"Food doesn't have borders" : everyday lives of Muslim "kebab entrepreneurs" and their interactions with Czech majority in Prague

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“Food doesn’t have borders”

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Everyday lives of Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs” and their

interactions with Czech majority in Prague

Pavlina Trojanova

MA thesis

UvA ID number: 11261625

Study Programme: Sociology

Track: Migration and Ethnic Studies

University of Amsterdam

Thesis supervisor: Dr. Sarah Bracke

Second reader: Dr. Linda van de Kamp

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Abstract

In the contemporary public discourse, Islam often carries negative connotations. Moreover, there is a tendency to portray Islam in a very narrow sense. Mosques and minarets, women wearing veils etc. are the associations often linked to Islam and significantly present in media. However, these representations do not do justice to Muslims and their everyday lives.

In the Czech Republic, there is a very small Muslim population. Yet, the representations mentioned and “anti-Muslim” atmosphere are present there as well. Encountering this situation, the strategy of this research is to take the approach of “everyday lived religion” to explore the lives of Muslims. This will help us to get away from “institutionalised religion” and it will contribute to opening a new space in which to understand Muslim lives.

This research therefore focuses on a specific group of “kebab entrepreneurs” (owners and employees of kebab restaurants) with the aim of documenting the everydayness of being a Muslim in Prague and interactions among Muslims and non-Muslims. The kebab bistros and restaurants specifically are the places where, over food, the meeting of Muslims and non-Muslims, and social interactions emerge. This research is explorative and based on qualitative research methods. It covers topics such as the reasons for kebab entrepreneurs come to the Czech Republic, their perception of the life here and the specifics of working in a kebab economy. We will also get to know, why kebab is popular in the Czech Republic, how cultural and religious rituals are reflected in the job of kebab entrepreneurs and what the interactions among kebab entrepreneurs and customers look like.

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Acknowledgements

In the following lines, I would like to thank to those who helped me in the process of researching and writing this thesis.

Firstly, the thanks go to my supervisor, Dr. Sarah Bracke, who supported me and our whole thesis group from the beginning to the end, she was always there to answer any question or help in any “deadlock situation” a thesis writing process can bring.

Secondly, I want to thank to Ali, a great person with novel ideas without whom this research would have never happened.

My dear friends, in Amsterdam and back home. Thank you so much for your support and also for your tips and “kebab visits” with me, special thanks belong to Janča and Rhona for their help. I also thank to my parents and my brother - you have been always there for me and supported me through the whole year in Amsterdam.

Last but not least, I would like to thank to all my respondents. I value the fact that you opened your lives and workplaces for me, it was a great time talking to you and a pleasure to get to know you. I learnt so much from you.

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1. Introduction

I am sitting in a kebab restaurant, looking around, observing people and the place. There is Turkish tea on my table, served in the tiny little glass laid on a saucer, then a teaspoon and two lumps of sugar. Next to it, there stands a bowl with lentil soup, “çorba”, with bread and a little piece of lemon. I am on a “tour” of kebab restaurants in Prague, checking places to choose for the research. And here, I like it. I smell the soup. Memories come back. My five months of living in Istanbul come back in such an intensity. Although I rarely put sugar into my tea, this time I put not one, but both the lumps into it. Because that’s how people in Turkey do it. And that’s how I often did it as well when I was there. Then I take the lemon. I squash it and watch the drops of the juice fall into the soup. The lemon is not there just for decoration, it has a purpose - it elevates the soup to a totally different level. I break a piece of the bread and eat it with the soup. It is the taste I know. It is the taste I recall. And it is a great one. Then I take a sip of the tea. It is amazingly full in taste. Drinking it is not only thirst quenching, it is a ritual. A ritual of socialising, talking, enjoying. I can see it at the opposite table. Two men finished their meal long time ago, but they are still sitting with a tea next to them, talking with enthusiasm. I look at the counter. Customers are arriving. With some I can see, they know the place, they smile and without a doubt order their food. Others, however, must have come for the first time. They are constantly looking around, from one dish to another, overwhelmed by smells and colours. Moreover, they also observe the employees who move around so quickly, here and there they throw between each other some words in a language the customers do not understand. In the end, they turn to the customers with a smile and a plate with their dish. I return my attention to the amazing smells of the dishes on my table. And I know that right now, at this moment, I am not just eating and drinking. I am experiencing.

Undoubtedly, food accompanies us throughout our entire lives and for many cooking or dining is a social activity and often an adventure of discovering new tastes as well. I really enjoy trying food from different countries and I have been privileged to learn about the diversity of food thanks to the many people of different cultures, religions or nationalities I have met in my life. As I already mentioned, I spent several months on a study exchange in Turkey, a Muslim majority country where I met nice people and learnt about the culture and food.

After some time, when I was living back in my home country – the Czech Republic, I noticed the atmosphere in the society was turning in an “anti-Muslim/anti-refugee” direction. This surprised me, because there are not many Muslims living in Czechia (10,000-15,000 according to estimates (Topinka 2016, 49)) and the small Muslim community contrasts sharply with the prevalent and often xenophobic media and political discourse on Islam and Muslims. Therefore, when I was thinking about my thesis topic, I knew I would like to try to challenge this.

However, I did not get to this topic right away. It was a long journey of changing ideas (I first wanted to work on discrimination of Muslim women etc.) at the end of which my friend in our conversation suggested, that many of the kebab owners are Muslims too. This struck me and I could not let this idea go. What do we know about people in the kebab restaurants? Who are they? What are their stories? The more I thought about it, the more I knew it was the perfect topic. Firstly, because when one thinks of a Muslim, one immediately makes associations with mosques, veiled women etc., but kebab owners and employees have been somehow invisible to the “Muslim discourse” (and before, to me as well). Secondly, nothing has been written exactly on the topic of Muslim kebab entrepreneurs in Czechia.

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7 Moreover, kebab entrepreneurs are the Muslims we are “most likely to meet.” Many of us will easily go and buy a kebab, but not many people would go to a mosque out of curiosity. Therefore, we are going to explore the lives of kebab entrepreneurs through food - such a basic and quotidian reality of life. And as one of my university professors used to say, we have to focus on what we cannot see, what is forgotten, what is invisible. That is why I decided to dive into the world of the kebab.

Given that there has not been research on Muslim kebab entrepreneurs in Czechia, this research is in its nature explorative and it aims to map out the lives of Muslim kebab entrepreneurs in Prague. In the next sub-chapters, I will present the research problem in greater depth as well as my research questions.

