Lenka ·kodová - Gender, Generation and National Identity of Czech Émigrés in Denmark

University of Copenhagen, Institute of Anthropology
Specialeafhandling til Kandidateksamen, June 2004

Kurt Gebauer from the catalogue Pictures from the history of a personal state. Edited by Libuše Gebauerová. Praha 1995. Digital version downloaded 28.5.2004 from www.kurtgebauer.webzdarma.cz Reproduced with the author's permission

Acknowledgements

First, my thanks go to all the Czech émigrés in Denmark and those living in the Czech Republic, who despite their busy schedules found time for my interviews and were open to tell me about their life. Thanks to all those that I met at various occasions during the last three years and who helped me on my way - shared their lives, memories, materials and contacts to their friends as well family members with me.

Thanks to members of Dansk - Tjekkisk Forening and Babinec for giving me the opportunity to conduct participant observation among them. Special thanks to the former Czech consul in Denmark for her helpfulness as well as fruitful discussions.

My special thanks go to the Institute of Anthropology for accepting me as a student and to my supervisor Finn Sivert Nielsen for his patient and numerous comments that were indispensable especially in the early phases of planning my research.

Thanks to Anita, Benedikte and Mette - my "writing group" for their response and encouragement.

Finally my thanks go to my boyfriend, without whom I would not be able to fulfil my dream and study social anthropology. Thanks for his proof-reading and assistance with the graphs. Thanks to my family for their understanding and moral support as well as generous financial support of my previous studies.

Lenka Škodová

0. Introduction

The main focus of the thesis is identity and the compound processes of identification and differentiation among Czech émigrés. The target group of my research were Czech émigrés who came to Denmark during the 1960s and 1990s as well as re-emigrants to the Czech Republic. The thesis is based on six months of multi-sited field research that I conducted during the second half of the year 2001 primarily in Copenhagen and surroundings and in Prague and the northern part of Bohemia. The six-month fieldwork was supplemented by a long term contact with the field during the period 2000 - 2003. The general goal of the project was to map the migratory patterns of Czech émigrés, collect their life histories and identify the strategies they develop when dealing with the reality of emigration.

The Czech Republic is a Central European country that during the 1990s was going through a period of transition from socialism and a process of preparations for accession to the European Union, in which it gained membership in May 2004. The transitional period of the 1990s was in the Czech Lands⁽¹⁾ characterized by rapid economic development and political changes, as well as social stratification and re-definition of national identity after a peaceful division of Czechoslovakia in January 1993. The opening of the hitherto closed borders, the existing economic gap, as well as curiosity and apprehension of proximity led to an increase in gender-specific migration to and from the country. Western businessmen as well as young "expatriates" stormed to Prague, while young Czechs were encouraged to travel and learn the western culture. In my thesis I will look at two specific parts of the migration stream - 1) the young Czech women who in their search for western ideals and/or economic safety for their family married Danish men and migrated to Denmark and 2) the "emigrants," that left Czechoslovakia during the period of socialism, who despite the possibility of return chose to stay in Denmark, that in the meantime became their new "homeland"⁽²⁾.

0.1 The field

Before setting out for fieldwork I anticipated that a substantial number of émigrés who in the 1960s escaped to Denmark for political reasons, had after the 1989 returned to the Czech Republic. During my research I learned that despite the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, most of the Czech émigrés in Denmark did not gain the status of political refugees. Nor, contrary to my expectations, was the period of transition connected with a return of émigrés from Denmark to the Czech Republic. Instead, in the early 1990s Czech émigrés together with Danish supporters of Charta 77 founded the first organisation of Czech émigrés in Denmark, which is today called Dansk-Tjekkisk Forening (Danish-Czech Association). The presumed tendency to re-emigrate appeared, instead, among young Czech wives who had followed their husbands to Denmark, and who at the end of the 1990s formed an informal network they called Babinec⁽³⁾.

0.2 The research question

The main focus of my analysis is identity and relevant aspects of identification of the two waves of Czech migrants to Denmark and re-emigrants to the Czech Republic, regardless of which of the two countries they live in and in which of them they were interviewed. I understand identity as "a multiple, shifting, and often self-contradictory" concept, "made up of heterogeneous and heteronomous representations of gender, race and class [...] often indeed across languages and cultures" (De Lauretis 1986:9 quoted in Moore 1994:57).

Inspired by Henrietta L. Moore, I ask: What dimensions or discourses of identification are relevant to Czech émigrés in Denmark and re-emigrants to the Czech Republic? How do these dimensions and their impact differ among the two waves of émigrés? I will analyse national, regional/supranational, gender and generational identities of Czech émigrés in Denmark and examine the role these identifications play in the formation of the two groups - Babinec and the Danish-Czech Association (DCA).

On a more theoretical level I hope to make a contribution to the ongoing debate on How does migration affect identity? that occupied anthropologists of migration (Camino and Krulfeld 1994, Rouse 1995, Takenaka 1999, Werbner 1999). What happens with national, regional/supranational, gender and generational dimensions of identity in the context of migration? I will show how the maintenance of identity generates processes of comparison among Czech émigrés between both Danish and Czech reality as well as towards other Czech émigrés in terms of difference and similarity. Finally, I will seek to specify what influence the country of origin and the surrounding Danish society have on émigré identities.

Anthropology has traditionally studied exotic cultures, and although recent developments (since the 1970s) proceed towards doing fieldwork "at home," i.e. in the anthropologist's own country, the anthropologist still tends to be "an outsider" in the field of inquiry (Strathern 1987).

Rather than stating that I conducted anthropological fieldwork "at home," I prefer to use the term auto-anthropology defined as "anthropology carried out in the social context which produced it" (Strathern 1987:17). An inspiration for me has been a project conducted by Czech sociologists associated in a group called "SAMISEBE" (meaning: we (study) ourselves) who observed and interpreted their personal experience of the transformation of the Czech Republic using qualitative autobiographical methods (Konopásek 2000).

0.3 Methodological discussion

During the spring semester of 2001, while writing the synopsis for my fieldwork, I participated in a number of events attended by Czech émigrés in Denmark (receptions at the Czech Embassy in Copenhagen, St. Nicholas party, course on how to make dumplings and a forest outing with bonfire barbecue organised by DCA, a number of Babinec meetings and private parties) and conducted participant observation as well as the first informal interviews with my informants. Such events proved to be my best opportunity to meet and get to know my informants, who often introduced me to or became connecting links to others. It has been an advantage to cover the events organized by DCA during a whole calendar year, since they more or less repeat themselves every year and to some extent follow the Czech calendar (e.g. events such as St. Nicholas Party or Easter egg painting). The basic instruments of my research were life history oriented interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation and my own experience. The interviews are a crucial part of the collected data due to the rather dispersed character of the field. I conducted and tape-recorded interviews with 19 informants. In Denmark I often started with an informal meeting which was not taped and only later arranged a more formal interview with my informants. I kept contact with most informants for at least one year. In the Czech Republic I did not have this opportunity and therefore recorded the interviews during my first visit. The fieldwork was multi-sited not only because it was conducted in two countries, but mainly because the Czech émigrés do not cluster at specific geographic locations - they live and work spread among the Danish (and Czech) population. There has been no language barrier. I conducted the interviews in my mother tongue and Danish was a second language of research, which I myself mastered during the fieldwork.

Towards the end of my fieldwork, I arranged a focus group in order to generate data on beliefs, attitudes and opinions among the Czech émigrés of both the 60s and 90s generation on topics I had found particularly interesting during my research. The knowledge of Danish turned out to be essential for my understanding of the context of the DCA. The rather long period during which I conducted participant observation was caused by the fact that all the meetings of Babinec and DCA are weekend activities. My opportunities for participant observation were thus limited by the number of weekends during the fieldwork period. There is no place where the émigrés meet and where I could go and "hang out." In everyday life the studied group functions within the framework defined by the surrounding Danish society. One might almost say - at least about the émigrés from the 60s - that they practice their Czech identity only as "a hobby" in their free time. The structure of life in a contemporary modern society imposes restrictions on conducting participant observation in diverse spheres (private, at work, at the language school, when dealing with the relevant state institutions etc.) of the informants' lives. The limited possibilities for applying the method mean that most of the data I have gathered comes from the émigrés' meetings that I could easily join. Mostly I did not follow my informants as they individually interacted with Danish society. Here I can only use my own experience. I explain this closer in the next paragraph.

0.4 Phenomenology and my position in the field

My approach to the field was inspired by the phenomenological school of philosophy,⁽⁴⁾ which "calls into question the longstanding division in Western discourse between the knowledge of philosophers or scientists and the opinions of ordinary mortals" (Jackson 1996:7 building on Feyerabend). My position as both scientist and ordinary mortal, implied a "shift from standing outside or above to situat[ing] [my]self [...] within the field of inquiry" (Jackson 1996:9). The core of phenomenological investigation lies in consciously capturing consciousness itself, using a method based on "distancing" and "non-judgement," that is rather difficult to accomplish (Husserl explained in Sokol 1995). Contrary to "external perception" (which is in my case participant observation), the phenomenological epoché allowed me to directly access the "transcendent reality" of the "experience itself" (Ibid). I was using an introspective perception, in order to capture my emotional consciousness of identity. This in practice meant, that I was able to reflect on my emotional experience of identity and in retrospective analyse what evoked my emotions. These reflections 1) directly generated data (see e.g. section "Becoming East European") and 2) produced insight into the life-world of my informants that influenced my analytical focus. In the next paragraph I further reflect upon the position-dependent character of my research.

I was seen by my informants as "a wife of a Dane." This gave me, perhaps not surprisingly, a status they could relate to and that especially in the eyes of the young women weighs more than the status of a university student. Being a student at a Danish university opened other doors to me - especially in my contact with the 60s generation émigrés in the Czech Republic. That was an important detail - for them a Danish university was a credible institution they could relate to. My gender identity meant easier contact with women, while it was more complicated to interview men. The younger women regarded me as one of their own and the older women could relate to me as "themselves 20-30 years ago when they came to Denmark." It has proved difficult to conduct interviews with men, not only because men are not present at all in the Babinec group. Since the interview situation is a rather private one, it has at times given rise to both caution on the part of male informants (and possible jealousy from their wives), as well as to an illusion of my personal interest.

