“…Here we are getting more… !”

Text: Sabine Kroner, Berlin
Photographs: Mária Kracíková, Berlin/Praha

Sophie and Greig proudly present their new home. They have just bought an old house in one of the suburbs of Brno. There are many old apricot trees in the garden and a lot of space for their children.

Photo gallery

Go East

In Western Europe many people still believe, or even fear, that migration has just one direction, from East to West. Yet there are other destinations. In the ten years from 1992-2002, the Czech Republic had the proportionally highest influx of foreigners worldwide according to an OECD survey. After 1989 people came to Central and Eastern Europe not only as travellers, but also as adventurers, artists or as workers looking for a longer stay. Many returned, soon after losing their romantic illusions. Some stayed, not in the “Wild East” but in the middle of Europe. In 2005 there are more than 250,000 non-Czech citizens registered in the Czech Republic. 100,000 of them have permanent residency. Often they are well educated but experiencing problems finding challenging jobs in their home countries. For them, and also for many “illegals”, this country has become their new home.

Step by Step to a New Horizon

Sophie is a warm and friendly person and, as if it were a symbol of her personality, she wears a necklace with a yellow heart. It is not only while playing football with her children that you can see that she is full of energy. Her country of origin is France, but she lives together with her family in the Czech Republic. Sophie at 35 years old has a youthful smile. She holds an MA in Philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris. When she speaks English her accent is not so French but rather more Scottish.

Fifteen years ago, as early as 1991, Sophie came as a student to today’s Czech Republic for her first time, staying for one month. “I wanted to leave France and one of my professors had contacts with people in the Czech Republic. Via her I was offered a job there as a French teacher. At Czech schools the introduction of new foreign languages produced a lack of adequately trained teachers, which the country filled by recruiting native speakers from abroad,” she explains. Sophie had never taught before and she was just one or two years older than her students but she got along well. This month of teaching gave her the posibility to go abroad to an unknown country and she had her first experiences as a teacher.

During the time of her first stay, Sophie was visited by her mother. Sitting on a bus from Paris to Brno, Evelyne made her first journey to Eastern Europe. Everything appeared different to her. It was like taking the road to nowhere. When she had to change buses in Prague, she got lost. Her efforts to enquire about the way completely failed – she was not able to catch a single word and the gestures were unfamiliar to her. Talking about her memories of this first trip to the Czech Republic she mentions the grey façades of the buildings; the absence of colour and of course the worries about her child. Since then she has crossed the borders quite often and by now she has become a quite interested and participating observer of the post-communist transformation process in the region. “People are still quite shocked when I tell them that my daughter Sophie and my grandchildren are living in Brno, in the Czech Republic”, says Evelyne smiling. The reply to her disbelieving Parisian neighbours and their questions is easy: “Your children are living in Marseille – Yes, it is in France. But the distance of 1200 km to Brno is quite the same. The difference is the direction of the movement and some borders in between.”

Come Back

Sophie left after her first month at school and finished her studies in Paris. But she wanted to come back. After graduating from University in 1995, she returned to the Czech Republic. She quickly found a job as a language teacher in Brno. Halfway between Prague and Budapest, Brno has been the capital of Moravia since 1641 and its large fortress was once an instrument of Habsburg domination. After the Brno-Vienna railway was completed in 1839, Brno developed into a major industrial centre. Today Brno is the second biggest city in the Czech Republic, right after Prague. The city has a rich cultural life and its centre holds a variety of fascinating sights, but the city centre hasn’t been overwhelmed by tourism in the way that Prague has.
“This is the biggest village in the Czech Republic,” Sophie says, grinning. For her it is important to stress that Brno is very international, but in a different way than Prague. In Brno there are not as many international people who work for Western companies and who are motivated by Western money with the intention to advance in their jobs or positions. Since the end of the 90’s many foreigners decided to stay and work for local salaries. An international network and community developed. Everyone knows everyone. For Sophie it is a town with a human face.

Brno – London – Brno

In this town Sophie met Greig in 1996. Today Greig is 33 years old. Originally he is from Scotland and holds an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of St. Andrews. At the time he and Sophie first met, he worked as an English teacher in Brno. They knew each other because both of them belonged to the international family which frequently met in a bar called “The Two Goats”. Greig fell in love with Sophie at first sight, but she needed more time. Paradoxically it was at Greig’s farewell party that she realised that she had also fallen in love. That evening was the start of their relationship. But the next day Greig left Brno and returned to Britain. In London, he tried to start a career as a journalist. The enormous competition there made this quite hard to realise. To make a living he had to start working as a waiter instead. It took him a while before he found a job as a publishing editor. During the first year of their long distance relationship between London and Brno, Sophie and Greig only saw each other for a total of five weeks. This was the main reason why Sophie moved to London at the end of 1997. Their son James was born nine months later.

In London, Sophie worked as a human-rights activist for “European Dialogue”, an international NGO that supports Roma. For the young family the life was very stressful. Their salaries were eaten up by London’s high rent and living costs; a difficult situation in which to raise a child. In 2001, the NGO offered Sophie a job opportunity in Brno. She would become the local coordinator and was to organise an integration programme with the local administration and the Roma population. The possibility to work in Brno was a chance for Sophie and Greig to escape from London and make their way back to the Czech Republic again. They had an advantage: they knew the country, the city and even the language. When the three arrived in Brno, Sophie was already pregnant with Jeanne, who was born in 2001. For the first two years in Brno, Greig stayed at home and cared for their small kids.

