Highly Skilled Migration from Post-Soviet Countries to Czechia: Experiences of Discrimination and Exclusion

Abstract Highly skilled migrants are often regarded as a privileged category of migrants, with many countries competing to attract them to boost their economies by leveraging their expertise and experience. The integration processes of highly skilled migrants have been widely studied in Western Europe, including research on how Eastern Europeans are incorporated into societies. However, this remains an understudied topic in Central Europe (Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary). This article addresses the acceptance and discrimination of highly skilled migrants from post-Soviet countries in Czechia, aiming to fill this research gap. Based on qualitative methodology and semi-structured interviews with highly skilled migrants from post-Soviet countries (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine), this article explores the experiences of facing discrimination in Czechia and migrants’ coping mechanisms. The findings show that participants encounter discrimination in public settings and employ both active and passive resistance, as well as language learning, as coping strategies. Additionally, highly skilled migrants position themselves as exclusive within the social hierarchy of migrants, viewing themselves as more capable of integration compared to other migrant groups.