Travel to the Old Country: Transnational engagements and the Estonian diaspora
Brad Ruting
Geography School of Geosciences The University of Sydney Sydney, 2008
Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Honours, University of Sydney
Abstract
Mobility is a defining feature of the contemporary world. Histories of migration and dispersal inform contemporary travel patterns and transnational engagements that connect homelands to their diasporas. Migrant groups visiting their
‘homeland’ constitute an important subset of the field of ‘diasporic travel,’ where ethnic, cultural and familial links shape travel and tourism patterns. Little research has been conducted on diasporic travel and its implications for economic and tourism development, transnationalism and migrant identities. This thesis uses semi-structured interviews and a survey of Estonian-Australians to explore the motivations and experiences of migrants and their descendants visiting their homeland. Most Estonian-born Australians fled Estonia as the Soviet Union invaded in 1944. Connections to Estonia were severed and return was impossible for many decades. Cultural identity, nostalgia, family histories, political forces and experiences of exile motivate visits to Estonia, which have become increasingly popular following Estonian independence in 1991. These visits allow kinship and cultural connections to be reaffirmed, leading to new self-conceptualisations of identity, belonging and ‘home’ that differ across generations. However, in many cases these notions embrace both Estonia and Australia, and the sense of belonging felt in Estonia is often incomplete. There has also been declining involvement in
Estonian cultural and political activities in Australia as visits have become undertaken by more Estonian-Australians, and more frequently. The long-distance nationalism of the exile community has been replaced with more individually- oriented forms of emergent transnationalism since Estonian independence. Politics, kinship connections and a ‘sense of place’ are significant for understanding why these exiles and their descendants travel to the ‘old country,’ where experiences range from the emotional and spiritual to the banal and touristic.
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Acknowledgements
[Estonians] have always sort of said: ‘Education is something that you can take
with you. You can lose absolutely everything else, but you always have your
education with you’ (Anu, interview respondent)
There are only so many things that can be squeezed into an honours thesis. Thank- you to the following individuals for their assistance, support and/or feedback—and for helping me (directly or indirectly) to think about what was really worth including:
Maie Barrow (Estonian Archives in Australia), Marita Cuomo, Danielle Drozdzewski, Jen Li, Linda Mulheron, Merle Mäesalu, Triin Pehk, Barry Poole, Bill Pritchard, Amelia Roberts, Christina Ruting, Priyanka Sathe, Reet Simmul (Estonian Archives in Australia), Aap Toming, and Louise Young (Estonian Retirement Village, Thirlmere).
The following organisations have also been of great assistance: the Estonian Archives in Australia, Meie Kodu newspaper, The Estonian Retirement Village (Thirlmere), and the Australasian chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.
Further thanks also go to everyone in the 2008 Geography Honours group at the University of Sydney and everyone who filled out my survey or participated in an interview.
And, of course, thank-you to my supervisor, John Connell, for his assistance, support and patience.
Aitäh!
NB: All photographs in this thesis were taken by Brad Ruting
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© Copyright Brad Ruting, 2008
Contact details
Brad Ruting
School of Geosciences
The University of Sydney NSW 2006
Email: [email protected]
Citation
Ruting, B. (2008), Travel to the Old Country: Transnational engagements and the Estonian diaspora , unpublished Honours thesis, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney.
Publications
Earlier versions of parts of this thesis were presented to the following conferences:
“Nostalgic tourism: Reflections on migration and return travel,” paper presented to the Institute of Australian Geographers conference, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 30 June-2 July 2008.
“Touring the homeland: Diasporic travel by Antipodean Estonians,” paper presented to The Baltic Region: Antipodean Perspectives , Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Australasian Chapter Conference, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 6 September 2008.
“Visiting the homeland: Experiences of diasporic travel between Australia and Estonia,” paper presented to CONTACT: An interdisciplinary challenge in Cultural Studies postgraduate conference , University of Western Sydney, Parramatta, 25-26 September 2008.
