The Lived Experience of Highly Skilled Migrants in Czechia

This book brings together perspectives on privileged migration and highly skilled migration, illustrating how these concepts intersect with gender, ethnicity, and life course. Highly skilled migrants are often defined as those who have tertiary education, while privileged migrants possess agency and a relative position of power compared to local communities. Despite their relatively privileged status due to their occupations, these migrants face various barriers in their daily lives. Thus, experiences of privilege and precarity can coexist. Highly skilled migrants can encounter discrimination and employ cultural repertoires to navigate and mitigate these challenges. Drawing on over 70 interviews with highly skilled migrants in Czechia conducted in 2024, this book aims to uncover their lived experiences and coping strategies. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars in sociology and the social sciences more broadly. It will also be of interest to students in migration studies as well as to policymakers in Central and Eastern Europe.