Scientific Solidarity Under Pressure: Organizing High-Skilled Ukrainians in the Czech Republic

Migrant organizations play a documented role in compensating for gaps in the existing institutional infrastructures (Dijkzeul & Fauser 2020, Halm & Sezgin 2013). Within this landscape, current research on high-skilled migrants emphasizes how organizations foster acculturation and professional adaptation (Hajro et al., 2019; Osvaldo Esteban & Moncusí-Ferré, 2025). However, this research mostly covers voluntary migration, not high-skilled refugees or people with temporary protection. In this paper, we inquire how the Czech-Ukrainian Scientific Society (CZUSS) has established and evolved its role in supporting displaced Ukrainian scientists in the Czech Republic. The paper contributes to debates on the role of high-skilled migrant organizations in forced migration contexts by analysing organisational dynamics and adaptive strategies developed under conditions of structural and temporal precarity. Our analysis draws on qualitative research conducted within the Horizon Europe REMAKING project and involves co-production of the findings with CZUSS members. The case illustrates common challenges faced by migrant-led organizations with its reliance on unpaid labour of around 200 members, lack of resources, and navigation of shifting reactions to people with temporary protection. Notably, CZUSS tries to foster its members’ orientation in a context which is under severe pressure – lack of research funding resulting in high competition for resources, lack of permanent and non-precarious positions – which makes it even more challenging for professional adaptation. Moreover, the studied case stresses the need for transnational optics (Schäfer, 2023). While scientists' professional success depends on international networks of collaboration, research on European academic cooperation documents that these networks are unequally distributed. The Czechia’s position within, but at the same time rather on the periphery of, the European research infrastructures, has specific consequences for potential multi-directional spill-over effects between the EU, Czechia and Ukraine. This paper sheds light on how the multiplicity of pressures and constraining conditions can be managed by the migrant organization at study. Dijkzeul, D., & Fauser, M. (Eds.). (2020). Diaspora Organizations in International Affairs. London: Routledge. Hajro, A., Stahl, G. K., Clegg, C. C., & Lazarova, M. B. (2019). Acculturation, coping, and integration success of international skilled migrants: An integrative review and multilevel framework. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(3), 328–352. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12233 Halm, D., & Sezgin, Z. (Eds.). (2013). Migration and Organized Civil Society: Rethinking National Policy (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203103821 Osvaldo Esteban, F., & Moncusí-Ferré, A. (2025). Umbrella, philanthropy, voice, and professional engagement: The roles of Spanish migrant scientist associationism in the United Kingdom. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 0(0), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2025.2461990 Schäfer, G. (2023). Researching high-skilled migrants between social stratification and methodological nationalism. Acta Sociologica, 66(4), 435–447. https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993221145405