The Construction of European Identity among Ethnic Minorities
This book is concerned with European identities among ethnic minorities who live along the eastern border of the European Union. Based on findings from quantitative and qualitative empirical research conducted with minority groups in eight nation-states on both sides of the new eastern border of the EU, it investigates their attitudes and perceptions of the EU based on their constructions of European identity. Adopting a comparative approach, the author explores different processes of identity construction across several age and ethnic minority groups to develop a theory of European identities in which ethnic identities can be seen as a missing link in explaining relationships between different national, regional and supranational identities. With new insights regarding the political, cultural and instrumental contents of European identity and its emergence, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in ethnic identity, European integration and identity research.
Natalia Waechter is Professor of Pedagogy and Youth Research at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Germany. She is European Vice President of the RC34 (Sociology of Youth) of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and editorial member of the Austrian Journal of Sociology and of Emerging Adulthood. She is also editor of Identities in Central and Eastern Europe: The Construction and Interplay of European, National and Ethnic Identities.
Research in Migration and Ethnic Relations Series
Series Editor
Maykel Verkuyten, ERCOMER
Utrecht University
The Research in Migration and Ethnic Relations series has been at the forefront of research in the field for ten years. The series has built an international reputation for cutting edge theoretical work, for comparative research especially on Europe and for nationally based studies with broader relevance to international issues. Published in association with the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER), Utrecht University, it draws contributions from the best international scholars in the field, offering an interdisciplinary perspective on some of the key issues of the contemporary world.
Other titles in the series
Nationalist Responses to the Crisis in Europe
Old and New Hatreds
Cathrine Thorleifsson
Ethnic Groups and Boundaries Today
A Legacy of Fifty Years
Edited by Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Marek Jakoubek
The Construction of European Identity among Ethnic Minorities
Euro-Minorities in Generational Perspective
Natalia Waechter
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/sociology/series/ASHSER1136
The Construction of European Identity among Ethnic Minorities
Euro-Minorities in Generational Perspective
Natalia Waechter
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Natalia Waechter
The right of Natalia Waechter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-36464-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-43123-4 (ebk)
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To my father and my grandparents who also belonged to an ethnic minority once.
Contents
Many people inside and outside of academia have contributed to my work directly or indirectly and have made this book possible. First of all, I want to thank all members of the ENRI-East consortium and in particular the project coordinator Alexander Chvorostov from the Institute of Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna. Being part of the coordination team and working with the partner teams allowed me not only to develop, implement and use substantial methodological instruments for my research presented in this book but also to gain a deep understanding of European identities in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. I want to specifically mention the national team leaders Ladislav Machek, University of St. Cyril and Methodius, Trnava; Endre Sik, TRKI Social Research Institute, Budapest; Arvydas Matulionis, Institute for Social Research (ISR), Vilnius; Sergei Tumanov, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow; David Rotman, Belarussian State University, Minsk; Vil S. Bakirov, East-Ukrainian Foundation of Social Research, Kharkiv; Konrad Zieliski, Maria Curie-Skodowska University, Lublin; Lyudmila Nurse, Oxford XXI, Oxford, UK; and Barbara Dietz, Osteuropa Institut Regensburg, Germany, as well as my colleagues from the coordination team (IHS) Elisabeth Schimploessl, Victor Cebotari, Pauline Oberthaler, Anna Staudinger, Johannes Wetzinger, Olga Alekseeva, and Hans-Georg Heinrich (University of Vienna). Furthermore, I want to explicitly thank particular colleagues from partner teams who I am most glad I had a chance to successfully cooperate with Antal rkny, TRKI Social Research Institute, Budapest; Florian Pichler and Katie Vincent, University of Aberdeen, UK; Vida Beresneviit, ISR, Vilnius; Alexander Gasparishvili, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow; Oksana Ivanjuto and Natalia Veremeeva, Belarussian State University, Minsk; Kseniya Kizilova and Alexander Kizilov, East-Ukrainian Foundation of Social Research, Kharkiv. Furthermore, I want to thank the respondents of the quantitative survey and the participants in the qualitative interviews for their participation, and for sharing their narratives and attitudes with us researchers.
Many thanks go to Routledge for their professionality and their support, in particular to Alice Salt with whom I enjoyed very much working on the book.
I am very grateful and want to say thank you to Arno Heimgartner, head of the Department of Educational Sciences at University of Graz, for encouraging and supporting me finalizing and submitting my Habilitationsschrift which this book is based on. His constructive comments were most valuable. I also want to thank the critical reviewers of my Habilitation for their good advice and their suggestions that were very extremely helpful for the book. This concerns Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen, UK; Helene Helve, University of Tampere, Finland; and Alfred Berger; University of Innsbruck, Austria.