I am aware that my position as a female, student and Czech interviewer to a certain extent influenced the generated data and narratives. My informants, for example, emphasised the Czech aspects of their identity (rather than the Danish ones) and employed a Czech discourse. Their narratives also often centred on education, perhaps as a result of the fact that I was a university student. My resistance to the exposure of an ascribed East European identity, which is in the Czech context identical with Russia (see chapter three), might have been undermined by the fact that my paternal grandfather was a Russian, who was adopted to Czechoslovakia as a child. The exactness of my emotional experience of supranational/regional identity as a Czech citizen based on insight and introspective perception in the phenomenological sense might therefore not be representative. My personal experience of regional/supranational identity was to a larger extent squeezed between the Czech and Danish discourses.

The greater insight and reflexivity inherent in my analytical position is counterweighted with a potential "blindness." My perspective allowed me to attain an analytical distance from the "little Czech" émigrés as individuals, but not from the abstract image of "the big Czech nation" I myself share (Holý 1996). Although I realise that in my analysis I might tend to present Czech émigrés in a positive way or take up a defending point of view on their behalf, I perceive this to be an implicit side effect of personal contact with informants during an anthropological fieldwork. Since "anthropological processing of "knowledge" draws on concepts which also belong to the society and culture under study," (Strathern 1987:18). I am aware that the insider view I submit is different from the picture a Danish anthropologist would present. In this context I understand my discussion regarding Central European identity (see chapter three), as similar to that of an anthropologist concerned with e.g. minority rights or ecological issues he/she encounters during the fieldwork. I am convinced that the possibly negative influences of my position were outweighed by my direct access to the field.

During the process of conducting fieldwork and writing the thesis I experienced a certain conflict between being a researcher, friend and émigré at the same time. I was - willingly or unwillingly - collecting data virtually all the time, although my informants were aware of that only during the interview situation, when I was tape recording our conversation. In my thesis I therefore build mostly - apart from my own experience that I paid attention to in the previous paragraph - on data generated during the interviews. Although I use aliases for my informants' names, I realise that the relative small size of the studied group makes it impossible to keep the individual anonymous. Since a number of the recorded life stories have a testimonial status (see chapter five) I do not see it as a problem that it might be possible to trace an individual's life story.

0.5 Theoretical framework

Migration as a contemporary object of anthropology could be defined as the study of "geographical mobility of people." The etymological meaning of the word "migration" stresses the "spatial movement" (Jørgensen 1993:47). Migration was traditionally studied as a one-way movement from the economically less developed areas to more fortunate places in the world, but some authors also paid attention to the counter-current of return migration (e.g. Gmelch 1980). After ratification of the Geneva Convention in 1921 and in 1951, the stream of migrants was enriched by the new category of political and humanitarian refugees. Recently, anthropologists have paid attention to the continuous process of migrancy, i.e. "the never ending commution of migrants between their place of origin and the destination of their migration" (Mayer quoted in Schierup and Ålund 1987). According to Mayer, migrancy is not solely characterised by oscillation between the two places, but also by participation in social processes and maintenance of social networks in both the "sending" and "receiving" country (Ibid.). Given the geographical proximity of Denmark and the Czech Lands as well as the political context of the enlargement of the EU and thus the possibility of frequent visits, the contemporary situation of Czech émigrés in Denmark can best be characterised by the concept of "migrancy." I understand migrancy as an option, which a majority of the 60s generation émigrés to Denmark only gradually gained during the 1980s. The Czech émigrés who left for Denmark in the 1960s had for the most part only limited possibilities of contact with their families and were thus more likely to be exposed to the process of migration (see Chapter one).

According to the Encyclopaedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, identity refers to "qualities of sameness, in that persons may associate themselves, or be associated by others, with groups or categories on the basis of some salient common feature, e.g. ethnic identity" (Barnard and Spencer 1996). The term at the same time designates the "unique identity of an individual [...] which is located deep in the unconscious as a durable and persistent sense of sameness of the self [despite] a traumatic experience [or] passage from one stage of life to another" (Ibid 1996).

Before I turn to my definition of identity let me start with a paraphrase of Augustin's description of time: "When nobody asks me I know well what time is, when somebody asks I do not know what to say" (Augustin quoted in Sokol 1994:23). The constant fluidity, situationality and elusiveness make identity a phenomenon similar to time. When nobody asks I do not know what identity is. Identity first comes into view when it is either at stake or in contrast with the Other. This is precisely what happens with identity in the context of migration. In his essay on identity Zygmunt Bauman employs the metaphor of the owl of Minerva that spreads wings of knowledge "by the end of the day when the Sun has set and things are no more brightly lit and easily found and handled" (Bauman 2001:121). He reminds us that "one does not see what is all too visible; one does not see what is always there. Things are noticed when they disappear or go to bust" (Bauman 2001:121). It is not surprising that identity becomes more visible when exposed to the challenge of migration - an ambivalent and quickly changing situation similar to the dusk. Weighted down by a threat of loss and a potential of gain, the very situation of migration provides a perfect "laboratory" for identity studies. Bauman notices that identity has to be actively reproduced through the act or task of identification. The process of identification is at the same time a kind of "rear projection." It is a context-dependent and time-delayed process, where a move in time and space generates a shift of context in terms of "set[s] of relations and [...] mode[s] of consciousness" (Comaroff and Comaroff in Eriksen 1993:157).

The ascribed and self-ascribed aspects of identity are in the case of the émigrés very likely to differ. Rather than interacting and influencing each other, the dominating ascribed identity tends to affect and consequently stigmatise the self-ascribed identity.

Bauman further points out that identity is a "surrogate of community" (Bauman 2001:128). Identity is thus in the first place a substitute for the cosy closed community that Gellner defines as Gemeinschaft (Gellner 1998a:74). But since the "internally mobile but externally closed society" he denotes as Gesellschaft is simulating this cosy community, the émigrés identity becomes also affected by the Gemeinschaft-simulating society (Gellner 1998a:74).

While the Czech society in the 1990s to some extent still existed as a traditional status-oriented community, the Danish society had become a more identity-driven culture, where "men and women look for groups to which they can belong, certainly and forever, in a world in which all else is moving and shifting, in which nothing else is certain" (Hobsbawm in Bauman 2001:128).

0.6 Content of the thesis

In chapter one I discuss the history of migration from the Czech Lands in the second half of the 20^th century and its connection with the political, economic and demographic development in the sending country. I focus on two migration waves that reached Denmark. I discuss the influence the liberal atmosphere, the apprehension of proximity and economic prosperity had on the 60s and 90s migration. I connect the latter with the effect of demographic development on the marriage market. I present two stories characterising the 60s and 90s generation.

In chapter two I analyse the émigrés' national identity. My approach builds on the concepts of Czech Gemeinschaft and Danish Gesellschaft that manifest themselves in the émigrés narratives as Czech emotions and Danish function. I introduce a concept of national time that permeates the everyday life of the émigrés and is carried by them across the national borders.

In chapter three I discuss the contemporary meanings of the concepts Central and Eastern Europe in academic as well as popular understanding. I pay attention to Danish images of Eastern Europe and the stigmatising effect they have on the émigrés' self-perception.

In chapter four I discuss the development of gender perception in Czechoslovakia and its influence on the situation of Czech émigré women in Denmark in the 1960s and 1990s. I focus on gender-internal differences (i.e. Czech women versus Danish women and Czech men versus Danish men) and differences within the Czech and Danish discourse of gender identity.

In chapter five I compare the life histories and dominant narratives of the two generations of Czech émigrés. Despite recounting their persecution, the 60s generation of émigrés in their victim/hero stories employs a Central European satiric emplotment. The thematic narratives of the 90s generation about health and education systems, that are based on a muted gender discourse, on the other hand witness the proceeding process of their cultural adaptation.

1. Background - Czech Migration to Denmark

1.1 Brief historical overview

The Czech Lands were for four centuries part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, when Czechoslovakia was established. The period 1918 -1938, also called the First Republic, was the only democratic era until 1989. After the Second World War, during which the Czech Lands were occupied by expanding Germany, Czechoslovakia became incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Following the Communist coup in 1948 the new regime embarked on collectivisation of farms and liquidation of private enterprise and caused a first wave of emigration.⁽⁵⁾ Political trials⁽⁶⁾ lead by "advisors" from the USSR followed.

The end of Stalin's cult in 1956 crucially contributed to the thaw (détente) that in the 60s brought significant changes in people's lives: the ideological barriers relaxed, academic and research centres worked on economic reform, Czech culture experienced a golden age and young people travelled to other European countries. In 1968 the communist party adopted a new policy aiming at reforming the political system and democratising society - also called "the Prague Spring." At this point the USSR began to fear for the integrity of its empire and in August 1968 the armed forces of the USSR together with four other Warsaw pact countries occupied Czechoslovakia. The initial civil resistance was transformed during the years 1968-70 into waves of mass emigration. As a response the borders of Czechoslovakia were hermetically closed and the party implemented a policy of "normalisation." The 70s was "the period of the elimination of all traces of the politically more liberal sixties in all aspects of life, the return from "experimental" socialism to a "normal" socialism" (Konopásek 2000:300). All communists were subjected to screenings⁽⁷⁾ and half a million former members left the party. Gustáv Husák's⁽⁸⁾ offer to his people was: "Forget the past and your rights in return for food [flats, and other material goods] and a quiet life" (Kaplan and Nosarzewska 1997:334). The limited possibility for self-realisation resulted in withdrawal into the private sphere (so called inner emigration). Gorbachev's "Perestrojka" in the Soviet Union had a decisive influence on the future of the region. The brutal repression of a student demonstration that took place in Prague in November 1989 started the "Velvet Revolution." A group of dissidents and signatories of the Charta 77 declaration demanding maintaining of human rights played a crucial role during the 1989 events. A new government was formed and on 29 December 1989 the transformed Parliament elected the former dissident Václav Havel the president of Czechoslovakia.

A period of transition from socialism and state control towards democracy and free market economy followed. As the generation from Husák's baby boom was growing up, the 90s brought a possibility for the individuals' self-realisation such as travelling, studying or starting a private business, but also a housing shortage and a press on places at the universities that affected the large wave of young people who were in fact competing with each other.

As a result of Slovakian aspirations Czechoslovakia on the 1'st of January 1993 disappeared from the map, creating space for two independent countries: Slovakia and The Czech Republic. Together with nine other candidate countries the Czech Republic became a member of the EU in May 2004.

1.2 Czech emigration

The history of Czech emigration generally operates with two waves of political migration during the period of socialism: 1) After the communist coup in 1948 and 2) after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. These waves were complemented by a less apparent but continuous flow of émigrés.