1.1 Problem construction

As I already mentioned, in the contemporary public discourse, Islam often carries negative connotations. Moreover, there is a tendency to portray Islam in a very narrow sense. Mosques and minarets, “oppression of women” wearing hijabs, violence and terrorist acts - these are the associations often linked to Islam. These representations of Islam are also very much present in the media. The media are not only involved in our daily lives but they play a role in agenda-setting and representation (Elgamri 2010). Generally, Western media tend to create a specific image of Islam - portraying it as a threat to liberal values and culture of the West (Elgamri 2010). Therefore, these representations intensify the orientalist (Said 1978) discourse and do not do justice to Islam as a religion and neither to Muslims and their everyday lives. Speaking about the Czech context, the tendency to homogenize Islam and its believers persists too.

However, Islam as a religion and cultural world is so much more. It is a comprehensive set of rules and practices for everyday life, including e.g. dressing, praying, eating, paying taxes and so on. Being a Muslim and following Islam entails abiding or keeping certain rituals which derive from the Muslim consciousness. Rituals together with beliefs and other practises form the experience of one’s religion (Ritzer 2015, 441). But what approach to take towards studying it?

In this research, I will explore this dimension of everyday lives which was chosen because it can lead us away from the “institutionalised” religion and open up a new way of understanding Muslim lives. The first aim of the research is to capture the everydayness of Muslims’ lives, more specifically the lives of Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs in Prague”. Through exploring cultural Islamic rituals (connected to culinary practices) of Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs”, I want to learn about the lives of Muslims in Czechia on an everyday level and also explore the relations and interactions with customers. Food is then an “intermediary” between the customers and the kebab entrepreneurs and it will help us to capture the process of entrepreneurship of these businessmen. Secondly, although it may seem banal, the places where the Czech majority and Muslims meet most are exactly these bistros or restaurants selling kebabs. These are, in fact, the places where social interactions take place and people often do not give it a thought. To question the reported negative attitudes towards Islam in Czechia, the research wants to explore the daily interactions of Czechs with Muslims. That is why the second aim of the research is to study the interactions among customers (who are anticipated to be Czech non-Muslim majority) with non-Muslim employees in the kebab bistros/restaurants.

To conclude, this research is explorative and focuses on “kebab entrepreneurs” with the aim to document (1) the everydayness of being a Muslim in Prague and (2) interactions among Muslims and

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8 non-Muslims. By this research I also hope to give a subtle contribution in helping to change the general stereotypical images of Muslims in Czechia.

1.2 Research questions

How do the lives of Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs” in Prague look like? What do they tell us about everyday lives of Muslims in Czechia?

How do the interactions among Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs” and customers look like?

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2. Theoretical framework

In the following subchapters, I present basic information about Muslims and Islam in Czechia. Later I will introduce the theoretical approaches which guided my research design – mainly the problematics of representations of Islam and the everyday lived religion.

2.1 Islam in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic does not have a direct experience with Islam in comparison with many other European countries. It has not experienced receiving Muslim migrants from former colonies (like France), having Islamized inhabitants (like Bulgaria) or receiving “gastarbeiters” - workers from Muslim majority countries (like Germany) (Mendel, Ostřanský, Rataj 2007, 12). Also, being behind the “iron curtain”, meant “avoiding” migration which increased in Europe from the 1960s (Mendel, Ostřanský, Rataj 2007, 10). Islam has therefore not been significantly present in Czechia. The Muslim population in Czechia nowadays is small too; according to the estimates it comprises about 10,000-15,000 people (Topinka 2016, 49). Historically, we can talk about three main groups of Muslims who live in Czechia. The smallest group is comprised of Czech converts (about 400 people) (Mendel 2016, 408), the second group are people with Czech citizenship, especially students from Arab countries, who came mainly in 1970s and 1980s (they were supported by socialist governments) and many of them stayed in Czechia after finishing their studies. Among those are also minor numbers of refugees from Iraq, Palestine etc. The last and biggest group are people who came mainly after 1989 (Mendel, Ostřanský, Rataj 2007, 408).

Moreover, the Muslim community in Czechia is very heterogeneous, both regarding the scope of religious practices and the cultural or geographical origin of its members (high numbers come from countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia etc.) (Topinka 2016, 46). Černý (2015, 9) also adds that practicing Muslims are considered a significant minority. As it was mentioned, the scale of living, experiencing and practising religion is very big and we can find many differences among Muslims in Czechia.

However, although the numbers of Muslims are small in Czechia, the general “anti-Muslim/anti-refugee” atmosphere is present in Czech society. As it can be seen from several surveys, the perception of Muslims by Czechs is often rather negative. For example, 84.2% of Czechs declared they completely or rather agree that “Islam is utterly incompatible with our [Czech] culture” (Topinka 2016, 238) and 62.4% would (completely not or rather not) agree with giving residence permits to Muslim families (Topinka 2016, 233). Similar stances can also be found in other surveys and research. The Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences carried out a public opinion poll, researching opinions on certain ethnicities and groups in Czechia. The results showed Muslims got the second worst rating after the Roma people (DOCPLAYER 20151_).

Moreover, the public knowledge about Czech Muslims is very low and its coverage is often led by attempts for sensation (Mendel, Ostřanský, Rataj 2007, 466). Křížková (2006, 1) in her analysis of media images of Czech Muslims adds, that the media are often led by the aim of achieving as high a news value as possible. Therefore, it is not often a genuine interest to inform audiences about Muslim

1_{DOCPLAYER. 2015. “Co si Češi myslí o muslimech, Syřanech a Romech?” Press release. Accessed February 26,}

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10 communities in Czechia, but there is often focus on conflict, controversy, otherness (which is often perceived negatively) and the deeper context, cultural background or explanations of events, traditions and practices are rarely talked about. Sadly, Czech Muslims are often approached by media only following an international event (e.g. terrorist attacks in Europe), being asked their opinion (Mendel, Ostřanský, Rataj 2007, 440). Korečková and Lužný (2016, 270) add that Czech society usually does not get much information about Muslims living in Czechia and the image of Islam Czechs have is mostly determined by the news coverage of events abroad. Křížková (2006, 4) also adds, that in many cases Muslims in Czechia are understood as one united group of people or monolithic community. Bürgerová (2015, 64) follows with the notion that “Czech society sees Muslims in a global view (which

simplifies and generalizes) and also through the prism of events in Arab countries”. Also, the Muslim

respondents from the study of Bürgerová (2015, 80) agreed that the media image of Muslims in Czechia is negative. Bürgerová concludes in her research (2015, 90) that a Muslim is stereotypically portrayed “either as a potential terrorist or a person closed up in his/her own primitive cultural

traditions”. Křížková (2006, 1) also mentions the lack of personal experience - Czech society cannot

compare the “constructed image of Islam” with their own personal experience.

