Political Activism of Migrants and Displaced People from Ukraine in Prague as Their Response to the Russian Invasion

Since the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Czech government has granted the greatest number of temporary protection visas per capita, and the host society has shown unprecedented solidarity. Wishing to support their country and its army, a group of young people from Ukraine united for a common cause of political advocacy in Prague, including both those who were forced to migrate due to the war, as well as those who decided to move before February 2022. Their freshly formed initiative “Hlas Ukrajiny” quickly became visible and heard. However, despite the initially strong solidarity and the government’s support of Ukraine, not all members of the host society accepted their political activism. The far-right movement “Czech Republic in the 1st place” has significantly contributed to the creation of a contentious political environment. Under these circumstances, members of “Hlas Ukrajiny” engage in various actions of both discontent and gratitude, balancing between making claims towards the Czech government and international institutions, creating counteractions in response to far-right demonstrations, while also leaving space for thanking those in solidarity with Ukraine. In doing so, migrants and displaced people from Ukraine constitute themselves as claimants of rights, challenging the presumptions about who can claim rights in the Czech Republic and how such claims can be articulated. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Prague, this paper will focus on the lived experiences of political activists as well as provide justification for conceptualizing their actions as acts of citizenship in the framework of critical citizenship literature. Thus, when participants of the Czech far-right demonstration screamed at activists with Ukrainian flags “You are not at home”, critical citizenship scholars would answer – “one does not have to be born here to be a claimant of rights”. That is what “Hlas Ukrajiny” does, aiming to reach political equality, its members confront the political exclusion based on citizen/non-citizen division and make their claims as visible and heard as those of Czech citizens.