You Can’t Take it to Heart: How Czech Residents from MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa Make Sense of Ethnoracial Othering

This study explores how immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa living in Czechia, a new immigrant destination in Central Europe, make sense of their experiences with ethnoracial Othering. Building on comprehensive interviews with 23 research participants and utilizing the interpretive meaning-centered approach of cultural sociology, we explore how they make sense of their experiences in the light of their interactions with perpetrators in Czech society. We find that rationalization represents the dominant pattern of meaning-making and identify three distinct forms it takes, namely, Calling Out the Collective History of Czechia, Calling Out the Individual Ignorance of Perpetrators, and Calling Out the Individual Responsibility of Victims. We trace these rationalizations to locally available cultural repertoires that are fueled by specific aspects of Czech history or reflect broader trends that underpin contemporary discussions about migration and ethnoracial diversity in Western societies. We also show how these rationalizations not only allow research participants to distance themselves from their experiences and to continue carrying out their lives in Czechia but also give rise to long-term strategies aimed at limiting future exposure to ethnoracial Othering. With these findings, we contribute to the existing scholarship on responses to ethnoracial Othering by improving the conceptual understanding of rationalization as a distinct response, highlighting the cultural embeddedness of rationalization, and bringing attention to future-oriented aspects of rationalization that connect the research participants’ meaning-making with social action.