2.2 Representations of Islam and hypervisibility of Islam

As it can be seen from the previous paragraphs, the negative representations of Muslims are out of proportion. This falls under the global pattern of problems of representation of Muslims and the hypervisibility of Islam. It leads to emphasizing a certain part of the population which generally does not represent the whole (Montgomery 2016, 33). In the following lines, I will elaborate more on these problematics.

Islam is often viewed from an essentialist perspective, in contrast to the view on the pluralist culture of the West (Jung 2011). Jung (2011, 5) also adds: “It is this essentialist image that to a large extent

informs the global public discourse on Islam [...].” Such image of Islam is problematic, as there is not

much intersection between how Islam is usually portrayed by the Western societies and the “enormously varied life that goes on within the world of Islam […]”, especially regarding geographical territories, histories, societies, cultures etc. (Said 1997, l). These representations have been shaped by the orientalist discourse which, among others, inscribes the specific understanding and interpreting of Eastern nations and Islam, and carries a significant distinction between “Orient” and “Occident” (Macfie 2000, 2-3). And Islam belongs exactly to the “Orient” (Said 1997, 4).

Non-Muslims may feel Islam (in any way they define it for themselves) “confronts them individually

and collectively” (Said 1998, 45). These combinations of the orientalist perspective and perceived

threats usually serve to justify certain (stereotypical) beliefs and attitudes towards Islam and how it is represented. As Said (1997, 10) puts it “’Islam’ is unlikely to mean anything one knows either directly

or objectively”. Islam became the term into which we project our fears on a personal and world scale

(Said 1997, 7). But Islam has not always been “the enemy”, for example, the turn of 18th and 19th centuries, speaking about Europe, can be characterised by what is called the “Oriental renaissance” (Said 1997, 13).

The public visibility of Islam and its religious and cultural signs (be it minarets, headscarves and other symbols) is debated significantly nowadays. It stresses and expresses the presence of Muslims in Europe (Göle 2010a) as well as shows the ambiguous changes of perceptions towards Muslims, from

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11 “an invisible migrant to that of a visible Muslim citizenship” (Göle 2010b). Also, these debates and discussions over the Islamic symbols in European societies show how the public deals (or does not manage to deal) with religious and cultural difference - it is now a concern for all, not only Muslims (Göle 2010b, 384).

The specific image of Islam has been delivered to the Western societies by media - be it television, radio, newspapers and nowadays also social media. Important to remember is also the fact, that “news

does not just happen” (Said 1997,48), they are made and formed (intentionally or not) by the person(s)

who creates them. Let’s pose ourselves a question, is the complexity and diversity of the world of Islam covered sufficiently? Are media and academics paying enough attention to also inform us about the Islamic cultural aspects like poetry, food or everyday realities of people living? Maybe the world of Islam seems so distant and different and we hardly can reach its histories and knowledge ourselves - we rarely have command of the languages spoken in the Muslim world, therein have to rely on media. Many times I was posing myself a question, how to challenge this “Western” discourse about Islam and Muslims? The obvious strategy would be to do a critical analysis on media representations of Islam, but one can think of other strategies of how to approach this. I decided to focus on “everydayness of Muslim lives”. This approach enables us to see and show Muslim lives in different ways (than what is exactly often seen and presented in media) and therefore not overreproduce the focus on institutionalised religion. In the next subchapter, I will explain what exactly this approach can bring us.

2.3 Everydayness of Muslim lives

“There is too much Islam in the anthropology of Islam.” (Schielke 2010, 2). This provocative notion by

Samuli Schielke, an anthropologist studying Muslims in Egypt, tells us we should be conscientious when studying Islam and Muslims. Schielke (2010) argues that in research on Islam and Muslims, there is too much emphasis on the ideal religious devotion. But Islam is a part of the ordinary lives of people and this aspect is often imbalanced. Researchers as well as ordinary people tend to forget that only a small group of Muslims are those strongly devoted or “activists” (Schielke 2010). In the study of religious spaces (e.g. mosques), religion is an important marker of identity of the informants (Dessing 2012, 39). That means it shows mainly the “visible and committed Muslims”, and those who do not fall into this “category” are left out (Dessing 2012, 40). The fact in studying everyday religion is that religion cannot be separated from non-religious daily life (Dessing 2012, 39). The study of tactical religion takes place both in religious spaces, private homes, but also public spaces (Woodhead 2012). The kebab restaurants come exactly under this category. Researching religion in public spaces (like workplaces) opens up a new sphere of multiple practices and identities. Such places are heterogenous, therefore the religious dimension is not prioritised. This can offer counterweight to the inclination of religion as a primary identifier of Muslims (Dessing 2012, 40).

The “everyday life” approach enables us to try to shift our attention from the institutional aspect of religion to the non-institutional, we move from religious prescriptions to religious practice and focus on the ordinary people and their ordinary lives which comprise also the religious aspects or practices (Jeldtoft and Nielsen 2012, 1) as well as non-religious. Therefore, religion can be also seen in peoples’ day to day activities - at school, at work, in their free time etc. Also, these neglected dimensions (the tactical religion) include a mix of practices deriving from “‘secular’ Western practice, from Islam, and

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12 practices among the people of the same faith and even religious institution vary to a great extent already (McGuire 2008, 4) and all these practices are under the over-reaching term of self-identification as Muslim. As Montgomery (2016, 5) says it is also often forgotten that the identity of a Muslim does not have to be created simply by birth, but also by the community or culture one grows up in. Moreover, religion is sometimes not too significant – every person has obligations beyond religion and there are many issues competing for attention in people’s lives – “there are schools to

build, crops to plant, children to take care of, and lives to live [...]“ (Rasanayagam 2011, in Montgomery

2016, 33-34). On that account, religion is often not a mere focus of one’s life, it is rather more in the background, influencing one’s morality and ethics (Ibid.)

McGuire (2008, 5) also points out the fact that “not only religions change over time, but also what

people understand to be “religion” changes”. This shows us that the religious practices of an individual

are unique and original and individual religion can be characterised by more autonomy (from religious institutions, family members etc.). McGuire (2008, 4) suggests we should free ourselves from how we imagine the individual religious lives and see them as multi-faceted, changing and often considerably varied in contrast with practices, experiences and beliefs which religious institutions consider important. Therefore, we should focus on experiences the individuals consider important for them and “concrete practices that make up their personal religious experience and expression” (McGuire 2008, 4).

Woodhead (2012, 11) gives us the direction of thought we should carry throughout the research: “The

perspective of everyday lived religion prompts the question of what more there is to religion: whose lives, experiences and associational forms are being overlooked by the dominant gaze (...) and what other forms of cultural, ritual, domestic, political and economic practice might be equally worthy of study under the rubric of religion”. Therefore, we should approach the research of everyday lives of

Muslim kebab entrepreneurs with openness and search for the diverse and invisible. Regarding the specific setting of kebab businesses, the religious practices can overlap with social, economical or political practices. But it can also happen that we will not see any of the religious practices in these settings (Dessing 2012, 40) as religion and being Muslim may stand on very different positions of one’s value ladder. Let’s therefore dive into the richness of everyday life of kebab entrepreneurs and as Sheringham (2006, in Jeldtoft and Nielsen 2012, 1) says: “see things anew”.