According to data from the Czech statistical office, the legal emigration from Czechoslovakia was growing gradually already during the second half of the 1960s and peaked already in 1967 (see Appendix, Graph 3). After a decline in 1968 - 69 came a second slightly lower peak in 1970. However, both historical sources (Čornej and Pokorný 2000:77) and my informants' records agree, that most Czechs left Czechoslovakia during the period 1968-70. The discrepancy between the statistical data and other sources is caused by the fact that only the proportionally minor legal migration was registered. The émigrés who left around 1968 and 1969 were illegal emigrants who do not figure in the statistics. The statistical data on the other hand confirm a tendency I recorded during fieldwork: The 68 emigration wave was a peak of a trend that started in the mid-60s thanks to the liberal atmosphere in Western Europe and Czechoslovakia.

The first post-1948 wave of migration did not significantly reach Denmark. During my fieldwork I encountered migrants that came with the second of the described waves (the sixty-eighters), together with a number of Czech émigrés who left the country during the détente of the 60s. They constitute the 60s generation in my analysis. The other wave that I describe (the 90s generation) is a gender-specific wave of migration of the transitional period, that has so far passed unnoticed by Czech social scientists.⁽⁹⁾

The Danish statistics about Czech émigrés show two generations: The largest age group is the 50 - 60 years old émigrés and the second largest the women between 20 and 34 years (in the reproductive age) (see Appendix, Graphs 4 and 5). The total number of the Czech émigrés based on the Danish statistics for the year 2002 is around 1100. The Czech Embassy estimates that there are a maximum of 1500 Czech émigrés in Denmark. These numbers also show that in Denmark the group studied is a small and rather insignificant one. I have designed my study from the point of view of the Czech Republic, i.e. the sending country, which both the 60s and the 90s generation of émigrés had left, bound for various receiving countries.

The two generations of Czech émigrés as I describe them in my thesis were both influenced by the 68 Warsaw Pact occupation of Czechoslovakia and the following politics. In case of the older generation the connection is more obvious - it was the reason why they emigrated. In case of the younger generation who was born in the so-called "Husák baby boom" in the middle of the 70s this claim needs a closer explanation that I give in the next paragraphs.

1.3 Demography

The population pyramids of both countries (see Appendix, Graph 1 and 2) show the age distribution of the population in Denmark and the Czech Republic. While the Danish population pyramid is rather even, the age distribution in the Czech population bears more signs of deformation caused by the state pro-natal policy. Both countries experienced a baby boom during the Second World War⁽¹⁰⁾ that continued in "the post-war compensating waves of natality" (Večerník 1998:93). In both cases this baby boom repeated itself approximately a generation later: in Denmark during the economically prosperous 60s and in Czechoslovakia during the 70s. The pro-natal politics of the Czechoslovakian state (that prolonged maternity leave and raised maternity allowances), together with the Soviet occupation of the country meant that during the years 1974-79 there were born about 200 000 (or 30) more children than average (Večerník 1998:94).

It is interesting to notice that both waves of Czech emigration occurred approximately 20 years after a baby boom and thus coincide with the growing up of the large generations that are "squeezed" in various spheres (number of places at schools, universities, when looking at the same time for partner, job or accommodation) through their life. It happened also in both cases at times of "opening up" of the Czech borders. In the next paragraph I will pay attention to one of these spheres.

When the children born in a population wave grow up, they face a "marriage squeeze" due to the fact that girls usually marry an older partner. First there are not enough older men, and later there are not enough younger women. In such a situation the girls can either marry older men than they otherwise would prefer, or wait and later choose their husband among the younger men. Since during the socialistic period it was normal for both men and women to marry in their early 20s, the generation born during the Husák baby boom had in fact only the second possibility on the "Czech marriage market" (Večerník 1998). But the 1989 revolution changed that marriage prospect. The transition of the society in the 90s and opening towards the world brought a solution - to marry a foreigner. I have already mentioned that the Danish population went through a baby boom during the 60s. Since the average marriage age of west Europeans is higher (Večerník 1998:98) and at the same time many Danes live as singles, the men born during the 60s in Denmark (and especially from the end of the Danish baby boom when there were not enough women) can from the demographical point of view become partners for the Czech women.

Although the 90s generation of Czech émigrés in Denmark does not completely correspond with the 70s baby boom, a substantial number of the Babinec members were born at that time. The statistics of foreign migration witness that the tendency of the Czech women to marry foreigners (including Danes) existed continually since the 50s (Srb 2001). The statistics also show a tendency of women marrying a step towards west: While Czech women marry Germans and other West Europeans, women from Slovakia and Ukraine get married to men from the Czech Republic (see Appendix, Graph 6) (ČSU 2001). While Danish men often marry women from "Eastern Europe" and Thailand, Danish women tend to marry other Europeans and Americans, together with a number of various countries (Nielsen 2003).

1.4 The 60s generation

During the 60s, Denmark went through a wave of industrialisation - in 1963 Denmark's industrial export surpassed agricultural (Kjersgaard 1983:85). The expansion of the welfare system required new institutions. Danish women entered the job market and started fighting for equal rights and opportunities. At the end of the 60s Danish university students engaged in a wave of protests (ungdomsoprør) that had profound influence on the society. The economic boom ended with the oil crisis, increasing unemployment and consequent restrictions on migration of workers at the beginning of the 70s.

The first wave of migration of Czechs to Denmark occurred in the late 60s and was a result of a combination of several factors. The young people living in Czechoslovakia - a state which was building a socialism with a human face - were in the late 60s freely travelling to western countries and also to Denmark. Western Europe generally was going through a stable period of prosperity and economical growth and needed more workers. When the Soviet troops in August 1968 invaded Czechoslovakia, many Czech citizens were on vacation or working abroad. In this uncertain situation some asked for permission to stay and work where they were, while others returned to their families. Many others started leaving Czechoslovakia and asking for asylum. Some 500 Czechs came to Denmark where they were received with sympathy. In an interview Rùžena Singer introduced me to the situation of Czechs seeking a refuge in Denmark:

In 68 immediately after August (sigh) a number of Czech refugees came in a few waves - immediately after August, during the autumn, and then during 69 when the situation in Czechoslovakia got tightened. So the last ones came at the beginning of the 70s. ... About 500 Czechs came to Denmark. At that time about one third of them left and went further, i.e. either to Australia, to the States or Canada or where they went. And a part of them have returned to Czechoslovakia. I do not think that we can operate with an exact number, but about 25 people returned to Czechoslovakia during the year 69.

So if we talk about the Czech refugee issue - one has to operate with the politics towards foreigners as it was then, and place it within the frameworks as they were at that time. And at that time it was in fact humanitarian help to refugees - the same as in the case of Hungary in 56. In the same way Denmark opened its borders and accepted the Czech refugees, but political asylum, or the question of political asylum had been dealt with according to different statuses than today. And it is true that they were very few, most of them received normal refugee status, which did not mean political asylum, but simply humanitarian residence here in Denmark and immediate permission to work, i.e. the group that came at that time - most of them quickly joined the job market, but of course it was not a job market adequate to their abilities and education, but places where there were vacancies.

...at the beginning of the 70s ... when the wave of those 4000 Polish refugees, the Jews from Poland came, it was often older refugees who were at the concentration camps, and the whole Danish refugee question had to be transformed - clothing, working clothes, evening courses .. and a certain envy appeared among those who came earlier and those who came later and suddenly had more possibilities - health care, and Danish language courses during the day...those who had started an education could get up to three years support from Dansk Flygtningehjælp - rehabilitation in order to finish their studies - among those there were also a number of young Czechs who came at the beginning of the 70s.

Those (whom I knew) who came in 68 and 69, they all went directly to work ... and many workplaces at that time paid the wages weekly... so a budget was made ...income and expenses ... and suddenly they were independent.... One can say that Czech refugees from that time found their own way, really on their own. In my opinion it is the best to do so, when the job market gives such possibility, and not the process of long-term integration.

Due to the Cold War the older generation of Czech émigrés went through a variously long period when they were banned from visiting their country of origin. Paragraph 95 of Czechoslovakian law from 12 July 1950 for leaving the Republic stipulates that:

"Any person who leaves the territory of Czechoslovakia without a permission, will be punished with one to five years of imprisonment. The citizenship of the person can be removed. The possibility of suspended sentence is excluded (Menzel 1969).

One of my informants, who actively supported the political opposition and Charta 77, had not been to Czechoslovakia for 23 years. However, the majority of Czech émigrés who came to Denmark at the end of 60s was usually able to visit Czechoslovakia since the beginning of the 1980s. Václav and Anna told me about the circumstances of the change in visiting policy:

Václav Baum - ... we started travelling to Czechoslovakia around 1980 when we received Danish citizenship and when (the situation) calmed down (after around 12 years)... now we go there about twice a year.

Lenka - And you did not get to Czechoslovakia at all or...?
Anna Rasmussen - Not before 1981. That was due to the deténte from the Czechoslovakian side. Around 1980, they (the Czechoslovakian consulate) suddenly wanted to talk to us again. Because they wanted ... they made a list ... who had what education, and put prices on it, and we had to pay for it.

... we had to ask for visas to Czechoslovakia. My husband got a stamp at the consulate, they sent it to him the next day. I always had to wait for 6-8 weeks. They said that I was born in Czechoslovakia so they cannot do it at the consulate and have to ask for permission in Prague at some ministry whether I can get the visas or not. But how exactly they did it - I do not know. I always got it, but I had to wait for 6-8 weeks. I have one friend who got positive, yes, yes and no (i.e. she got the visas twice and then she did not). They did not give any reason. Simply no. So we thought they say no to every 30th. He gets No. (She laughs) How should one explain it to oneself? Because she asked 2 months later and she got it. We said really - yes-yes-yes-no. (She laughs)

As we can see from the previous example, the bureaucracy connected with visiting the home country was experienced as frustrating. The married women, who contrary to the emigrants could visit Czechoslovakia continuously, similarly had to ask for visas:

Zora Rovná - ... And I was not "emigrant" so I could return whenever, ... we visited my parents about twice a year.

...and later when I had my son I taught him Czech and often went there (to Czechoslovakia) with him, so he had in fact - two different worlds, he saw what system is here and what system is there. It was still communistic there and he remembers it well, so one can say that he has a wider horizon than an ordinary Danish or Czech boy.

Gabriela Schwartz - All the time I lived in Denmark I travelled at least once a year to Czechoslovakia, because I had - or have - my brother and parents here. All the time I continuously travelled to Czechoslovakia and kept aware and read Czech books and was interested in what is going on here, bought vinyl records...

