Migration, foreigners and the city: socio-spatial differentiation and local social environment

1 Abstract Migration has been an inherent part of population development, and due to its role in shaping settlement system and societal changes also one of the key research interests of social geography. Due to the political regime and the limited movement across state borders, attention was predominantly given to internal migration in Czechia in the second half of the 20th century. Conversely, international migration has only been coming to the fore of academic debate since the 1990s. Despite the broad diversity of aspects of international migration in Czechia and the fact that the city has traditionally been the environment associated with the majority of immigrant population, little consideration has been given to the deeper understanding of the relationship between international migration, the presence of foreign citizens and the urban environment, especially foreigners' influence on socio-spatial differentiation and on social environment of particular urban locales. Czechia is a specific case: a country which was isolated from international migration for four decades became one of the main immigration countries in the post-socialist Central Europe after 1989. It represents a unique occasion to investigate the connection between international migration and the city in a previously unexplored environment..