2.3.1 Everyday lived Islam in the Czech Republic

In the Czech context, there is not so much written on the everydayness of Muslim lives. Many academic publications talk about the history of Islam, influence of Islamic culture on European/Czech society, history of Muslim community in Czechia (e.g. Islám a české země by Jiří Bečka and Miloš Mendel2_),

other publications often focus on current development, polemics and confrontations, media coverage and explaining the myths of Islam (e.g. Stíny minaretů: Islám a muslimové jako předmět českých veřejných polemik by Ondřej Beránek and Bronislav Ostřanský3_{) or on explanations of the religious}

base of Islam, respectively similarities and differences with other religions (e.g. Islám v českých zemích

2_{Bečka, Jiří, and Mendel, Miloš. 1998. Islám a české země. Olomouc: Votobia.}

3_{Beránek, Ondřej, and Ostřanský Bronislav. 2016. Stíny minaretů: Islám a muslimové jako předmět českých}

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13 by Denisa Červenková and Albert-Peter Rethmann4_{). An example of the “everyday lived religion”}

approach, however, can be seen for example in a study by Pavlíková (2012) in which she carried out 21 qualitative interviews with Czech Muslims and covered topics such as beginnings in a new country, opinions of Muslims towards Czechia, perception of Czech society or practicing religion in Czechia. Another crucial study for our understanding of lives of Muslims in Czechia is the comprehensive study based on numbers of sociological and anthropological researches and surveys: Muslimové v Česku: Etablování muslimů a islámu na veřejnosti by Daniel Topinka and collective (2016). The authors of this latest research conclude the Muslim community in Czechia is ethnically and nationally much more varied than the public usually thinks, it is also dispersed widely around the country and Topinka also concludes the lived Islam is different and distant from the normative beliefs. Helpful for our research is the chapter where Muslims talk about themselves and their life in Czech society. They tackle topics such as faith and its practicing, culture, mixed marriages, contacts with Czechs etc. (Čermáková et.al. 2016, 299-360).

However, the everyday lives of Muslim kebab entrepreneurs have not been covered yet. According to the reviewers from Kebabarny.cz, the estimated number of kebab bistros or restaurants in Czechia oscillates between 500-600 hundreds (Czech Radio, 20175_{). Regarding the focus of the research -}

Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs”, interesting to mention is also the case of a Japanese-born Czech politician Tomio Okamura6_{, who in one of his Facebook statuses, called on Czechs to oppose Islam and}

“protect” the country by suggesting several (some of which quite bizarre) acts. Besides this, Okamura says in his post that: “Each kebab we buy is another step to burqas.” (Tomio Okamura - SPD 2015, own translation7_{). It can be seen, that he makes the connection between the food and the religion. And}

because food pervades our research, it is the “intermediary” between the customers and the kebab entrepreneurs and a means through which we are exploring the lives of the respondents, I present some basic information about food in Islamic culture and Islamic entrepreneurship in the following paragraphs.

2.4 Food and Islam

Counihan and van Esterik (1997, 1) say: “Food is life, and life can be studied and understood through

food.” This notion makes us aware of the role food has in our lives - not only it is essential for

functioning of our bodies, but through food (its tastes, process of preparation, attitude towards it) we can gain another piece of puzzle to understanding an individual, society or culture. Food is also exchanged, shared and debated among different groups of people. In probably every city we can observe numerous ethnic restaurants nowadays, in Czechia be it often Italian, Vietnamese and

4_{Rethman, Albert Peter, and Červenková, Denisa. 2009. Islám v českých zemích. Praha: CMS – Center for}

Migration Studies.

5_{Czech Radio. 2017. “THE KEBAB SQUAD.” Accessed May 31, 2017.}

http://radio.cz/en/section/travel-tip/the-kebab-squad.

6_{Tomio Okamura is a former head of a far-right party Dawn of Direct Democracy (“Úsvit přímé demokracie”) and}

current head of Freedom and Direct Democracy (“Svoboda a přímá demokracie”). His opinions also raised dissent. On Facebook, a protest event was organised, called “Kebabem proti debilitě” (With Kebab Against Stupidity) – at a chosen day, thousands of people went for a kebab in protest.

Týden.cz. 2015. “Kebabem proti debilitě! Vzkaz Okamurovi našel i odpůrce.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.tyden.cz/rubriky/domaci/kebabem-proti-debilite-vzkaz-okamurovi-nasel-i-odpurce_329527.html.

7_{Tomio Okamura - SPD. 2015. Facebook post. Accessed February 27, 2017.}

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14 Chinese. We can call it a trend, but we can also call it learning and cognition of new tastes with which we may associate people and cultures. Eating ethnic food and going to an ethnic restaurant can be regarded as an event, an experience which delights one’s taste buds. It is suggested it can possibly serve as a bridge between people as well. The aim of this thesis, however, is not to study the food per se but take it as a medium, a means, a tool which enables us to see, get to know and understand the world of Muslim kebab entrepreneurs.

Barthes (1997, 21) refers to food being also a “system of communication, a body of images, a protocol

of usages, situations and behaviour“. When one goes and buys food, “this item of food sums up and transmits a situation, it constitutes an information, it signifies” (Barthes 1997, 21). And that is the

second part of our research, does this food and the cultural, religious, social world associated with it “communicate” to Czech customers? If so how?

We should also mention that Islam regulates eating habits of Muslims. Islam talks about halal “lawful and permitted” and haram “prohibited” (however there also exists a category of questionable items - e.g. fish and sea food) and they originate from the Qur’an and Sunnah (Regenstein et al. 2003). These rules have been here for centuries, however it is upon every person and their degree of religious belief to determine their interpretation and application of these rules. According to these laws (as the detailed elaboration is beyond the scope of this paper), Muslims are banned from eating pork meat, blood, carrion, animals which died without proper slaughtering, alcohol and intoxicants (Regenstein et al. 2003, 120). As Regenstein et al. (2003, 120) mention, Islam also puts a lot of stress on humane killing of animals.

