Jednou jsi dole, jednou nahoře: copingové strategie českých žen s egyptskou migrační zkušeností
Once You’re Down, Once You’re Up: The Coping Strategies of Czech Women with Egyptian Migration Experience

Summary/Abstract: The text focuses on the formation of coping strategies in the biographies of Czech women who left the Czech Republic, especially after 1989, for Egypt, some of whom, with the passage of time, began to return. The text also illustrates how vulnerability is situational and the ways in which, through constructive and adaptive strategies, the women manage challenging life situations and develop adaptability and flexibility at a level that where they acquire a greater ability to successfully withstand adverse circumstances. Using multi-sited research inspired by the biographical narrative interpretative method we (re)constructed chronologies of life stories and subsequently identified stressful situations in the biographies and analysed the ways in which they were handled and with what social support. We were particularly interested in social coping. The aim was to give an answer to the question of what coping strategies women apply in challenging life situations. In three stages, which we refer to as ‘emigration-adaptation’, ‘integration’, and ‘reintegration’, the women faced different stresses, found themselves in vulnerable situations, and developed coping strategies to deal with them successfully. Twists and turns occur at each biographical stage, which are met by different adaptive and constructive strategies being created in national and transnational spaces, and these have the effect of strengthening the women’s resilience.

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