The role of foreigners in fundamental (post)transformation processes in Czech cities

Supervisor: Doc. RNDr. Martin Ouředníček, Ph.D.

Project no. 1574319 is funded by the Charles University Grant Agency.

Research overview

Due to the exceptional migration characteristics of Czechia among the CEE countries and the entire EU, foreigners are becoming an increasingly important and more common element in our cities. This fact implies the growing importance of the foreign population as a factor in the process of shaping the lived space. In the post-socialist context, however, it is a comparatively new phenomenon and the research has been specifically devoted mainly to more general scale levels. There is a lack of more comprehensive knowledge of these issues at the level of urban regions or even more detailed. The aim of the project is to identify and explain the role of foreigners in processes which have been significantly shaping local structures of our cities in recent decades, such as suburbanization and gentrification. Furthermore, we want to compare results with findings from other countries and with assumptions of Western theories, whose applicability in our context may be very limited though. Two most prominent Czech urban areas from the point of view of the diversity and concentration of foreign population – Prague Metro area and Urban region of Karlovy Vary – are designated as case studies. The topic is conceptually situated on the edge of urban geography and migration studies. As a main source of data is assessed unique database of the Foreign Police, including individual records of foreigners in address point accuracy. This database offers considerable potential for research purposes.

Research period

2019-2020

Conferences

13.-16. 11. 2019: Ulan-Ude, Gremyachinsk, Russia: Suburban Revolution and Peripheral Urban Territories in the Post-Soviet Space. Paper: Czech suburbanization in post-transformation era - the development, evaluation and challenges (with Martin Ouředníček and Jiří Nemeškal)
25.-29. 9. 2019: Belgrade, Serbia: CAT-ference 2019: 8th International Urban Geographies of Post-communist States Conference. Paper: Do foreigners tend to suburbanize in the Prague metropolitan region? (with Martin Ouředníček)
13.-14. 9. 2019: Brno, Czechia; 11th International Student and Early Career Conference New Wave. Paper: Contemporary trends in population change and migration in Central Bohemia (with Jiří Nemeškal and Nina Dvořáková).
15.-18. 5. 2019: Galway, Ireland; 7th Congress on the Geography of Europe (EUGEO) - Re-imagining Europe's future Society and Landscape. Paper: Contemporary trends in population change and migration in Central Bohemia (with Jiří Nemeškal and Nina Dvořáková).

Publications and other research outputs

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