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Table of Contents
Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgements...... iii Table of Contents...... v List of Tables ...... viii List of Figures...... viii Chapter 1 Introduction...... 2 1.1 Mobility and geography...... 2 1.2 The questions ...... 4 1.3 The context ...... 5 1.4 Structure of the thesis ...... 5 Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel ...... 8 2.1 Introduction...... 8 2.2 Migration, diasporas and transnationalism...... 9 2.3 Diasporic travel...... 15 2.3.1 Charting the field...... 15 2.3.2 Cultural identity, nostalgia and memory...... 19 2.3.3 Place and landscape ...... 22 2.3.4 Genealogical tourism ...... 24 2.3.5 Personal experiences of diasporic travel...... 25 2.3.6 The social relations of return visits ...... 29 2.4 Paths for exploration...... 30 Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians ...... 35 3.1 Introduction...... 35 3.2 Estonian history ...... 36 3.3 Estonian migration to Australia ...... 38 3.4 The Estonian tourism industry...... 41 3.5 Methodology ...... 42 3.5.1 Why Estonians?...... 42 3.5.2 The research approach...... 43 3.5.3 Surveys...... 44 3.5.4 Interviews ...... 44 3.5.5 Potential sources of bias ...... 48 3.6 Conclusion...... 49 Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland...... 51
v
4.1 Introduction...... 51 4.2 Being Estonian in Australia...... 51 4.3 Motivations for visiting ...... 55 4.3.1 Nostalgic longings...... 55 4.3.2 Family and heritage...... 56 4.3.3 Curiosity and compulsion...... 58 4.3.4 Not visiting...... 60 4.4 Experiences of visiting ...... 61 4.4.1 Overview of visits to Estonia ...... 61 4.4.2 Expectations and first impressions ...... 64 4.4.3 Meeting relatives ...... 66 4.4.4 (Re)connecting with place and landscape...... 68 4.4.5 Tourism and authenticity ...... 70 4.4.6 Perspectives on change...... 71 4.5 Home, identity and belonging...... 73 4.6 Conclusion...... 80 Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism...... 82 5.1 Introduction...... 82 5.2 The Estonian-Australian community ...... 83 5.2.1 Long-distance nationalism ...... 83 5.2.2 Changes over time...... 87 5.2.3 New Estonians ...... 89 5.3 Communication with Estonia ...... 91 5.4 Repeat visits...... 93 5.4.1 From Australia to Estonia ...... 93 5.4.2 From Estonia to Australia ...... 95 5.5 Moving and (im)permanence ...... 96 5.6 Manifestations of emergent transnationalism...... 99 5.6.1 Social and cultural connections ...... 99 5.6.2 Economic connections...... 100 5.6.3 Political connections...... 101 5.7 Implications for Estonian tourism and development ...... 105 5.8 Conclusion...... 106 Chapter 6 Conclusion...... 109 6.1 Overview ...... 109 6.2 Mobility, home and place...... 110 6.3 Final comments...... 117 References...... 121 List of Appendices...... 134 Appendix 1 Studies of diasporic travel...... 135
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Appendix 2 Estonians in Australia...... 139 Appendix 3 Survey form...... 142 Appendix 4 Survey statistics and analysis ...... 148 A4.1 Demographic overview ...... 148 A4.2 Migration ...... 151 A4.3 Relatives and communication ...... 151 A4.4 Estonian-Australian community involvement...... 152 A4.5 Visiting Estonia...... 153 A4.6 Reception ...... 155 A4.7 Not visiting...... 156 A4.8 Where is ‘home’? ...... 156 Appendix 5 Interview questions...... 158 Appendix 6 Soviet-era visits...... 161
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List of Tables
Table 3.1: Number of Estonian-born people in Australia...... 41 Table 3.2: Generational composition of the survey and interview samples ...... 45 Table 4.1: Frequency of visits to Estonia by generation, survey sample ...... 61 Table 4.2: Frequency of visits to Estonia conditional upon having visited at least once, by generation, survey sample...... 62 Table A1.1: Studies that focus substantially on diasporic travel...... 135 Table A2.1: 2006 Census data on Estonians in Australia...... 140 Table A4.1: Age composition of the survey sample ...... 149
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: A schema of diasporic travel...... 16 Figure 3.1: Location of Estonia ...... 35 Figure 4.1: Visits to Estonia made by the sample over time...... 63 Figure A2.1: 2006 Census data on the residency of Estonians in Australia ...... 141 Figure A4.1: Place of current residence, survey sample and 2006 Census...... 150
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1
Chapter 1 Introduction
My roots are there, that’s for sure. It’s, well, my identity in a way… For a long
time I’ve struggled with this… [Estonia] is this tiny little jewel that is so rich.
And problematic—because it carries the heritage. But it’s part of my heritage…
And I think part of knowing who I am is tied up with Estonia… I’m very proud
of so many things that are Estonian (Krista 1)
My homeland. It’s where I was born. One day I go, I hope my children put a blue,
black and white [flag] over my [coffin]—I’d love that (Kadi)
This thesis explores forms of mobility and interconnection that arise from migration histories and experiences. Using the example of Estonian-Australians making trips to Estonia, it examines the motivations, experiences and impacts of people travelling to the place they call their homeland. The passages above capture some of the nebulous themes involved, and the complex, multifarious relationships that many migrants and their children—particularly in the exile context—have with their homeland. Krista’s visits to her distant birthplace are mixed with memories of childhood upheaval, family stories, happiness, pain, homecoming and alienation.
Her identity is confused. By contrast, Kadi, a first generation migrant, wants the
Estonian flag placed over her coffin when she dies. She is irrevocably Estonian.
What does the ancestral homeland mean, and why go there?
1.1 Mobility and geography
Throughout history, waves of migration have dispersed multiple groups of people to places throughout the world, whether in search of better opportunities or due to
1 Names have been changed to maintain the anonymity of respondents.
Chapter 1 Introduction 2
forced or compelled displacement. These movements have been paralleled, complemented and resisted by the mobilities of travellers, temporary workers and tourists. Yet mobility is unevenly distributed. Some people are more mobile than others, depending on historical, geographic and economic circumstances. Mobility is also spatially and temporally fluid. Contemporary migration and tourism are often responses to earlier population movements, along with the economic and political forces that shape the world system. Acts of mobility may be ordinary and everyday, or one-off, disjunctive, life-changing occurrences. Identities may be formed, maintained, shaped, modified, abandoned or destroyed through acts and processes of mobility. In addition, the increasing mobility of goods, ideas and people has, in many cases, strengthened (rather than ‘uprooted’) identifications with place. Attachments to place(s) are central to understanding identity, movement and the migrant experience.
Mobility is most commonly divided into migration and tourism. These have been extensively researched, yet little has been said about how they intersect. Yet as anyone who has returned ‘home’ or visited a distant place of family heritage or cultural identity is aware, migration and tourism have a strong capacity to influence each other. Understanding these interrelationships leads not only to improved knowledge about tourism flows and markets, but also of the intricacies and contradictions of the migrant experience. Whether birthplaces are visited regularly by émigrés, or descendants of migrants travel to their ancestral homeland, understanding the motivations and experiences of these ‘homecomings’ enriches and creates new perspectives on mobility, ethnicity, identity and socio-spatial belonging.
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
1.2 The questions
This thesis explores the social relations that surround travel to a distant ‘homeland’ by those who themselves have migrated or fled from that place and their descendants who make trips to their ancestral homeland. Estonian migrants in
Australia are used as a case-study. These diasporic Estonians cross the globe to reconnect with the ‘old country’ from which many were separated decades ago.
This transversal of distance and time is of great significance. Many who ‘return’ are the descendants of migrants; they were not born and have never lived in Estonia, yet still desire to go ‘back’ there.
The thesis focuses on how past and present forms of mobility and immobility influence contemporary travel patterns, along with the complex personal, social and geographic effects that visiting the homeland can induce. It investigates how personal and family histories of migration, adaptation and cultural maintenance inform motivations to travel to the homeland and the experiences of those who do so. These trips are embedded in broader processes of transnationalism, where familial, social, economic and political connections between the diaspora and homeland are (re)established.
Specifically, the thesis asks what compels people to return temporarily to their birthplace or ancestral homeland and how this is influenced by time, politics, the context of migration and the severance of material and social connections to that place. These motivations also intersect with life stages, nostalgia, familial networks and ethnic identities which shape the diverse experiences of different generational groups of migrants. Expectations of the homeland may not always be fulfilled.
Actual encounters do not always align with memories and imaginations. Visiting the homeland can potentially solidify senses or identity and belonging, or may
Chapter 1 Introduction 4
confuse these. There are also consequences for the way places are experienced, valued and represented, with material effects for these places.
1.3 The context
Most Estonian migration to Australia occurred immediately after the Second World
War, during which the Republic of Estonia was illegally occupied by the Soviet
Union. Many people who escaped Estonia became Displaced Persons who then migrated to Australia, the United States, Canada, Germany and elsewhere. Most
Estonian-Australians were unable or unwilling to visit Estonia until the late 1980s, when restrictions on foreigners were eased. It was not until Estonia regained independence in 1991 that many members of the Estonian ‘diaspora’ began to visit
Estonia. Since then, visits have become highly popular amongst those who can afford such travel.
1.4 Structure of the thesis
The thesis is laid out as follows. Chapter 2 briefly reviews the literature on diasporas, transnationalism and migrant-homeland relationships. It then defines
‘diasporic travel’ and examines existing work in this field. Chapter 3 provides an overview of Estonian history and migration to Australia, and then explains and justifies the methodologies used. Data has been gathered primarily through in- person, semi-structured interviews (34 undertaken), supplemented by telephone surveys (14 undertaken) and a survey in online and paper forms (132 responses).
Chapter 4 examines the motivations and experiences of visiting Estonia. The effects of migration histories, memory, nostalgia and the search for personal heritage on compelling visits to Estonia are analysed, followed by an exploration of the experiences of such travels and the consequences for individual senses of identity,
Chapter 1 Introduction 5
belonging and ‘home.’ Chapter 5 follows with a focus on the social dimensions of visits. It discusses how involvement in the Estonian community in Australia has declined over time, with politicised forms of ‘long-distance nationalism’ having diminished after Estonian independence, replaced with emergent forms of transnationalism that link Australia and Estonia through kinship, social, economic and political connections. Repeat visits comprise the main form of such engagements. Chapter 6 concludes with a discussion of the main findings and contributions of the thesis.
Chapter 1 Introduction 6
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies
of diasporic travel
7
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel
2.1 Introduction
Migration and tourism are widely understood terms yet are difficult to define precisely or, in some instances, distinguish completely from each other. Migration is often considered a one-off, permanent relocation to another place. Tourism is typically conceived as a short-term visit to a distant place for leisure. However, notions of distance, time and permanency implicit in migration and tourism are often arbitrarily defined (Williams and Hall 2000, 2002; Coles and Timothy 2004), and many forms of mobility exhibit characteristics of both. Much has been written and theorised about both migration and tourism. ‘Push’ and ‘pull’ factors that generate population movements under certain political-economic contexts, the impacts of migration on sending and receiving societies, and the varied individual, familial and cultural experiences of relocation are well understood (Silvey and
Lawson 1999; Brettell 2000). There has also been substantial research devoted to understanding factors motivating tourism, competition between destinations, and the impacts of tourism on economies, societies and natural environments (Hall 2005;
Gibson 2008).
