Ethnic Identity Among Vietnamese Descendants in The Czech Republic: An Intersectional Analysis of The Lived Experiences

Abstract

Although Vietnamese has currently made up one of the three largest foreign community in the Czech Republic, the number of studies that focus on the challenges of Vietnamese immigrant descendants, especially regarding their ethnic identities in the Czech society is unfortunately confined. Different from their parents, one of the biggest obstacles that young Vietnamese descendants in the Czech Republic are facing in life is the question of their ethnic identities in the term of liminality and being strangers to both cultures (Vietnamese and Czech). Taking those reasons into account, this thesis aims to examine the experiences of "being stuck in-between" and confronting the process of (re)forming and shifting ethnic identities among children of Vietnamese immigrants in the Czech Republic in the relation with other gendered identities that they define with. Based on a feminist approach, this paper pulls together prior and existing studies, developing from the data collected from questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews to illustrate the subject matter. Relying immigrant lived experiences from the perspective of children and young people who have Vietnamese roots; this paper facilitates a broader understanding of their unique situation and factors that constitute their identity. Central to my...