The article on the Romani migration from Slovakia to the territory of the Czech Republic is based on the field research realized by the organization „Člověk v tísni" (People in Need) in
the year 2003. Analysis of this probe has shown that the non-asylum Romani migration was in the year 2003 much stronger than the migration of asylum seekers; that in the case of non-asylum migration this was in the first place an innovation migration, while in the case of
asylum seekers it was a so called survival migration. The non-asylum migration was usually a chain migration either of individuals or families and utilises family relations in the country of
origin as well as in the country of final destination. The information is being handed on not only through families, but also in settlements; some of them even specialize in some kind of
migration. The migration of Romani between the Czech Republic and Slovakia is bid-irectional, but more Romani migrate into the Czech Republic then to Slovakia, due to better economic situation there. Romani migration is a dynamic phenomenon and because of its character, based on close family relations of Romani residents on Czech and Slovak territory, it will for sure continue in future.
Authors of the article are members of the Ethnological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and students of the department of Ethnology of the Philosophical Faculty, Charles University in Prague. It is based on the knowledge obtained in the course of the field research of multiethnic villages and towns with Czech minorities, realized in the year 1999 in Southern Ukraine. The research was focused mainly on the town Odessa and villages Bohemka, Veselinovka, Novhorodkivka, Alexandrovka and Lobanovo. Also Melitopol, Zoporoží and other localities are
mentioned. In the text, attention is given especially to the development of the ethnic composition of the inhabitants, their family life and family connections, sociál life and religious activities,
language communication and, partially, also to their folklóre and materiál culture. The researches arrived at a conclusion that in the times of „perestroika “ there was a rapid iníensification of the
interest in the origins of individual families, as well as a growing emphasis on the ethnical consciousness of the inhabitants, At the same time, manifestations of ethnic, minority and national
life in towns and in villages differ profoundly. The authors try to reveal reasons of this foct especially among the members of the Czech minority and to show what exactly do they perceive being base of their Czech identity.
The contribution focuses on ethnography in the Czech lands and its application as a research method. The concept of ethnography used for this purpose sees ethnography as one of the major methods of qualitative research, transformed and modified by development in the field and changes in the society. The author reminds of the fact that ethnography was widely used as a research instrument already in 20th century under different names not only within ethnology and social anthropology but also within other disciplines and that at present it is a favourite research instrument of a number of branches of social science which emphasize qualitative research. Thus ethnography is not the sole property of ethnologists and social anthropologists and they cannot be sure that this method will remain typical and characteristic exclusively for them. Although the text is historically retrospective, it mainly focuses on transformations of ethnography in the late 20th and at the turn of 20th and 21st centuries.