2.5 Entrepreneurship and Islam

Islam encourages Muslims to get involved in entrepreneurship activities and it also considers entrepreneurship an occupation of a high esteem (Hassan and Hippler 2014, 171), moreover entrepreneurship is a part of Islamic culture, even the prophet Muhammad was a merchant before becoming the religious persona (Faizal et al. 2013, 191). Faizal et al. (2013, 191-192) also state there “is no separation between entrepreneurial activities and religion and that a person has to be firstly

Muslim and then an entrepreneur”. Therefore, there is also a set of guidelines which Muslim

entrepreneurs should follow. The characteristics of Muslim entrepreneurs from Qua’ran and al-Hadis are: halal as a top priority (not only in terms of food, but also regarding e.g. earning halal income), not wasting, worship to Allah as top priority, practising high moral values (e.g. not involve in usury), trustworthiness, concern for welfare (e.g. social entrepreneurship, charity in various forms), knowledgeability, caring for society and environment. In contrast with Western perspectives on entrepreneurship (which are mostly guided by maximalization of profit), the Islamic entrepreneurship has altruistic approach and tends to contribute to the development of the society as a whole (Hassan and Hippler 2014, 171).

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3. Methodology

This research is in it nature explorative. The study population are the Muslim “kebab entrepreneurs“ in Prague. But as the aim of the research is also to study the interactions between the Czech majority and the kebab entrepreneurs, also these interactions will be in my study focus. However, before giving the attention to the detailed information about respondents, I would like to give some information also about selecting the kebab restaurants/bistros.

3.1 Kebab restaurants/bistros

The fieldwork in Prague itself lasted one month, from April 3rd_{until May 3}rd_{2017. Before going to the}

field, a preselection of several possible places was done (via internet, friends). First days in the field were spent checking the kebab restaurants in person to evaluate whether they are suitable and interesting for the research. The criteriea for choosing a kebab place were:

• select places both in central areas of Prague as well as places in non-central districts

• select places of different “styles” of entrepreneurship - places resembling more of a “restaurant” type (usually bigger seating area, wider food selection), “fastfood type” places (less, seating, limited selection), family and non-family business places

• select at least one bistro with different country of origin of the owners than the rest.

In the end 6 main places were chosen, however I also talked more informally to people from 2 other places. To protect the anonymity of the owners and employees of the kebab places, the names of the kebab owners, kebab employees and kebab places are not used in the research.

3.2 Kebab entrepreneurs

When a kebab place was chosen, the first contact was always made with an employee of the restaurant and later with the owner of the place (except for one case, where I spoke only to the employees). I introduced the research to potential respondents and asked whether they are willing to be part of it. I also promised the anonymity of the respondents. I managed to arrange interviews with 10 key respondents (7 Muslim kebab owners, 2 Muslim employees and 1 employee who was not comfortable to talk about their religious views). Apart from that, 4 other people (mostly non-Muslim kebab entrepreneurs) contributed to the research by short interviews or informal discussion. In each restaurant I interviewed 1-3 informants. Out of all informants, 3 were women and the rest were men. A more detailed demographics of the respondents can be found in the appendix.

3.3 Customers

As the research also aims to explore the interactions among Muslim kebab entrepreneurs and customers, the opinions of customers were also important. I managed to have 14 short, several-minute interviews (in which I talked to 21 people, 4 women, the rest were men) in 2 kebab restaurants. I joined their table after they finished eating and asked couple of questions, all after the prior agreement with the kebab owner. In one case, the kebab owner themselves pointed out a customer they knew. Another 2 short interviews I also carried out with 4 people on the street who I saw eating kebab (2 young boys and 2 men). To get a deeper understanding of the opinions and ideas of the customers, I

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16 also had a regular interview with 2 young males (who I reached through my network and snowballing technique), 1 group interview (6 university students) and 1 interview with the reviewer of the website Kebabarny.cz.

3.4 Methods

This research is based on qualitative research methods. The exact methods used depend on the two research questions.

3.4.1 Interviews

The semi-structured interviews with the kebab entrepreneurs lasted from approximately 20 minutes to 1,5 hours. Interviews with customers lasted from few minutes to 25 minutes (with the exception of an interview with the reviewer of Kebabarny.cz which lasted approximately one hour). The interview lists for both groups are available in the annex.

The interviews with the kebab entrepreneurs were (except one case) agreed beforehand. I would like to also note, that after experiencing distrust of a respondent to sign the informed consent (he was willing to participate in the research but did not want to sign any document in general), I decided to gain the informed consents from my participants orally and record it. This decision was also supported by the relative sensitivity of the research topic in the current discourse concerning Islam and migration and possible vulnerability of the respondents. The main interviews were recorded except for one case where the kebab owners were not comfortable with the recording and I made notes manually (most of the output is therefore paraphrased, however, a few sentences I wrote down in an exact way and they are used as quotes in the data analysis). The main topics for the interviews with kebab entrepreneurs were:

• migration experience (origins of the person, why they came to Czechia) • the process of starting kebab business and the kebab business scene in Prague

• food and Islamic cultural and religious practices (how they are connected to kebab entrepreneurship – e.g. serving halal food, selling alcohol)

• interactions with (mostly Czech) customers.

3.4.2 Observations

Participant observation was chosen as a supportive method to triangulate the information from the interviews but also to capture the dynamic process of the entrepreneurship. Thanks to observations, the kebab entrepreneurs could also “get used to me as a researcher being around“ and I could also participate in informal talks.

3.4.3 Data analysis

The research analysis is based in grounded theory, which is characterised by using the inductive approach (Bryman 2012, 568). Grounded theory also implies that the researcher’s theory is grounded in the research data (Ibid.), meaning we do not approach the data collection with a prevalent

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17 hypothesis, but on the contrary the theory derives solely from the phenomena studied and analysed. Among the tools of grounded theory is also the theoretical sampling which is an ongoing process as the data are coded, collected and analysed in the course of the research which enables the researcher to decide during the process what data are necessary to collect next to help answer the research question (Bryman 2012, 419).

In practice, all the interviews were transcribed and notes from the observations summarised. For the analysis itself, I used coding as a crucial tool of grounded theory (Bryman 2012, 568) and I did the coding in Atlas.ti. As the majority of interviews were carried out in Czech language, also the analysis was done in Czech while using the English codes. After the coding, I framed the data and looked for relationships with the theory.

3.4.5 Reflection on research process

It should be remembered that the research process is flexible and when carrying out the interviews, I tried to follow the interview flow and dynamics. As I was searching for the emic perspective I always let the respondents talk freely. As an implication, not all the topics were covered in equal depth by each informant and some topics were covered only by some informants. The agency of each respondent guided the flow of the interview and as a result, each interview was individual and original. Participants were generally helpful during the research. They talked openly and were willing to answer my questions. However, the topic of religion was difficult to approach. Firstly, I struggled to “recognise” a Muslim entrepreneur. Secondly, in the current public and media discourse, Islam and Muslims are often discussed and associated with topics such as migration, terrorism, clash of cultures etc. which often triggers negative emotions. This difficulty came from my great unease to talk about one’s religion or even ask a simple question whether one is a Muslim or not. But in some cases, I could also see the unease on the side of the respondents. This feeling sometimes resulted in me not approaching this topic fully or not asking about exactly everything I would like to know. In some cases, I observed that the interview dynamics changed when we approached this topic – some respondents got more tense and one respondent did not wish to talk about this issue at all. However, most of them were fine with it and answered my questions.