The Czech Republic Has to Offer More

In 2003 Greig joined CEE Bankwatch Network, an international NGO that monitors projects funded by international financial organisations. He works as the network´s Media coordinator at their Brno office. After some years of working for “European Dialogue Brno” Sophie resigned from the job and started to work as a French teacher again.

On the one hand, they found wider job opportunities in the Czech Republic. Sophie, an experienced teacher by now, states: “In France I would be required to have an exam and a diploma. France is very strict in this respect. But even with a diploma you don’t find a job. In France I don’t know what I would be doing.”

Asked about their main motivation for moving Sophie and Greig are quick to deny economic reasons. When comparing the differences in salaries many Czech friends do not understand why Sophie and Greig are working in the country. “What the hell are you doing here – you’ be so much better in France or in the UK,” many of them keep saying. Sophie and Greig have their own philosophy of life and this corresponds with what the Czech Republic has to offer them. The main reason for them for living in the country, is the quality of life there.

For them, that quality differs from their Western home countries. One example: Sophie decided to breast-feed her children and she emphasises that in France, more than in the UK, this would be a radical choice. Because in France all women have the duty to go to work two months after they give birth to a child. But if they work, they are often not able to breast-feed. It’s not promoted, and if a woman wants to do it she has to have a strong will. Sophie finds it quite important that the Czech mentality concerning this field is different. Here she is no exception and is accepted. She is one among many women.

Another point she is quite enthusiastic about is the fact that many Czechs have to learn and so know how to fix their houses. Under communism many things were not available and today services are expensive. There exists a different attitude than in Western Europe. “In France you have a strong tendency of over-consumerism”, says Sophie critically, “If you have a problem you phone someone to get it fixed. In everything you consume, because the ‘Know-How’ is not there anymore. And here it still is.”

A Mobile Life

Asked about the circle of barriers, advantages and disadvantages of a mobile life they say, “First of all you have to say that being from a richer country and having a high level of education and training give you access to almost everything. Here we are in a privileged position. It was our choice, we are not fleeing.” For both of them a possibility of return is always available. On the one hand they could go back, or they could go somewhere else. Theoretically, their mobility is endless. But they started a family and they decided to settle for a while. They are convinced that they are getting more here right now than what would be on offer in their home countries. Meanwhile it seems they have settled for good.

But what are the costs? Isn’t there something missing? The answers are, of course, quite individual. Sophie and Greig do not mention their families first. Sophie has to think a while before she sighs: “I miss Paris’ cinemas, that’s all. But even when you’re in Paris you need money and time to enjoy the culture. If you had three children in Paris, this is exactly what the problem would be. You always have to make a choice. Being with my children and not having a babysitter, I obviously cut myself off from quite a lot of things anyway.” Greig says he misses London’s active political scene: “When I saw the demonstrations in London against the war in Iraq I missed the possibility to be an active member of a stable grassroots-movement. Here it is very difficult to organise, for instance, an Anti-Nazi demonstration. You hardly find any people who are willing to protest against them.”

A Perspective
And their little family…? It is growing. Last year Joachim was born. This year they found their beautiful old house, which they are currently renovating. And there is news out of the garden: Sophie succeeded immediatley in growing aubergines. The plans are to move into their new home in autumn.

Then, as she does every three months Sophie’s Mother Evelyne takes the bus to Brno, “The hardest thing for me is not the fact that I can’t see my daughter. I mean, she is grown up and has left the house. But I am missing my grandchildren. I would like to have them with me,” she says and the tears flow through her face. Suddenly she smiles again and says how happy she was during the last few days, because she was there to witness how her little grandson Joachim made his first steps, just after her arrival.

Episodes:

Chaussure, shoe or boty?

James has invited his friends over for his 8th birthday. They are playing football in the garden and you can hear a mix of different languages. James was born in London. For five years now he has been living in the Czech Republic. His sister Jeanne is four and his little brother Joachim is almost one. Both were born in Brno. All three have a mother and a father tongue. To their mother they speak French and to their father English. James started to speak very early. It was always important for him to be understood quickly. Jeanne pointed at the things she wanted to have, and started speaking late. And then, her first word was “boty” – the Czech word for shoes. James and Jeanne learnt Czech in the street, at the kindergarden and in school. They are fluent in French, English and Czech. Czech as the social language of the Children is becoming more and more important. Many of their friends are Czechs and among them and alone they play, scream, sing and fight in Czech. In the children’s room you can find Czech and French comic books, french tables with the alphabet, the question “Quelle heure et-il?”, English movies. During the World Football Championships James’ favourite teams were the Czech Republic and, of course, Brasil. During my stay Joachim made his first steps. Now everybody is waiting for his first word. Which language will he choose?

Different levels of pain

K. was not the first person I met under such cirumstances. This summer by a coincidence I got to know many people with toothaches in Central and Eastern Europe. With a swollen cheeck they were sitting in front of me and were talking about their fears and painful experiences. All of them had problems with their wisdom teeth. Often they were complaining about their medical treatments, which was not bad but rough.
In Brno I was told this story about the mobility of dentists and a special offer for them. If a Czech or Polish dentist wants to work abroad he is confronted with a delicate fact: There are not just different geographical and administrative hurdles to overcome, there is also an important thing to know: the threshold of pain in the western European countries is lower than in the eastern ones. To inform eastern dentists about this fact, western Europeans come as labour migrants to the Czech Republic or Poland. They offer special workshops and tell the dentists about the differences of the treshold of pain in Europe. This significant difference allows people from the West to go to the east before dentists from the east can go to the west. A very round circle of labour mobilty is produced.