ADAPTATION OF VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS TO SOCIAL CHANGES
ADAPTATION OF VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS TO SOCIAL CHANGES

Author(s): Miroslava Hlinčíková
Subject(s): Business Economy / Management, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Socio-Economic Research, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie Slovenskej akadémie vied
Keywords: Vietnamese migrants; Slovakia; Social changes; Postsocialist transformation;
Summary/Abstract: Bratislava, one of the less globally interconnected cities before 1989, is being gradually transformed into a more cosmopolitan European city as a result of developing capitalism and Slovakia joining the European Union. The choice of restaurants and the offer of various foodstuffs and goods in Bratislava are much wider today than in the past. People can visit many “ethnic” restaurants, and we can also observe an increasing number and range of shops with “exotic” food from Asia and the Middle East. It is not a problem anymore to buy rice noodles, sushi, or spices from all over the world. Kebab fast-food, sushi bars, Asian snack-bars, and Chinese restaurants became a visible part of the public space. The transformation after 1989 and the subsequent social change affected to a various degree all layers of the population which adapted to the new living conditions. In this context, the change also affected migration between Vietnam and Czechoslovakia which was previously developing under the guise of friendly socialist countries. Even before 1989, Vietnamese citizens pertained to the group of migrants who could enter the territory of the closed socialist Czechoslovakia and their mobility was supported by both countries. The way the fall of socialism affected the lives and strategies of migrants living in Czechoslovakia in the breakthrough period are described in their individual stories that I sought to present in this study.

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