As for the observations, I did not find them very useful. Initially I also thought that my presence in the kebab bistros would enable the kebab entrepreneurs to get used to me as a researcher being around. This partly worked and I often got engaged in informal conversations. However, it also happened to me, that once a kebab owner asked me not to talk with his employees informally during his work, as they cannot focus well on the customers and work. In two other places, the seating was positioned in a way, that I could not hear conversations among the kebab entrepreneurs and customers and in general it did not give me a lot of data.

Regarding approaching customers, my strategy of asking people directly in the restaurant did not turn out to be ideal. Although this was agreed with the kebab entrepreneurs beforehand, I could sense, they were sometimes looking at me when I was approaching the customers, probably wondering what we were talking about. In one case, the owner approached me, asking how it was going and whether the customers are saying negative things. I sensed a bit of a discomfort on my side as well, so I only tried it once again in another restaurant. During these mini-interviews I did not talk with the customers freely about all topics, in these cases I never asked about religion or culture, but mostly about food, its

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18 popularity, what they like about this restaurant, why they come there etc. After these experiences, I decided not to do these mini-interviews and therefore arranged in-depth interviews with people through my network.

I will also reflect on the gender dynamics during my research. Firstly, it should be noted that my respondents – kebab owners and employees were mostly male. The gender dynamics was a part of the interviews and observations. The power relations within the interviews and informal talks, especially in contrast to me (as of white, young, “educated” female) took very interesting course, as I mostly positioned myself in the bottom of the power relation, letting the “older and knowing person” explain things to me. This was stressed even more on the background of the “everydayness” topic of research, which may have seemed “banal” to the respondents in some cases. Also, most of the customers interviewed were male, which could indicate certain preferences for the popularity of kebab.

Last but not least, it should be noted that the results of this research can be limited by the approach and self-reflection process by the researcher. The choice of my respondents (mostly male, mostly of Turkish origin, mostly living in Czechia for a longer reiod of time) may well have also an influence on the findings.

3.4.6 Language issues

Language issues turned out not to be a major problem, but in a few cases, they influenced the choice of interviewees (in several cases some employees were not able to speak Czech or English on a level enabling them to talk freely and I, on the other hand, did not possess skills in other languages which would be suitable for the interviewee). In some cases, the quality of the interview was affected by the language skills of the interviewee. In one case, the interviewee asked for a question list ahead to prepare for answering it (due to difficulty understanding on several occasions, as the informant said, they prefered this as they wanted to understand properly the question so as to answer accordingly). On one occasion partners working in a kebab place were interviewed together and as one was less knowledgeable in Czech language, the other partner sometimes acted as an interpreter too. In another case, a son was asked by the interviewee to assist in the interview with a few translations. In the end, all the interviews were lead in Czech except two in English.

During the analysis, given Czech or English was not the first language of my respondents, I decided to do corrections in the original transcribed text, not only from the grammatical point of view, but I also sometimes adjusted the word order or vocabulary. As I am not doing a linguistic analysis, by adjustments I made the quotes more understandable to the reader for the purposes of this research. I did alterations in parts where I was sure about what the respondent meant and I did them in both languages – Czech and later English.

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4. Migration journey and life in the Czech Republic

In this and the following chapters, I present the results from the analysis of the data gathered through interviews and observations in kebab restaurants and bistros. In this chapter, we will get to know how the kebab entrepreneurs came to Czechia, what their motives for migration were as well as how they recall their beginnings in the new country. We will also see what the respondents had known about Czechia before they came and how they feel about their current life here now. We will start with explaining the reasons kebab entrepreneurs had for leaving their countries of origin and coming to Czechia.

4.1 Reasons for migration: employment

For four informants, the difficulties of finding a job or the lack of work in general in the countries of origin were the main reasons for leaving their home countries. What often contributed to their decision to migrate was the complicated socio-economic or political situation in their home-countries. One respondent explains how the state regulations made him lose his job:

“[…]I had a casino business, I was working in Turkey. But they banned it there in 1998, no casino was existing anymore and we were left without a job […], we were without a job for four months and then my acquaintance, a Polish, we used to work with them, he was our boss. So he called us, saying they need some expat personnel in Czechia [...] so if we want to try that. And I said, of course we will try, we are young, so we don’t mind to be foreigners there, at least we will see a new place, new people, so we came by coincidence like this.”8

Here, we can see the role of the migrant network in facilitating or triggering the migration process. Interestingly, three respondents in this section used a migration network to a certain extent. Their friends, relatives or acquaintances either provided them with information about Czechia or directly helped arranging the job for them.

4.2 Reasons for migration: relationship

For other informants, a relationship was their reason to come to Czechia. One case was an arranged marriage and in three other cases the couples fell in love. Those last mentioned had not considered the option of going abroad before their met their partners. One informant explains it:

“I was studying tourism in Turkey, well if you know it, Antalya in Turkey, I was doing training from university there, our university sent us there for the training. Then groups of Czechs came for holiday, there we met, like there were Czechs, there I met a Czech girl, she was blond, nice, well I don’t know. Suddenly we were talking, drinking and I married her. And I came here, coincidence, I didn’t know,

8_{“[…] já jsem měl u nás kasínový byznys, jako, pracoval jsem v Turecku. U nás to zrušili v devadesátýmosmým [v}

roce 1998], žádný kasíno už neexistovalo a my jsme zůstali bez práce […] čtyři měsíce jsme zůstali bez práce a potom můj známý, Polák, jako s nima jsme u nás pracovali, on byl náš vedoucí. A tak on nás zavolal a říkal, že v České republice potřebují nějaký expat personel […] takže jestli to chceme tam zkusit a já jsem říkal, že samozřejmě zkusíme, my jsme mladý tak pro nás nevadí, že jako cizinci [budeme tam], jako to, aspoň uvidíme nový místo, nový jako lidi, tak my jsme přišli na štěstí takhle.“

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normally, I didn’t even want to go abroad, I was happy in Turkey, but one day changed everything and this is how I came here.”9

Most of the respondents admitted they came to Czechia either because their partner wanted to live in Czechia or their life would be too complicated in the country of origin of the respondent. One kebab employee explains how complex the reasons for moving to Czechia were:

I10_{: “Why did you decide to come to Czechia?”}

R11_{: “[…] This is not about that we couldn’t live in Tunisia, but we can’t because what about the children,} what about the dog of my wife [they are in Czechia] […]. And I can’t speak Czech language, but this is not a problem for me, but my wife can’t speak Arabic. I can find work here, I work in English, in French, but in Tunisia my wife can’t work, she can never speak Arabic. […] It is a hard language and my wife doesn’t speak French either.”

