries.