AUC GEOGRAPHICA
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AUC Geographica (Acta Universitatis Carolinae Geographica) is a scholarly academic journal continuously published since 1966 that publishes research in the broadly defined field of geography: physical geography, geo-ecology, regional, social, political and economic geography, regional development, cartography, geoinformatics, demography and geo-demography.
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Rank (JCI): Q3 in Geography
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AUC GEOGRAPHICA, 1–12
Volunteering with refugees in Czechia: From traitors to heroes?
Lucie Macková, Markéta Seidlová
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23361980.2025.11
zveřejněno: 05. 08. 2025
Abstract
This article examines the experiences of volunteers (N=12) engaged with migrants in Czechia. It evaluates their roles during two different refugee crises which affected Czechia in 2015/2016 and in 2022. The starting point for the study was a difference in public attitudes towards migrants and refugees during these two refugee inflows. While negative perceptions were evident during the 2015/2016 refugee crisis, characterized by scepticism and resistance toward volunteerism, the response to the Ukrainian refugee influx showcased a more supportive environment, potentially influenced by institutional aid efforts and a greater sense of solidarity with Ukrainian refugees. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with volunteers engaged in the 2022 refugee crisis, some of whom had a previous volunteering experience from 2015/2016. The article reveals individual experiences of volunteers, their positionality, coping strategies and different perceptions of migration contexts.
klíčová slova: attitudes; Czechia; migration; refugees; volunteering
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Volunteering with refugees in Czechia: From traitors to heroes? is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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ISSN: 0300-5402
E-ISSN: 2336-1980
