Emigration (Portal of Prague)

Emigration

The Czech territories have experienced many waves of emigration. In almost all cases they happened because of some kind of political or religious distress and often involving armed forces. Many of these changes became totally unacceptable for a certain part of population. The August invasion in 1968 is a prime example. Many people were hugely disappointed and suffered such a loss of aspirations that they decided to leave the country. However, people were still leaving Czechoslovakia even afterwards...

We don’t know exactly how many Czechoslovakian citizens stayed abroad after August 1968. There are several reasons for that. Let’s try to shine a bit of light at least at some of them.

First of all, the occupation happened at the time when dozens of thousands of Czech tourists were spending their holidays abroad. Previously they hadn’t had the opportunity to visit other than socialist parts of Europe for many years. Many headed to the Adriatic. Lots of them used the opportunity on the way to the sea to take a ride around Austria. Some of them “popped over” to Italy. Besides, even direct journeys to the West became suddenly possible. By the way, also Jan Palach, shortly after he had returned from USSR, made his way to France for a summer job.

Another difficulty in settling the final number of post-August emigrants lies in the fact that many of Czechs and Slovaks, who stayed abroad, later on decided to return to the country. This was for different reasons, but most commonly they wanted to live together with their families.

Let’s have a look at what happened afterwards. Emigration didn’t stop even after August. Curiously enough, the borders stayed opened even in 1969, for one more year, and thousands of people made use of that. Scientists, students and artists also used various exchange internships for emigration.

Sources that deal with the number of post-August emigrants come up with different figures; indeed, the difference is sometimes rather significant. In all likelihood, the number of 104 thousand people left Czechoslovakia between 1968 and 1969 is closest to reality. This was an unbelievably high number for Europe in the middle of the twentieth century.

It is also difficult to say whether all those people stayed abroad for good. In 1977, new guidelines came into force in Czechoslovakia, and this enabled emigrants to “adjust” their relationships with their former homeland. People could choose. They could either return back, or stay living abroad as Czechoslovakian citizens. They also could legally annul their former citizenship and become foreigners to their homeland.

There is one more interesting statistic which states that between 1968 and 1989, an additional 150,000 people left the country. About 60 percent of them were people younger than 30.

František Sládek

Articles within the field

Celkový počet: 4

23. 10. 2008 Why Did I Come Back?
This article doesn’t need any introduction as the title is quite clear. After August 1968, many thousands of Czechoslovaks stayed abroad, and many others were considering emigration, but later on, returned back. They had various reasons; journalists from the magazine Reportér talked to those who returned at the turn of 1968 and 1969.
23. 10. 2008 Exile Took Away My Joy
Exile took away my joy in the same way the occupation took away my country’s joy at that time. I was no longer able to take pleasure from anything, stated the writer, Arnošt Lustig, and there is no reason not to believe his words.
23. 10. 2008 How the Press Dealt with the Topic of Emigration
The press, in post-August era, paid quite a lot of attention to the topic of emigration. No wonder. Especially in the first days of the occupation nobody knew what would come next. Many people had their relatives on holiday abroad; they were deciding whether to come back or not. It is rather interesting that, as time went by, this news was presented to the public in different light. It became obvious that the “normalisation” press were trying to play down the topic.
21. 9. 2008 The Most Commonly Sought Destination: Austria
The biggest wave of emigration headed to Czech neighbour, Austria. This is most especially true for the first post-August days and weeks, and was primarily due to the “disobedience” of one diplomat.

Celkový počet: 4

23. October 2008
23. October 2008

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