As we could see from the previous interviews, the migration of the 60s generation in the 1980s slowly changed to migrancy. The term migrancy also best describes the migration pattern of the Czech women who married Danish men and therefore were allowed to visit Czechoslovakia continuously. Migrancy as a process took over even more after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Before moving on to the 90s, let me recapitulate the push and pull factors of the 60s generation:

1.5 The 90s generation

The decade between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 11 September 2001 was similarly to the 60s a period of economic prosperity and atmosphere of optimism. The openness and dynamism in society together with low unemployment meant that it was also a decade when a second wave of Czech émigrés came to Denmark. The Czechs were permitted to travel freely again and that gave rise to new friendships and relationships. The Danish - Czech couples, whose number grew rapidly in the 90s, more usually settled in the economically stronger Denmark that has during the last 30 years developed a very thorough social welfare system as well as a certain "allergy" to foreigners.

One Saturday in February Babinec met for the first time in public space. We were about 15 girls sitting by a long table in a restaurant when a group of maybe eight Danish boys came in and sat by a nearby table. Their entrance evoked a peal of laughter among Babinec. We kept to our usual business - talking about what's new and especially joking, since double - meanings go best in one's mother tongue. (A story about another place, where the waiter claimed that he had IT only "small" - understand "in small portions" evoked probably the strongest burst of laughter that evening.) There was actually one man sitting at our table, but he had long hair and was sitting so the Danes could only see his back. When I accidentally looked up, my periphery vision often caught someone from the other group looking at the direction of our table.

The two groups noticed each other, but kept their separate conversations, interrupted only when one of the boys, who apparently guessed that we speak in a Slavic language, came to us and asked where we come from. Poland or maybe Russia? Somebody answered that we come from the Czech Republic. When we were about to leave one of them came to us again and asked: "What are you doing here?" - "are you nurses, or are you married here or what??" We obviously did not look like a possible sport team. I would rather leave out the possibility that the young man could have made a connection between "the East" and "sexual services."

The other girls left him doubting for a while, and answered only in jokes. I wanted to make an end to the situation and told him: "you said it yourself." Although it definitely was not true for every one of us - and for some it could have even been a welcomed chance to meet a possible partner - the answer we finally gave him was "most are married here." And that ended the conversation.

"Cultural complexity combined with group differentiation is not necessarily linked with ethnicity" (Hannerz in Eriksen 1993:157). This is true in the case of Babinec, where identification as a young (Czech) woman or wife was stronger than the national category of being "Czech" itself. The meeting in a public space (restaurant) however shows, how this in itself positive self-identification empowered in meeting with coevals may slide to a stereotypic categorisation of "East European women" present in Danish society. For this and other reasons most of the Babinec meetings were organised in the private sphere. I shall conclude the description of the 90s generation with a recapitulation of the push and pull factors:

A number of Babinec members left Denmark after my fieldwork was over. This coincided with the government change and more open dislike towards foreigners in Denmark. Those of my informants who did not have children could react to the unfavourable situation by returning to the Czech Republic. Their reasons for leaving were, however, mostly influenced by their job situation and private relations. One family temporarily moved to Germany - half way between both partners' homes.

1.6 The 60s versus the 90s generation

In accordance with the general analytical framework of my research I further use Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined community," and particularly his ideas of "substantial" and "parallel groups" (Anderson 1996). Anderson defines nation as an "imagined community," whose members living within the national territory form a "substantial group", while its émigrés form a group "parallel" to the substantial one (Anderson 1996:188-192). I understand the two generations of Czech émigrés who meet respectively in Babinec and in the DCA as two parallel groups that relate to different epochs in their country of origin and even to two different states - Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic respectively. Although I realise that it is impossible to generalise, I have tried to portray a "typical" representative of both generations: A typical 60s generation Czech émigré is a 50 - 60 years old woman or man, speaking Danish with an accent and feeling at home in Denmark where she/he has lived the last 30 years. She/he is a Danish citizen that came to Denmark as a refugee, because of work or marriage. She/he was tired or afraid of the political situation in Czechoslovakia and might already have a sibling in Denmark. At the time of my research her/his children had already left home, he/she has contact with the spouses' Danish family and has Danish colleagues and friends. A typical 90s generation Czech émigré is a 20 - 35 years old woman, speaking Danish (still following Danish classes), who may not feel at home in Denmark where she has spent 5-10 years. She is a Czech citizen who came to Denmark because of marriage, has 0-2 children and contact with Danes mostly via her husband - i.e. with his family and friends. She meets Danes at work or at school.

The verbal as well as non-verbal expressions of identity of the two generations differ considerably. While the 60s generation succeeded in their adaptation to the Danish reality to the extent that they are described by the 90s generation as Danes, the younger generation of Czech émigrés often feels proud to be Czech. Until the Danish parliamentary elections in autumn 2001 most of them were ready to keep their Czech citizenship and considered advice from the older generation to apply for Danish citizenship as soon as possible as paranoid.

The difference between DCA and Babinec, where Czech émigrés meet, basically amounts to the following:

The two groups - DCA and Babinec - both practice their identity unnoticed in the Danish context. Outwardly DCA seems to be a Danish association, due to the number of Danish members. The women who meet in the Babinec have no ambitions exceeding meetings in the private sphere.

2. National Identity

Petra called me and asked whether I would like to join her to watch a football match between the Czech Republic and Denmark that took place in Copenhagen. I am not a football fan at all, in fact I had never been to a real match at a football stadium before. But I was just about to start my fieldwork and I suppose that anthropologists in other fields have to participate in events that are much more alien for them than football is for me. So I agreed to go. The Czech Republic had never lost to Denmark and the prospect of victory filled me with some enthusiasm.

We agreed to meet in front of the stadium and try to get some flags. Getting a real Czech flag seemed to be a problem.⁽¹¹⁾ When I accidentally heard that a distant acquaintance was coming from the Czech Republic with a group of other football fans to watch the match, I thought that he might bring us one. But it seemed to be too complicated to meet with someone I did not personally know and we decided to give up and improvise a bit. Hana had some small Czech paper flags at home and I bought colour pencils to paint flags on our cheeks.

It was a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon. As I walked towards "Parken" I passed a number of busses and cars with Czech registration numbers. Since the first part of the number is a district or town abbreviation, I could see what part of the country they came from. Therefore it was not a problem to notice a small van that probably belonged to the distant acquaintance from my hometown. I also met many Danish "roligans" dressed in various red and white artefacts. Some of them were wearing the huge fabric filled hats that tourists usually buy in Prague and wear while walking in crowds through the historical centre. Other artefacts that I never saw before seemed rather inventive to me. I did not feel like walking all the way to the stadium with the flags of "the other party" already painted on my face. Instead, we decorated ourselves just before the match started in the ladies' room. Already that caused some attention from others who were using the bathroom.

Although Petra intended to buy tickets to the Czech part of the stand, we ended up sitting in a place totally surrounded by Danes. She had probably chosen too expensive tickets and all the rest of the "Czech" area got sold to Danes. All other Czechs seemed to be to the right of us, on the lower part of the stands. Since we were reacting to what was going on in exactly the opposite way of everybody around us, the people sitting nearby noticed our presence although our flags were not too visible. Soon they found out that we understood Danish, and engaged in a lively conversation with Petra. The match was not going too well for the Czech Republic. I blamed myself for painting the flags on Petra's face upside down, and repainted them during the break, but it did not seem to have much influence on the game. Denmark won. For the first time ever, while we were watching it! How unlucky.

But what happened to my Czech émigré friend? She was still holding her Czech paper flag, but the Danes with whom she conversed during the game gave her a red-and-white football cap. That was a perfect materialisation of what was going on. Although we were disappointed at first, neither Petra nor I got really upset. After all we were not real football fans and it was the country we were living in that won.

On the way from the stadium, while I was rationalising the positive side of the result, we were so lucky to pass the van of my fellow countrymen, just when all eight passengers were sitting in there, ready to leave. I thought that we might get their flag now, when they did not need it any more. But that was not too clever of me. They were sitting in their van all very disappointed. They had travelled all the way from the Czech Republic only to see this match, and now there was an unhappy way home ahead of them. Even if the flag had belonged to them (it was just borrowed from a company one of them worked at) it would be very rude to sell their country's flag to us just after a lost match! Their despair had no parallels in our short term disappointment. During the game both we and they were on the same side, but we had an alternative we could go to when our team lost, which they did not share with us.

2.1 "Czech or Danish?"

"A man must have a nationality as he must have a nose and two ears... A man without a nation defies the recognised categories and provokes revulsion." (Gellner 1983:6)

The Czech TV was shooting a talk show with me (...) and they also asked me: "Are you Czech or are you Danish?" And I was saying: "I don't know. I really don't know whether I am more Czech or Danish ... I am both and I do not know where the border goes... I don't even think there is any. I am ... In Denmark I am more Danish and in the Czech Republic more Czech but here I say I'm going home to Denmark and in Denmark after a while I feel such an urge... I know that every time when I arrive to Prague and since I usually travel by car ....and when I drive through ...and suddenly see Prague ... I have always tears in my eyes and ... I am saying to myself ... this is the most beautiful city in the world! There's no doubt - I'm bound to the Czech country, to the Czech culture much more than to Denmark, but in Denmark I have my son who is (as I already said) the most important person in my life ... and now also the granddaughter... so it is another part of my heart that beats..."

In the following chapter I will analyse how the Czech émigrés experience their national identity in Denmark and in the Czech Republic. During the interviews the Czech émigrés declared themselves to feel and be understood by others to various degrees as Czech or Danish. In my inquiry I will focus on the acknowledged national identity of my informants rather than on their citizenship. I attempt to identify the aspects of Czech and Danish affiliation as they emanate through their narratives (and acts). My approach builds 1) on the German model of nation (Greenfeld 1992 quoted in Guibernau and Rex 1997:5, Holý 1998, Staun 2002), which I perceive as constitutive of both Czech and Danish understanding of national identity, and 2) on the distinction between nation and state (and thus also between nationality and citizenship) that evolved during the existence of the Czech nation within a multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Holý 1996, Holý 1998:113).

First let me briefly introduce two parallel understandings⁽¹²⁾ of the concept of nation. The already mentioned "German model" (also called romantic, ethnic or eastern) defines a nation as "a non-political linguistic and cultural entity" or an "organic ethnically based community" (Holý 1998:113). In contrast, the competing "French model" (also known as republican, civic or western), is conceptualised as "a territory of citizens of a given country regardless of ethnicity" (Ibid 1998:113-114). Both models co-exist in all nations (with more or less of one or another) and correspond to Gellner's concepts of Gemeinshaft (the "organic" ethnically based nation) and Gesellschaft (citizenship based society, state) (Gellner 1998). While the French model stresses the experience of everyday life that in my text figures as function, it is the fixity of national identity or "emotion," that is most characteristic of the German model.

The incapacity of the German model to cover the experience of everyday life becomes an unsurpassable obstacle for the émigrés. We can see this in the following interview, where Václav Baum discusses his position as an émigré in which he invokes the French model of nationhood. His conclusion, however, that he is more likely to be accepted by others as a Czech than as a Dane, is based on the German model of nation:

Václav Baum - It would be both or something. If I would claim that I am Danish, it would be exaggerated, it would be nonsense. I am of course Czech, but not completely, because I spent most of my life, especially when you consider only the part of life when one understands what is going on - sometime when you start going to school or so, because the first years do not matter, but let's say from six years of age until now - I spent a substantially longer part of my life in Denmark, under Danish conditions. I also know my way here better than in the Czech Republic. I mean in relation to public matters. When I need to see to something at an office, I know where to go, while in the Czech Republic I do not. When I come (he smiles) to some office there, when I have something to take care of on my mother's behalf, I have no clue. At the offices they still have that kind of arrogance towards each other - they think they look at a blockhead. I use language that sounds rather archaic to them or local dialect that seems archaic to people, so they think "look, here comes "an uncle" from a village, he doesn't know what is going on in the town ...and so... (he laughs) and so. So that is one thing, I know the ropes better here than there, but then my Danish language is very transparent. Once I open my mouth everybody can hear that I am not a Dane, it is of little use, when I open my mouth there, people in a while start wondering that I speak in an old-fashioned way, that I use expressions that do not exist anymore (he laughs) and on the other hand do not understand - not words, but expressions, or when somebody starts discussing some topic with me, political, cultural or from sport I do not know anything about it, I do not know anybody, they quote events and people that mean nothing to me, you know...

So I would say that one is still Czech. I speak Czech at home with my wife, I am not so pompous as to claim that I am Danish, although I am a Danish citizen, although I know Danish traditions and so on. I think that if I said to some Danes that I am Danish, they would laugh at me. In the Czech Republic I can say that I am Czech ... there they would accept it, but here it would probably sound silly.

While Václav functions in everyday life within the Danish society, it is precisely the absence of this aspect that makes him feel as a stranger in the Czech Republic. On the other hand, regardless of how well-integrated he is in Danish society, the ethnic imperative dictates that he can never become truly Danish. The émigrés are an abnormality in the construction of national identity after the German model. We can notice that Václav is caught in the middle, when he attempts to define himself with the existing categories, which are not sufficient. Kateřina describes a similar feeling of belonging nowhere when she talks about her short visits to the Czech Republic:

In shops we stare at the variety, and I buy magazines, but politics and so on - I can not grasp it, the new actors and singers - I have no idea who it is, I do not follow what is going on. But then when I am in Denmark ... we were for example at that Christmas party or something, and they start playing old Danish songs and having fun and I am saying to myself - I will never become Danish, I don't know these songs and I feel pity for myself because I can never feel happy about the same things they do and enjoy it the way I could if I were in the Czech Republic, but then I realise that in the Czech Republic I do not know (she returns to the politics, actors and singers) ... so I am neither the one nor the other it seems to me.

Kateřina realises that she "will never become Danish." As Daniela says in the following text, it is possible to change the values, opinions and behaviour of the émigrés so they act and think as Danes. But to the extent that Danish nationality is based on the German model, it is not possible for any foreigner to actually become a Dane:

Lenka - Do you feel like Czech or Danish, or is it sometimes this and at other times that?

Daniela - The identity is definitely double, but I today - after those years ... I start feeling not "at home" - I don't know - should I say at home? - I don't feel Danish because I am not a Dane, and I never will be, but I do not feel like a Czech either because I haven't been in contact with the country for many years. So the identity is somewhere in the middle and one is also with the university education trying to build some kind of cosmopolitan identity. I know that I can never become Danish, never. I can put on a Danish face (pretend that I am Danish) and I definitely have adapted - today I perceive many things more as a Dane than as a Czech does, but to consider myself to be a Dane, I would have to be sandbagged. Do you consider yourself to be Danish?

Daniela - Right, but you might adopt certain values, or a lifestyle, but in order to feel Danish - you would have to be sandbagged (i.e. stupid).

As we see from the previous examples, national identity is not only self-ascribed, it is also ascribed by the surrounding society (Barth 1969, Verdery 1994:37). In his discussion Václav included both aspects, which are in case of émigrés often conflicting. In the following story that I wrote down during one of the Babinec meetings, Ema shared her feelings with us about realising that despite her self-identification as Czech, she might no longer be recognised as part of the Czech society.

Ema - During the floods,⁽¹³⁾ I was experiencing it so much, I was afraid, what they were showing on TV - it was touching my heartstrings. Then I come to the Czech Republic to my parents' summerhouse and go to buy a toy for my daughter. The shop assistant asks what house I come from. When I say which one, she realises that "I am the one from abroad" and answers - "Yeah, I noticed that you have an accent." Ema gets mad - "I speak normally!"⁽¹⁴⁾

Ema's experience provoked a lively discussion about the experience of returning and whether one may gain a Danish accent in Czech or not, that everybody present seemed eager to take part in. The general concern of the discussion that I did not record in details was the realisation that becoming an émigré implies exclusion from the Czech Gesellschaft in the sense of the French model of nationality. Still they are destined to stay Czechs following the German one.

2.2 A parallel group?

Benedict Anderson, author of the famous definition of nation as an "imagined community," introduces the concepts "substantial" and "parallel groups" (Anderson 1996:188-192). Anderson defines a parallel group as one that shares the imagined aspect of community with their substantial group in their country of origin, while the framework of their everyday life is at the same time constituted by another national space. Implementing Anderson's terminology, and considering the émigrés different practice,⁽¹⁵⁾ that simultaneously led to the formation of the two groups of Babinec and DCA, I understand Czech émigrés in Denmark as two "parallel groups." The recorded narratives (an excellent example is that at the top of this chapter told by Gabriela) however suggest that the significant boundary (Barth 1969) between "Czech and Danish," is expressed not only in the formation of two different groups, but also in the case of the Czech émigrés in Denmark, on the individual level. The prevailing individual experience of the dividing line is not surprising since Czech émigrés do not figure in the Danish context as a group or ethnic minority. Hana and Kamila talked about that during the focus group:

Hana - We are not really a community, because there are so few of us, we are not even a minority nor ethnic group, simply nothing, there are a few people, but...

Taking Barth's Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Barth 1969) as his point of departure, Cohen draws attention to the absence of anthropological studies of ethnic boundaries on the level of individual consciousness (Cohen 1994). He further suggests that the crossing of a boundary, in this case migration, stimulates the individual's self-reflexivity. The narratives that I recorded during the interviews with my informants reveal a high level of self-reflexivity among the émigrés. Some of my informants named being/becoming cosmopolitan as a way of coping with the different realities. As we can see from a number of the cited examples, Czech émigrés living in Denmark are caught between Danish function and practice of everyday life, and lasting Czech national emotion. I will pay more attention to these two analytical approaches in the following paragraph.

2.3 Danish function and Czech emotion

...writing about Kwakiutl dancing, Boas says it is an example of the culture's approach to rhythm, and therefore it cannot be reduced to a mere "function" of society. One must instead ask what this rhythm is for the people who dance to it and the answer can only be found by exploring the emotional states, which generate and are generated by the rhythm (Boas 1927 quoted in Eriksen and Nielsen 2001:40).

Integration is in my opinion a functionalistic concept. It is about finding a place in the functioning of society. ... As any anthropologist knows no society can be fully described by functional analysis. Societies are also reflexive; they are systems of representation, they have a dialogue, moral, "atmosphere," feeling for etc. They are emotional arrangements of language and images (Knudsen 2003:24).

In everyday life Czech émigrés function within the framework defined by the surrounding Danish society. The concept function refers to the "well functioning" ("man er velfungerende") of Czech émigrés within the Danish society. The degree of adaptation of Czech émigrés in Denmark clearly appears when they describe how the Danish function they adopted collides with the Czech practice of everyday life. Jana Jensen, whom I interviewed when she moved back to Denmark after a couple of years in the Czech Republic, says about that:

... it seems to me that when we returned there (to the Czech Republic) now, ... I had contact with my friends from school, from the elementary school and from my university, and it seems to me, the lifestyle I have, how long I have been in Denmark, that I still - am Czech, but it seems to me that I behave as Danes do, right. A different lifestyle as such. I think differently than they (my Czech friends) do. I know that I invited my (Czech) female friends several times - either they did not have time because they had to do something in the kitchen or - it seems to me that their priorities are different than mine (she says "ours" i.e. of her family).

Rather than narrating her past, Jana constructed her stay in Prague in a sense of "phenomenological retention" and therefore she used the past tense (we returned) together with present (now). Her narrative is an example of the "phenomenological time core" (Zeithof)⁽¹⁶⁾, i.e. "the ability to sustain what has happened (retention) and what will come (protention) in one present" (Husserl explained in Sokol 1994:23). Jana refers to the "inner" time "of experience" where all primary, transcendent experience originates (Sokol 1995). Although she is already physically in Denmark, her consciousness still bears a "tail of retention" (Kometenschweif von Retentionen) of her Prague stay (Ibid).

Time is an example of social-structural and functional imposition placing the individual within a collective framework (Foucault 1977 in Rapport and Overing 2000). We could say that Czech émigrés repeatedly "disappear" and "reappear" during time. They are most of their life in Denmark controlled by "Danish time" - when there is place for free time within this framework, there comes an opportunity to practice their Czech identity. The meetings of Babinec and DCA are both weekend activities and I could almost say that they practice their Czech identity only as a leisure time activity. With "Danish time" I mean the time structure or rhythm people living within the borders of the particular state follow, to paraphrase Boas. The Czech philosopher Sokol notices that "the community of time" is created at a "deep [and] basic level: in the experience of a common rhythm" (Sokol 1994:25). In a rather prosaic but at the same time visible way we can see the effect of such "national time" when a series of national holidays i.e. free days or school holidays makes a majority of people living within the borders of the state travel in a particular period. A rare example when such national time spills over into other countries are e.g. the closing days at Embassies and Consulates that do not follow the national holidays of the state where they are situated, but the ones of the state they represent. The migrants similarly carry with them the national time or rhythm of the day. In the following example Jana Jensen talks about collision of her Danish time or rhythm of the day with that of her Czech family or friends:

There is a difference, I know that Czechs have sometimes traditions that - they eat dinner at twelve, right, (she laughs) a soup and a warm meal. Right, typically - it doesn't matter whether it is summer or winter or ... so soup and a warm meal and exactly at twelve. And I know ...we are used to from Denmark, one gets up late, so we might eat at half past eleven, but we eat breakfast. Or at eleven, or later, it doesn't matter. I know that I called, I was arranging something with my mother if I can come and I said at half past twelve. And she said: "I can't (don't you know) I have dinner at twelve." I know that I once called a friend, and I didn't realise that it was twelve or a quarter to twelve - and she says - "I don't have time"- astonished - how come you call me, you know that it's dinnertime?!

Both of Jana's examples also touch upon the different gender roles she got confronted with during her temporary return to the Czech Republic (a man who is not preparing dinner might not run into a similar situation). I will write more about the gender difference in chapter four. It penetrates the narratives on function as a consequence of woman's prevailing responsibility for the everyday life and rhythm of the Czech family (e.g. Haukanes 2003). It is also evident in the following examples. Romana, whom I interviewed upon her return to the Czech Republic, describes the influence of Danish everyday life on her contemporary practice. She reacted to my question whether she feels Czech or whether something has changed by stating that she is, of course, Czech and then she exclaimed:

I had something there! About 30 percent, probably the language, you know simply the TV, reading only in Danish and their customs, we went e.g. to the church at Christmas time, all these things I adopted from Denmark, I adapted to their [everyday rhythm and] lifestyle... and still today I light the candles, here we have - you see - the little flag Czech and Danish, it must be so. My son had his birthday last week and I made a birthday cake for him with a Czech and a Danish flag. ... He had to get the flags ... probably something (Danish) stayed there. I don't recollect that I would light candles on a normal day or in the evening to create a certain atmosphere. But today I use it a lot and I have the small flags on display, when somebody comes for a visit he/she says: "What is it? A Czech flag? And why?"

...or I am using some things in the kitchen that I got used to in Denmark, some food that I like, or some things you cannot buy here, that's trifles, a fork to peal hot potatoes, I got that because I got used to it there. So it's these little things that remain from it. And I think that I wouldn't want to renounce these, (seven) years is a long time, I came to like these things and will probably always use them.

We can see that the émigrés not only function within the Danish society, they take parts of the practice of Danish everyday life with them back to the Czech Republic. They might create curious abnormalities such as placing the Czech national flag on a birthday cake or in the living room. But they also both present and create abnormalities in social interaction as we can see from the following example about an invitation to a party, which Jana and her Danish husband organised during their stay in the Czech Republic, in a castle:

... I invited my (Czech female) friends because I wanted them to come and Simona first told me that her husband won't come, because it is not for him to go to a party - she's a friend of mine from the university - so I am saying - but you can come - and she says - I don't know, I will think of it and then she wrote that she won't come, because she doesn't have anybody who would take care of her daughter. And I'm saying: Can't her husband take care of their child? But she wrote that she won't come. And I was quite disappointed, a second friend of mine didn't come either, she found some strange excuse. I would say that Danes - it is also because they live through those huge parties and that, even children, because they go to parties. So Danes do not come to a party only when they cannot or when there really is something so important that makes it impossible for them to come. Otherwise they, of course, try to come. Whereas the two friends of mine, or three in fact, declined my invitation because of ...I don't know if they didn't want to talk to the other people - or ... I think that it is because they have a different lifestyle there (in the Czech Republic), because our (the family's) purchasing power, we (the Jensen family) had higher purchasing power than they had.

In the previous example Jana describes herself as acting on the Danish premises that she is used to, without realising that these are not the rules of Czech society and of her friends. She attempts to interpret her friends' objections in terms of economy and gender. They were probably also influenced by the fact that Jana was perceived as an "emigrant" i.e. one who had left for a better life. The rather large degree of adaptation of Czech émigrés⁽¹⁷⁾ to Danish society can probably be partly explained by their openness to new cultural influences, which I will now discuss.

Flexibility

Many commentators pay attention to Czech flexibility. In his thesis "Little Czechs, big Europe," that builds on Holý, Jiří Brodský writes about the adaptability of Czech identity: "Czechs have one tremendous asset: [...] the ability to assimilate culturally, to adopt the characteristics and influences of the [surrounding] nations" (Brodský 2000). Similarly, the sociologist Jan Keller in an interview describes Czechs as flexible. "Czechs are flexible. Not only in the negative, but also in the positive sense" (Plavcová 2003).

Finally, Nora Gotaas in her thesis Den poetiske middelvej - fleksibilitet og modernitet blant middelklassen i Praha, pays attention to the flexibility inherent in the Czech version of modernity. She characterises Czech flexibility as one that does not reach climax (and thus prevents overt conflicts). The specificity of Czech flexibility lies, according to Gotaas, in its creativity and potential to change over time (Gotaas 1992:90). "The attempt to keep possibilities open," which is described by Gotaas, often transpired in my interview examples. Although these commentators may well have given exaggerated attention to Czechs flexibility, it remains an empirical fact that in emigration Czechs adapt to their surroundings as is also the case in Denmark.

However, as we see in the following paragraph, even if Czechs are flexible, there still remains something that the Danish everyday life cannot change - the emotions. In the next paragraph we can see a tendency towards strengthened identification with the sending society.

... old loyalties to the lord or the monarch were replaced by loyalty to the nation. The nation thus became an emotionally charged object... (Llobera 1994 and Giddens 1985 quoted in Guibernau and Rex 1997:4).

It [...] [is] now increasingly recognized that [...] far from resting solely on [...] [the] rationalizing base, the nation state might be held together emotionally by bonds not unlike ethnic ones (that) [...] at the same time generate opposition and resistance... (Guibernau and Rex 1997:2).

While their everyday life is structured by the rules of Danish society, Czech émigrés often express the feeling of being bound to Czechness in terms of "culture" (high culture) or "nature" (landscape) endowed with significant meaning. These expressions correspond to the Romantic or German model of nationhood that I explained at the beginning of the chapter. Let us look at some concrete examples. Gabriela Schwartz describes the strong emotions she experiences when listening to Czech opera, which a Danish opera is not able to evoke:

So strong experience as I have here (in Prague) - when I for example go to the theatre and I am really lifted to a different world and the whole evening is beautiful. I do not get so strong experiences from Danish culture and there I think it plays a role in some way that one grew up with those fairy tales and the Czech music. I am never so moved when I see a classical Danish drama. I like it all, it is not that, but it doesn't touch me as "Night on Karlštejn" does. Because we know it from our childhood and we know the myths around it, and the cultural experience is much stronger in the mother tongue, in the country where one grew up and whose history one knows.

In the following example Kamil Kotrba expresses his relation to the two countries in terms of nature. Notice that while he describes the Danish sea as beautiful, the Czech mountains come out of his comparison as "alive," i.e. endowed with meaning.

Kamil Kotrba - ... I was born in the foothills, and spent a lot of time in the mountains, so I missed the mountains terribly. When I came here and lived in Christianshavn, I tried to describe (in my letters to Czechoslovakia) how it looks here: "I live one metre above sea level" (he laughs). Something like that. I exchanged skiing and winter sports for yachting... here you have the sea, so it is different. The sea is a beautiful thing. A little bit like the mountains, but they are alive... it is different, well. I remember when I travelled to - I do not know - Germany, and when I came to Hannover and saw the little hills start to undulate, it took me by the heart. Well, I was ... we all have that kind of ...But in the summer it is pleasant here. There is nothing more beautiful than the Scandinavian summer.

Löfgren suggests that expressing national identity in terms of nature is typically Scandinavian (Löfgren 1989:198). On the basis of my interviews I could clearly argue that the expression of national identity through identification with the landscape and natural settings is not exclusively Scandinavian, it is also something a Czech would do.

Holý notices that the way Czech landscape is represented in the national discourse "reflects the aesthetic criteria of natural beauty of the Romantic period. The image of Austrian Alps during the national appraisal melted into the Czech mountains, represented by Šumava. Choosing Šumava is itself remarkable, since probably all the other mountain ranges in the country are higher and more mountain like, but Šumava borders on Germany and the Alps are visible from there. In its "mildness," resistance and Bavarian influence Šumava is probably the very representation of Czechness. It is "flexible" - Regina who lived near Šumava was able to talk about similarities in Danish landscape to Šumava. The younger generation and women generally changed that discourse of a national symbol to the ecological discourse ("what can you use mountains for when you live in a city where your children breathe polluted air") and talked about their immediate environment.

The registers through which émigrés express their identity often get blurred since they are influenced by one or the other culture. We might agree that football⁽¹⁸⁾ is one of the ways Danes typically express nationality, while language might be used equally (though not necessarily in the same way) by Czechs and Danes. In the following narrative Kateřina is using both to express her Czech national sentiment:

... normally I never watch football, but when it is Czechs playing and somebody tells me to watch it, or when there is an interview in Czech - I say to myself (she sighs) Czech (language) - when I am now speaking with you, it doesn't move me of course, but when it is on TV - Oh! Or when we travel to the Czech Republic and we are in Dresden where you can hear Czech radio I listen to any possible nonsense I would never be interested in, simply - it is in Czech.

The narratives further suggest that Czech émigrés retain feelings and emotions connected either to the spheres of national sentiment (language, nature or landscape, culture) or shared public events (opera, sport or political events, songs). The latter allow direct participation of émigrés in the imagined community of Czech Gemeinschaft through the experience of "Husserl's time core (Zeithof)" (Sokol 1995). The following story, where Gabriela described how moved she was when the Czech Republic was joining NATO, is an example of such an event:

I remember that in 89 I felt proud, I was saying to myself, I had done nothing for it, but the feeling of happiness and also... pride that the Republic is returning to where it belonged, but mainly it was feeling of happiness. I remember that when .... (Madeleine) Albright was here welcoming the Czech Republic to NATO, I cried, it was such a beautiful speech and I cried, it was so moving - firstly, it was such a strong personality - and so she said welcome to the family of democratic nations - and her tears started running, and then they showed Havel and he was moved as well, I saw myself how I was wiping my eye make-up... many people were touched - really ... the happiness that communism doesn't exist any more...