This respondent showed also a huge dedication to the language learning as he had not known English before he met his future wife. It happened by a coincidence, when his future wife, who was on holiday abroad, mistakenly invited him on an event through Facebook. He reflects on it:

“I sent an sms: what is this [the invitation], who are you or something like this. And started ‘Hi, hi.’ and

from this first time we had a problem [smile], because I didn’t speak English […] and after slowly, slowly I started speaking English really fast…fast! It took little, little time, I think two months maybe… or one month and half I was speaking English and I looked wow! Is it me? Impossible, impossible, really, I didn’t believe this too.”

4.3 Other reasons for migration

Among other respondents we can observe a variety of reasons to come to Czechia. Be it university studies or caring about the future of the kids combined with a complicated situation in the country of origin as we can see from the following statement:

“Two years ago, my husband’s work was not good in Turkey, he worked too much. We also have two

children and in Turkey, you know, politics, it’s a mix, chaos. And then we decided with my husband, we have two children, small children and their education in Turkey is very difficult, because the education is not good, we sent our children to a special school which is expensive, but it is not enough for us. Their next life is very important to us, so then we must go to Europe.”

This respondent also spoke about an insufficient language education in the country of origin and suggested the overall situation may well not get better considering the current events. What needs to be noted here is that this interview was carried out a few days after the constitutional referendum in Turkey to which the respondent was likely referring as well.

9_{“Já jsme studoval v Turecku turismus, no, a tam jestli znáte - Antalya v Turecku, my jsme tam udělali praxi od}

naší univerzity, tam nás poslali na praxi. Pak přišli jako skupiny Čechů na dovolenou, tam jsme se poznali, jako byli tam Češi, tam jsem poznal českou holku, byla blondýna, hezká, nevím takhle. Najednou my jsme seděli, pili a oženil jsem se. A já jsem přišel sem, náhoda, jsem nevěděl, jsem normálně ani nechtěl jít do zahraniční, já jsem byl spokojený v Turecku, ale jeden den změnil všechno a takhle jsem přišel.“

10_{“I” refers to the interviewer.} 11_{“R” refers to the respondent.}

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21 Another respondent, who migrated after several years to Czechia shares his views on why he left his home-country at a young age:

“[All] young people want to travel, right. Europeans also go to America or Latin America […] everyone

would like to travel, some people don’t mind staying [at home] and live there. And some really cannot leave the country they live in. And for example, I have a brother, you could give him anything, but he will not leave the country and doesn’t, and doesn’t want to learn new culture, new language […] but for me it was not the case. When I was in Germany, now I am here in Czechia and I am ready to go somewhere else [laughter; he later specifies he does not intend to migrate anywhere now as he has family here].”12

This respondent also used a migration network. He travelled first to Germany (where he had already relatives) before he came to Czechia. Interestingly, another respondent had a connection to Germany too – his uncle was living there, then he came to Czechia to open a kebab business and invited the respondent to join him from Turkey (later, the uncle went back to Germany and our respondent became the head of the business).

4.4 Knowledge about the Czech Republic before migrating

Many kebab entrepreneurs admitted their knowledge of Czechia before arriving was small. A respondent, who has been living in Czechia for more than ten years now, adds, that even the general knowledge about Czechia among residents of his home country was quite scarce:

“Maybe, when you were there [in Turkey], they asked you where you were from. Few people knew Czechia, but if you say Czechoslovakia, people still know it under this name […] I thought, it’s next to Russia, between Russia and Siberia. I didn’t know - this central Europe.” 13

Another respondent, who lived in Germany for several years before moving to Czechia, answers in a more general mode, saying European countries are more democratic, people are satisfied there, earn well and are more free.

Another couple had a very clear idea about what the situation in Czechia would be like as they had travelled there to see it before they moved.

Regarding previous job experience before migrating, three people had worked in the hospitality industry before, others in tourism, construction industry, administration, casino industry or were unemployed. One respondent came because of university studies and with one respondent the topic of the previous job experience did not come up during the interview.

12_{“[Všichni] mladý chtěj jako cestovat, že jo. Evropani taky chodí do Ameriky nebo Latinské Ameriky […] každý by}

chtěl cestovat, ale některým nevadí tam [doma] zůstat a žít. A někteří opravdu nemůžu opustit svoji zem ve které žijí. A například já mám jednoho bráchu, to je jedno co mu dáte, on neopustí [domov] a nechce a nechce učit se nějakou novou kulturu nový jazyk […] pro mě to tak nebylo. Když jsem byl v Německu a potom tady v Česku, až jsem připravený jít někde jinde [smích].“

13_{“Možná se vás, když jste tam [v Turecku] byla, zeptali odkud jste. Českou republiku málo lidí poznalo, ale když}

řeknete Československo, pořád to lidi takhle znají […] já myslel, to je vedle Ruska, mezi Ruskem a Sibiří. Jsem nevěděl - jako střední Evropa.

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4.5 Beginnings in the Czech Republic

Approximately half of the respondents say their beginnings in Czechia were positive or neutral. Below you can get a sense of the feelings of a respondent who came to Czechia to study at university more than 20 years ago. He appreciates his student life at that time:

“Nothing but nice girls and beer and pork knee14_{[laughter].”}15

However, several respondents experienced hard times. One reflects on the beginnings:

“Before, I didn’t like it here a lot. Like one year I all the time wanted to go back […], but my [work] colleague kept saying to me hold on, it will be better. So, I stayed.”16

A female respondent who in her home country finished university came to Czechia to reunite with her husband. This is how she recalls her feelings about the beginning:

“[It was] no great shakes, because I lived in Kabul, my grandfather was an interpreter from Italian language, my family was educated […] I was alone, far away from home, on top of that I was pregnant, without a job, without language. That was hard.”17

For another respondent, the fact that he would have to undergo a military service in the country of origin if he returned there, contributed to his decision to stay in Czechia, where he eventually got used to living and did not want to retun to Turkey in the end anyway.

