Emerging modern identities in Eastern Europe
Within a brief historical time period, the European continent has seen new countries emerge and others have their borders changed (e.g. Serbia). Shifts in historically and politically set boundaries have affected some 8 to 10 million people belonging to ethnic minorities throughout eastern Europe. In this time, massive migration flows have heavily influenced the cultural and social climates of both sending and receiving countries. Against this backdrop, and with the motto 'Moving peoples and moving borders' the the ENRI-EAST project set out to study the impacts of particular moving factors on peoples' daily living and feelings of belonging or social affiliation. Empirical research focused on nation states on both sides of the new eastern border of the EU: Belarus, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Particular cases were explored of nations and ethnic groups living on either side of the main political dividing line that now splits the European continent into at least two geopolitical parts. The eastern part comprises countries of the former Soviet Union (USSR) known as Newly Independent States (NIS). About two dozen divided nations or ethnic groups now reside on both sides. A critical common aspect is that these groups have large parts of the population living outside the state borders of their ethnic home nations — the product of moving borders or moving people. ENRI-EAST studied 12 ethnic minorities from 8 countries along the EU's new eastern border, ethnic Germans returning from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and Russian Jews in Germany. Researchers set a number of questions in order to analyse the social past and present of these selected national or ethnic groups. They developed a research design covering theory, history, surveys for data collection, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and a pilot study. In order to generate comparative data, the project developed a large-scale formalised survey (ENRI Values and Identities Survey (ENRI-VIS)) that was a key study component. A total of 144 biographical interviews (ENIR-BIO) and 42 expert interviews (ENRI-EXI) were conducted. Research efforts highlighted a number of important points across topics such as languages, ethno-national tensions, institutional trust, political participation and civil society, collective ethno-national identities, and attitudes toward Europe and the EU. Project experts produced several working papers summarising aspects of theoretical considerations for the study of the interplay of national and regional identities. The ENRI-EAST study confirmed that a tolerant political and social environment promotes integration processes that act to preserve cultural and ethnic identities. Findings indicate that ethnic minorities demonstrate clearly multifaceted types of identity, are mostly attached to the areas where they were born and educated, and are loyal citizens-cum-patriots-cum-Europeans. Project data and findings suggest policy recommendations in several areas: examples are minority issues and cooperation between national institutions, civil society and international organisations for better integration of ethnic minorities. Also, ENRI-EAST emphasised that efforts must be concentrated on the young generation, which is more open to European liberal values.