The above mentioned expressions reveal the abstract character of nationhood. As Kateřina said - it does not move her to talk Czech with me. The narratives in this paragraph were about "the big Czech nation" not about "little Czechs" (Holý 1996). After migration the little Czechs do not any more disturb the émigrés' idealised image of the big Czech nation. This becomes confronted again upon the émigrés return, as we could see in the previous paragraph about "Danish function." The émigrés in Denmark on the other hand absorb influences of the surrounding Danish society they interact with as we could see on the registers through which one expresses nationality. I will pay more attention to the influence of the dominant society in the next paragraphs where we can see how migration and changes in context influence or even create identity.

2.4 Identity is context dependent and time-delayed

"Exile [...] creates ethnicity, for it is exile that allows, rather forces, a group to see "difference," to see others." (Pellizzi 1988 quoted in Camino and Krulfeld 1994:8).

During the focus group⁽¹⁹⁾ we talked about how my informants first in Denmark became conscious of being Czech:

Lenka - Would you be proud to be Czech if you lived in the Czech Republic and were not surrounded by Danes?

Hana - Definitely not. If I were in the Czech Republic I would see myself as coming from the town of Kladno. It depends where you are, if I were in the USA I would be proud to come from Europe. (she laughs)

Hana talks about "becoming Czech" after she moved to Denmark. She thus refers to the time delayed change in context as the decisive factor. Here it would be possible to implement Barth's theory of boundaries and argue that Czech émigrés first became aware of their identity when they see the difference vis-à-vis the dominant group (Barth 1969). This is expressed in the narratives (of Ema, Václav and Kateřina at the beginning of this chapter, and those in the subchapter Danish Function and Czech Emotion) where the émigrés talk about feeling more Czech in Denmark and more Danish in the Czech Republic. Gabriela Schwartz in the example at the top of this chapter on the contrary maintains that she is more Czech in the Czech Republic, and more Danish in Denmark. (Working for a Danish employer in the Czech Republic, Gabriela is in a different position than other visiting émigrés or re-emigrants). She refers to her harmonious function in the everyday life of the surrounding Czech or Danish society and rather than enhancing differences she chooses to stress the flexibility she experiences. There are several reasons for her statement: 1) She attempts to be loyal to both sides. 2) Her double identity is a qualification she can use professionally, and thus experiences as an advantage rather than a handicap. 3) She is able to appreciate the rather non-problematic experience of living both in the Czech Republic and Denmark thanks to her experience of living in a third country during her professional career. Gabriela's self-ascribed identity is an example of the situational approach to ethnicity, which emphasises that a particular social situation "may determine which of a person's communal identities or loyalties are appropriate at a point in time" (Paden quoted in Okamura 1981). I further suggest that when Hana says that "Danes are proud to be Danes so I am proud to be Czech," she is contrasting herself to the dominant Danish society through expressing her Czech national identity. This is possible to do since the notion of Czech and Danish nationhood are constructed in a similar and mutually non-conflicting way. In the next chapter I will analyse a level on which the notions of ascribed and self-ascribed identity of the Czech émigrés in Denmark collide.

2.5 Summary of Chapter Two

As we could see in this chapter, the way Czech and Danish national identity is constructed has its origins in the 19^th century nation building. The "German" (Romantic) model and the "French" (citizen) model co-exist in both societies in the form of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. My material shows that after migration the émigrés keep emotional loyalty to the abstract model of nationhood of the sending country, while they become a well functioning part of the host society. Czech émigrés in Denmark thus remain a part of the Czech Gemeinschaft while they become included in the Danish Gesellschaft. Rather than forming a parallel group, the boundary is in case of Czech émigrés in Denmark at the individual level. The Czech flexibility and openness towards Danish influences on the one hand, and the time-postponed process of identification on the other, resulted e.g. in the formation of the DCA, whose form of organisation is truly Danish, while it embraces loyalties towards the Czech Lands.⁽²⁰⁾

3. Central Europe

3.1 Central Europe - "The area of apple strudel"

The term "Central Europe" is defined in various ways - either in a more narrow sense as "the countries that formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire" (Østergård 1993, Dau and Sampson 1992) or more broadly as "the small nation states sandwiched between two dominant powers: Germany and Russia." (Kundera quoted in Staun 2002, Kuras 2001). Regardless which definition we use, the Czech Lands are included. This term should be juxtaposed with the popular Danish perception that defines the countries behind the former iron curtain as "Eastern Europe." Already in the early 90s Mary Dau and Steven Sampson predicted that: "The terms Eastern and Western Europe will disappear. "Eastern Europe" is (...) a political phenomenon, closely connected with the Cold War" (Dau and Sampson 1992). They expected that this rather artificial division would be replaced by a growing importance of the regional aspect of the European continent, based on the historical heritage. Instead both strongly politicized and still highly contested terms re-embraced in a stalemate. The striking inertia of the existence of the term "Eastern Europe" in the western hemisphere ten years later is complemented by the expansion of the term "Central Europe."

The resurgence of the term "Central" ought to be explained in terms of construction of identity. Czechs today perceive the period of socialism as imposed by others, as is best documented by the 68 occupation of Czechoslovakia. This perception rests on the same premises as the perception of the Nazi occupation as a foreign hegemony which is shared by the west-European countries. In accordance with this view the Czechs "bracket"⁽²¹⁾ the whole period of socialism and Nazi occupation, and in constructing their identity draw upon the existence of the Czech nation in a certain geographical and cultural space with reference to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The term "Central European" thus has to be understood as a symbol of their re-born identity after years of apathy. At the same time I realise that nobody can deny the influence that the period of socialism had on today's Czech Republic. If identity can be constructed with reference to the more distant past, while skipping the recent past, the same cannot be said about the immediate influence on the social reality of the country.

The Czech author V. Cílek calls Central Europe with a pinch of self-irony and poetics "the area of apple strudel," thus emphasising the common cultural heritage of people living in the area:

"... if we created a map of the area where people know apple strudel, it would be identical with the part of Europe where people very well understand Stefan Zweig and some other poets as well as a certain skilfulness of handicraft and where roofs have a certain fall. I would almost dare to say that if there is any boundary which is important for Central Europeans, it is exactly the area of apple strudel" (Cílek 2002:80).

He attempts to restore the awareness of the Central European identity by pointing out its persisting substantial content. Despite a deep understanding of the ongoing process, the contrasting view of an American university professor discloses his profound indifference:

"The concept of "central" brings the same erroneous or incomplete images of uniquely civilized, developed, "western" values. Is it any wonder that the nations bordering the "western" and "civilized" nations such as Germany and Austria exert enormous effort to link themselves to them and distance themselves from "the other." (Konnilyn Feig 2004)

The "otherness" of Eastern Europe that Konnilyn Feig talks about, was transmitted to the term from its core - the "enigmatic Russian identity which both is and is not European" (Nielsen 2000:31). By prolonging the imposed dominance of the Soviet hegemony in terms of cultural discourse, the concept "Eastern Europe" implicitly undermines the process of othering from the East and denies approach to the West that the Czechs are undergoing.⁽²²⁾ The concept also homogenises them with Russians in a way which is dangerously similar to the panslavic⁽²³⁾ rhetoric built in to the Czech national ideology. In fact the very process of rehabilitation, restoring of awareness or a "quest for recognition" (Linnet 2002:17), might from a western perspective seem to be just another common element typical of the area. But the situation is more complex than this. In the following paragraph I outline the complex processes that influence the situation of Czech émigrés in Denmark.

In anthropology we should avoid using designations against which the "natives" object, and preferably express ourselves using the "native" and politically correct terms (autonyma) as Inuits and not Eskimos, Afro-Americans instead of Blacks, Romas rather then Gypsies. However, the "natives," in this case the people living in the countries of the former Soviet hemisphere, do not make the situation easier neither for a western anthropologist, nor for the recognition of the "true" Central European nations. The recent expansion of the term "Central Europe" far beyond the borders of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, was documented, for example, by Staun (Staun 2002:105). The label "Central" has become a kind of tag encrypted with signs of "emancipation" or "rehabilitation," whose basic function is to show that the former East European nations are "on their way to Europe" and away from Russian influence. The successful expansion of the term "Central" can be partly explained by its very meaning. Phenomenologists notice that one naturally perceives the surrounding world from the centre, i.e. from the place where one stands (Sokol 1994:15). The adoption of the term and denotation of one's country as "Central" is thus itself very catchy. The character of the term also enables a citizen of a given Central European country to accept the western perception of the other Central European countries as Eastern European while maintaining his/her original standpoint. It is no surprise that Western European anthropologists are confused when they listen to the locals. The people whom they would categorise as Eastern Europeans call themselves Central Europeans.⁽²⁴⁾ The result is a parallel existence of both terms in Western Europe, where East and Central do not mean that there are East European countries together with Central European countries, but that the terms are equally used for most of them. The term "Central Europe" in this context works as a semi-effective undermining metaphor of the term "Eastern Europe," to which image I pay attention in the next paragraph.

3.2 The Image of Eastern Europe

The following materialisation of the stereotypic Eastern European image⁽²⁵⁾ provides the key tool for enabling us to understand the context, which Czech émigrés in Denmark in the 90s were associated with:

At one of the Babinec meetings Kamila told us that she is working on an article about Czech cuisine for a very fancy Danish magazine. That initiated a discussion about what recipes to choose, how to make dumplings from Danish flour etc.

When the issue finally came out I bought one copy and looked for those eight pages dedicated to Czech cuisine. I am absolutely sure that Kamila made her work without any prejudices about Eastern Europe. But the layout left nobody in doubt of what part of the world the article came from. Although almost the whole magazine was in colour, these pages were black and white. That might have been due to a wish for a simpler artistic and perhaps Kafka-like look. But the three full-page photographs accompanying her text fit all too well with the image of Eastern Europe as a shabby and colourless place. On the first picture we see a big face of a laughing waiter, which takes up almost the whole page. He looks exactly as if he just had some typical calorie bomb dish flushed down with more than one beer. The second photograph portrays an old wrinkled man with thick glasses and a worn-out winter coat standing above his long-empty cup and looking out of the buffet window panel. Finally, the third picture catches a woman bowed by age with grown out perm wearing a camouflage jacket and holding a plastic bag, who is walking down a picturesque street in the old centre of Prague half covered with scaffolding.

These are people who actually eat the Czech food presented in the magazine! I was asking myself: "Why would the reader feel tempted to imitate them?" Maybe the goal was not to attract the reader to actually try out the recipes, but simply to present the strange and unknown, which above all provides an excellent chance to employ the highly appreciated anti-advertising social-realistic style. This anti-aesthetic makes it acceptable to present the readers with the very image of Eastern Europe, which has no parallel in the otherwise exclusively stylish magazine.