Several respondents also mention the beginnings were hard because they did not know the Czech language, but except the two who arrived recently, all learned it. Most of them also mention they learned the language mainly from Czech people. One respondent who arrived recently reports starting a language course. One kebab employee talks about the realisation of the need to learn Czech:

“I didn’t know how to speak Czech, no one was helping me, so I was going alone there, there…and I said, I will buy a Czech TV, so that I learn something, right. In our restaurant, also not all the time Czech people were coming, they started only after some time. All the time Turkish people were coming […] but I was saying, you live here, you have to study Czech, right, there is no other option.”18

Another respondent explained how learning the Czech language totally changed his whole view on Czech people:

“Since the entire beginning, the first four, five years, the Czechs seemed to me really strange, really, totally different… I mean... totally! How they are, how they think, for the first five years I thought they were just stupid people, because I didn’t learn Czech language at that time. But when I started to learn, when I understood what they are talking about and how they are talking, I started to think, that actually

14_{Pork knee is a famous dish in a Czech cuisine. The roasted meat is served with mustard, horseradish and bread.} 15_{“Samý hezký holky a pivo a vepřový koleno.“}

16_{“Předtím se mi [tady] nelíbilo moc. Jako jeden rok jsem se pořád chtěl vrátit […], ale kolega [z práce] říkal vydrž,}

bude dobře, tak jsem tu zůstal.”

17_{“[Nebylo to] nic moc, protože já jsem žila v Kábulu, můj děda byl překladatel z italštiny, moje rodina byla}

vzdělaná […] Byla jsem sama, daleko od domova, ještě těhotná, bez práce, bez jazyka. To bylo těžký.“

18_{“Já jsem nevěděl česky, nikdo mě nepomáhal, tak jsem chodil sám tam, tam i říkal jsem, já si koupím českou}

televizi a tak že tam se naučím něco, ne? Jako, tady do restaurace nechodili pořád Češi, potom začínali chodit […] ale já jsem říkal, žiješ tady, musíš se učit česky, ne, jinak to nejde.”

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we are the stupid people. Once you find out the meaning, everything changes, but when you only see, but don’t understand, everything seems in a completely different way.”19

It is also often not given a thought that migrants often speak an impressive amount of languages. During the research, I talked to respondents who were fluent in 3 or 4 languages.

Upon arrival to Czechia, several respondents started working directly in a kebab business, while others had jobs at first where the Czech language was not necessary (e.g. security guard in a shop, working in casino industry) or they engaged in business activities (e.g. running a bar, shop with clothes, shop with carpets).

4.6 Feelings about current life

On the whole, the respondents report being satisfied or quite satisfied with their life in Czechia now. Among several reasons mentioned were safety, laws working better than in the country of origin, discipline on roads among car drivers, good people. Two respondents however mention sadness over doing a job which does not correspond to their level of education. Regarding differences, several respondents mention also the weather – that Czechia is much colder and rainier than their home countries.

Another respondent who came to Czechia to be with his wife talks about gaining new family here:

“[…] my wife is a gift for me and now I have two families – one family in Tunisia and one family here. Ant they [the ‘new family’] really love me, respect me. Maybe you will not believe this, but I am like a god for this family, really […] for example thirteen days ago I had birthday…the whole family came with a gift and were saying happy birthday, všechno nejlepší [happy birthday in Czech], they were kissing me and hugging me. This is not normal, really […] when we finished the party, I held my wife and said thank you...from nothing you make me a family and this is for me…really, this is nice really, this is amazing.”i

Especially those respondents living in Czechia for more than 15 years expressed, they do not feel as foreigners. One kebab owner puts it like this:

“Anway, I am soon requesting for the ID, like, so that I would have like everything for living here […], because my mentality is almost Czech than Turkish. And I don’t want to come back to Turkey…my children want to be here, so [we are not] foreigners anymore, we are almost Czech.”20

Another example comes from my observation in a kebab bistro, where a customer was asking the owners where they were from. The kebab owner in a good mood answered jokingly that they are Czechs from Pragu 4.

19_{“A už jako od začátku prvních, čtyři, pět let, Češi pro mě byli fakt divný, fakt jako, úplně jiný...to je jako…úplně!}

Jaký jsou, jak přemýšlí, pro mě byli jako “blbý člověk” prvních pět let, protože ten čas jsem se neučil česky. Ale když jsem se začal učit, když jsem rozuměl co oni mluví, o čem mluví, už jsem začal říkat, že my jsme blbý. Když pochopíte, to je úplně jinak, ale když koukáte, ale nerozumíte, to je úplně jinak.”

20_{“Já stejně za chvilku žádám o občanku, že jako, aby jsem měl už jako…všechno […], protože moje mentalita je}

už skoro jako Čech než Turek. A nechci se vrátit do Turecka a nechci se vrátit… děti chtějí být tady, takže my [nejsme] už cizinci, my jsme […] my jsme už jako skoro Češi.”

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24 Most of the respondents maintain relations with their country of origin, they often or less often visit it. Also, as many of my respondents were of Turkish origin and the research was carried out at the time of Turkish referendum, in four cases spontaneously this topic came up. Most of the respondents were not happy about the result of the voting, one respondent concluded that his country is now going backwards, not forwards. One respondent was, however, satisfied with the result of the referendum.

4.7 Summary

From this chapter, we can see that the main reasons for the respondents to come to Czechia were work and relationship. We could also observe, that most of the respondents migrated in their young productive age, meaning approximately when they were in their twenties or thirties. Important to note is also the significant role of the migrant network, through which the respondents got information about migration process or the life in the country of destination, or through which they got a job in Czechia. In most cases, we could see the role of the migration network at least at one point of their migration journey. Massey et al. (1993, 448, in Castles et al. 2014, 40) explains migration network is a “set of interpersonal ties that connect migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in origin and

destination areas through bonds of kinship, friendship, and shared community origin” Massey (1990,

8, in Castles et al. 2014, 40) also adds that migration networks can significantly decrease the costs of migration. In our case, we could see that friends, acquaintances, family members or work colleagues arranged or informed the migrant about work opportunity or served generally as a source of information about the country of destination. We can also mention a case of a person who after arriving in Czechia, befriended people from his own ethnic community, through whom he got to know about a business opportunity which became his first job. This responds to the qualitative study on Muslims in Czechia by Čermáková et.al (2016, 325) where the topic of migration network emerged as well.

In general, the migration journey (counting Czechia as the first and final destination) was direct for all respondents except for one case. Many respondents also admitted their knowledge of Czechia before coming was not very big. The beginnings in Czechia were said to be positive, neutral but also negative. The difficulties at the beginning were caused often by not knowing Czech language which also Pavlíková (2012) or Čermáková et.al (2016, 325) report in their research among Czech Muslims. However, all the respondents I interviewed learnt Czech (except for the few who arrived recently – only two respondents out of my samle were living in Czechia for less than 5 years). Three respondents already had experience from hospitality industry before coming to Czechia. On the whole, the respondents are satisfied or quite satisfied with their current life nowadays.

"Food doesn't have borders" : everyday lives of Muslim "kebab entrepreneurs" and their interactions with Czech majority in Prague