‘The Plan Is No Plan’: Ontological Security and Resilience of Ukrainian Refugees in the Czech Labour Market

Abstract

After 24 February 2022, tens of thousands of refugees from Ukraine fled to the Czech Republic. The war disrupted their lives, and their future status remains unclear. This article utilises 19 semistructured interviews with highly skilled Ukrainian refugees in different parts of the Czech Republic. It focuses on their ontological security and migration aspirations and, according to these theoretical implications, identifies the key elements that make participants’ lives insecure and limit their position in the Czech labour market. This study explores the uncertainties and resilience associated with temporary protection status and other obstacles, such as proficiency in the Czech language, family ties, the temporality of one’s stay, the feeling of ‘home’ in Ukraine, perceived xenophobia and discrimination. These factors cause unpredictability about the future and their position in the labour market. The result is downwards social mobility, which lowers migration aspirations in the sense of a better life in the Czech Republic.