Czech émigrés in the 90s met a very powerful image of "Eastern Europe" and a very well established perception in the Danish society of what Eastern Europe is like: A shabby and dangerous place, an economically poor cousin characterized by corruption, prostitution etc. But also a place where things and labour are cheap.

During a meeting at the East-Central European group at the Institute of Anthropology after a documentary film from Eastern Slovakia one of the directors talked about preparations for the film. That started a vivid discussion on how to visually present Eastern Europe. He mentioned that the filmmakers on purpose planned the shooting of the documentary so that they will work in autumn weather, when everything looks really grey. Their aesthetic criteria were more than fulfilled thanks to the first wet and fast disappearing snow that has fallen on the location. During the discussion it came out that it is equally important to grasp the prefabricated concrete buildings that play a primary role in the image of Eastern Europe. Other desired artefacts might be horses used instead of a tractor, old people in their houses with kitschy living rooms etc. This image of Eastern Europe I just described is in direct contrast with the Czechs perception of their homeland that I will pay attention to in the following paragraph.

Apart from its strong linguistic orientation, which has been constantly noted by virtually all students of Czech nationalism, its most striking - but in the existing scholarly writing much less emphasised - feature is its fascination with, and celebration of, the beauty of the Czech countryside.... (Holý 1998:118)

In his analysis of the Czech national anthem Holý points out, that the Czech lands are first of all constructed as beautiful. He notices that the outstanding beauty of the Czech Lands is purely asserted (since the initial singer of the national anthem was a blind violinist) and links the emphasis on the visual aspect of beauty to "the supremacy of sight in Western culture." The "mystique of beauty [is] deeply rooted in the European tradition of thought" as the connection "between the beautiful and good" (metamorphosed as the God) on the one hand, and "the ugly and the evil" on the other hand (Holý 1998:121-22). As we could see in narratives in the paragraph "Czech emotion," the émigrés maintain emotional bonds to their country of origin they imagine as beautiful. This perception not only directly opposes the image of Eastern Europe as shabby and bad, and denies their connection with the communistic "evil empire." It also witnesses the Czechs participation in the shared western cultural ideal of supremacy of sight itself.

The complex of various factors that result in Czech émigrés objection towards the image of Eastern Europe are among others: 1) "Czech émigrés did not prior to their arrival to Denmark think of themselves as East Europeans, 2) national identity is emotionally based (as I already showed in the paragraph "Danish function and Czech emotion") and 3) the ascribed image of Eastern Europe directly opposes the image of the Czech Lands (Holý 1998). The stress on images is given by the way Czech national identity is constructed - as belonging and the loyalty of an individual towards an image of community (the beautiful homeland, the big Czech nation) rather than to the community itself (the little Czechs) (Holý 1996).

3.3 Becoming East European in Denmark

"Emotions refer to processes of the human mind and body that exert a compelling influence on thought and social interaction. They are embedded in the social and interpersonal realities, where they shape and are shaped by, cultural understandings and social institutions"(Barfield 1997).

The immediate effect that the image of Eastern Europe prevalent in the dominant Danish society has on the self-perception of identity of the marginal group of the Czech émigrés appears as a strong emotional reaction, which may result in conflicts in social interaction. In my informants' narratives about their identity there often appeared expressions such as: "It offended me," "I have my pride," "it is exaggerated," "I started feeling - what do they think about us!" "...a numbskull who lacks education etc."⁽²⁶⁾ These emotional expressions are connected with the discrepancy between the émigrés' ascribed and self-ascribed identity.

Kapferer notices that "Individuals experience themselves - they experience their experience and reflect on it - both from their own standpoint and from the standpoint of others" (Kapferer 1986:189).

While the Czech Republic is "restoring" the awareness of the Central European identity, Czech émigrés are surrounded by Danes who think of them as East Europeans. I will present two stories where Czech émigrés (who came to Denmark in the 90s) describe such conflicting situations. I asked Kamila to write about an incident she mentioned during our interview:

In my first job that I got shortly after my arrival to Denmark in summer 1999, I ran into a very arrogant and unpleasant boss. He assigned me to a project on civic/community residence in Warsaw, Poland. I liked the project and had nothing against it at the beginning. Apart from my boss. He had never visited either Czechia⁽²⁷⁾ or Poland and assumed that all countries from the Eastern block are alike. He therefore deduced that it is as if I worked on a project at home. Later during the project he had to visit the site in Warsaw, and at the occasion made a photo documentation of some local residential houses (both older and newer ones). After his return to Denmark he showed me these pictures and mocked the Polish - and therefore our - building methods, the poor quality of craftsmen's work etc. I protested that Czechia is not Poland and that he should not pass judgement on us when he has never seen the place. I suggested that he visit at least Prague. In his own words this was not necessary, because he could "imagine that." I brought him a Czech periodical "Architekt" presenting mostly recent Czech architecture. The issue attracted interest of other colleges, many of whom found it inspiring for their work. However, my boss did not even show an interest to look at it.⁽²⁸⁾

During the interview Romana reconstructed the following dialogue she once took part in:

We were talking about housing, and they asked me: How did you live there (in Czechoslovakia) Did you have a flat?

Romana -... when I tell you in Czechia and how many families! I started feeling - what do they think about us! And for the first time in my life I started - in that age - (she smiles) feeling a pride and defending us. And I said - what do you mean?

X - We heard at school or they told us that in the socialistic states usually live two-three families together or relatives and that they have a toilet together with their neighbour.

Then I said to my Danish husband - this makes me angry, what they think. I felt so good and normal when I came to Denmark, and now I start feeling they stare at me every time I say that I am from the Czech Republic. That they think I am inferior in some way, that I probably lived with those families, that I had a low-quality life. But I had a normal life. Financially it was not any super luxury, but I had a normal living standard similar to what I have now! - He told me that at school they did not distinguish among the socialist states. Everybody lived like that. It was similar to our propaganda. He told me not to get angry at them - because they really have learned it at school that way. ...

As I said - luckily it did not happen often and not at the beginning, because if I have heard such shocking things from five-ten people, I would probably say - I cannot live here, because I feel normal at home and I need to feel normal here as well. I would not be able to live in a state where somebody would humiliate me.

Romana's and Kamila's narratives originated as a reaction to the Danish perception of Eastern Europe. In both narratives Kamila and Romana attempt to draw a boundary according to their lifeworld (Jackson: 1996) and differentiate within the allegedly same identity. Romana tells us where the boundary of Eastern Europe lies. To her Eastern Europe is identical with Russia. Both stories witness a beforehand lost fight of an individual's lifeworld with the lifeworld of the dominant society the émigrés are undergoing. The humiliating and disempowering ascription of East-European identity complicates the émigrés well-functioning within Danish society - it may result in giving up a job (as in Kamilas case) or re-emigration to the Czech Republic (in Romanas case).

3.4 Summary of Chapter Three

East European identity is not - and in the Czech case has never been - self-ascribed. Rather, it exists as an ascribed and as such imposed identity or analytical category. While Czechs during the 90s employed the term Central Europe in order to distance themselves from Russia, socialism etc. and deny any doubts about their Europeanness, Czech émigrés in Denmark were more likely to surrender to the ascribed identity. Becoming East European after the 1989 revolution feels according to the Czech lifeworld as a particularly odd and illogical nonsense. The stigmatisation evokes strong emotional reactions that further complicate the émigrés' function within the Danish society.

The tendency of Czech émigrés towards a strengthened identification with the sending society described in chapter two results in the promotion of a Central European identity we could see in this chapter. This strategy sometimes results in an eventual return of the émigrés. Another plausible strategy Czech émigrés in Denmark implement in order to disconnect themselves from the ascribed East European identity is the desire to become Danes as expressed in their narratives (see chapter two). They undercommunicate their Czechness that becomes limited to their private sphere. The inclusion of the Czech Republic in the European Union opens a possibility of future identification of Czech émigrés as "Europeans," an identity that may hopefully eventually undermine the ascribed East European identity.

4. Gender

Czech women [...] somehow miraculously manage to make their male chauvinist pigs believe that they worship one thing, and one thing alone: them. Which may explain why post-communist Prague has become the home of some thirty thousand young horny and affection-starved American males. And let's face it, boys. Where else do you find a beautifully feminine, gentle, sexy and caring female with a university degree who takes you lovingly into her home, gives you breakfast in bed, irons your shirts, goes off to work smartly dressed, comes home to you cheerful and unaffected by stress, cooks you a dinner, massages you from head to toe, [...] keeps telling you how wonderful you are, and does not want to change you - and manages to be all that on an average income of 200 dollars a month?... (Kuras 1996:10).

Biology is an important factor in our own comprehension of the position held by women (and men), but [...] these may take on a particular cultural meaning and a specific social significance in different societies. The task of the social anthropologist [...] is to analyse how socially significant distinctions are mapped on to basic biological differences, and vice versa (Hastrup 1978:49).

In the following chapter I will analyse gender identity in the context of two generations of Czech female émigrés in Denmark. During my fieldwork my informants mostly in their narratives reflected upon the gender differences between Czech and Danish society they experienced when confronted with Danish gender roles. The Babinec group, where the 90s generation of Czech émigrés meet, was characterized by gender exclusivity - it is entirely formed by women. In the context of migration, gender identity appears as more flexible and open to change and cultural variations than the national identity that I discussed in the previous chapter. Contrary to the national identity, which is institutionalised in form of e.g. citizenship, language or right to vote, gender identity is less fixed. Crossing the boundaries between the regional variations of gender roles is therefore both less apparent and less controversial (one does not have to chose between the sides). Moreover, national identity is constructed as a group affiliation and as such is per definition collective. As we can see in the following paragraph, gender identity, which is based on the person's sex, is on the contrary individual.

The category of gender refers to the condition of being a male or female (Oxford 1995). It is usually defined by pointing out the distinction between sex and gender. While sex refers to the biological difference between men and women, gender describes the social and cultural construction and elaboration of the difference between the two categories in a given culture (e.g. Barnard and Spencer 1996, Rapport and Overing 2000, Moore 1999). The fact that "gender" was defined as a social or cultural aspect of the biological "sex," is itself a manifestation of the nature-culture dichotomy prevailing in European tradition of thinking. The repudiation of sex makes gender a very abstract concept which is difficult to grasp. Judith Butler further problematizes the distinction between gender and sex since "sex itself is a gendered category" (Butler 1990:7). In Butler's interpretation the concept of gender includes "also the discoursive/cultural means by which [...] [sex] is produced and established as "prediscoursive," prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts" (But

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