The purpose of this research is to study the experiences of Czech immigrants in California, who emigrated from Czechoslovakia during the period of 1965 to 1970. While current research on Czech immigrants in the United States has centered mainly on Czechs living in New York, Illinois, Texas, and Nebraska, where large Czech communities have historically existed, this research is intended to fill in a gap in our knowledge about Czech immigrant communities in California, their experiences with emigration, how their individual biographies fit into the larger cultural context, and about their identity formation. Some of the research questions are: how do the narrators explain the process by which they made the decision to emigrate; how do the narrators’ lives and identities change with respect to emigration; how do the narrators describe their relationship with Czechoslovakia, from when they emigrated to present; and how has their Czech identity transformed, if at all, throughout the emigration process and settlement in California.
- assigned by the advisor