However, surprisingly few researchers have sought to bridge migration and tourism studies. Ethnic identities, kinship connections and cultural practices underlie many temporary forms of travel, yet these have been largely ignored until recently (King 1994; Coles and Timothy 2004), as has the potential of tourism to generate labour and retirement related migratory flows (Williams and Hall 2000).
Flows of tourists, travellers and temporary visitors may reverse, re-trace or forge new paths based on earlier movements of migration, displacement or colonialism.
These mobilities are typically etched around existing social networks, kinship links
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 8
and uneven global cultural and economic terrains. Even when migration is unidirectional (rather than multidirectional or circular) and permanent (rather than transient or episodic), it can generate substantial flows of travellers and tourists.
The implications of these mobilities over time and over life spans are far from insignificant.
Despite the irreducibly geographical nature of both migration and tourism, critical engagements with the dynamics of both are conspicuously absent from much scholarship. Perhaps migration researchers have erroneously considered tourism to be ephemeral and largely irrelevant; perhaps tourism researchers have perceived migration as a marginal factor underlying destination selection and inconsequential for tourists’ spending patterns. However, investigating the nexus between migration and tourism can greatly enrich understandings of mobility, identity, transnationalism, politics and development.
This thesis engages with the implications of human mobilities that are at such interstices of migration and tourism. This chapter reviews the background literature. The next section discusses the diverse relationships that migrants form with their homelands. The following section defines ‘diasporic travel’ as travel to place(s) of significance in ethnic and migratory histories. Previous research on travel to homelands is examined, focusing on common motivating factors, the role of place and landscape, genealogical tourism, and personal and social experiences of such travel. The chapter concludes by identifying gaps in existing scholarship that will be addressed in this thesis.
2.2 Migration, diasporas and transnationalism
Migrants often maintain complex and dynamic relationships with their homelands, in material, financial, social and psychological forms. Such connections have been
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 9
explored through work on diasporas, ideologies of return, return migration and transnationalism.
Diasporas, broadly defined, are sets of spatially dispersed groups of people that identify as being of a common origin, and have historically arisen from forced displacement, labour migration, colonialism, trade networks and/or cultural engagements (Cohen 1997). Diasporic peoples often maintain various connections with their homeland or country of origin, preserve cultural memories about that homeland, express a desire to eventually to return to it, and feel some degree of alienation from their current society of residence (Safran 1991; Clifford 1994; Brah
1996; Cohen 1997; Shuval 2000). Diasporas are artefacts of both past migratory episodes and global structural forces, as well as socially constructed communities to which groups of people feel they belong, whether through a sense of collective displacement or a consciousness of common origins in a distant ancestral homeland.
Diasporas are thus imagined communities that take on inherently trans-national forms.
The relationships that individuals and groups that live outside their ‘homeland’ have with that place are shaped by the formation, reproduction and utilisation of diasporic identities and a diasporic ‘consciousness’ (Safran 1991). Being in a diaspora entails a mode of consciousness, cultural memory, mythology and narratives that relate to the homeland and return to it (Shuval 2000). Diasporic identities form in relation to both the cultural and political resources of migrants and their complex connections to distant places, as well as in response to hostility or discrimination in the country of residence (Clifford 1994; Mitchell 1997a). Such identities can also be conveyed to successive generations, who may have no personal experience of life in the homeland, yet maintain strong cultural and political attachments to it (Skrbiš et al. 2007).
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 10
Indeed, living outside of the homeland whilst remaining attached to it has led to the emergence of ‘hybrid’ and ‘creole’ identities, where cultural practices and products of the homeland are adapted to the everyday social, cultural and economic realities of life elsewhere (Bhabha 1994; Clifford 1994; Brah 1996;
Appadurai 1996). Cultural influences are selectively and adaptively combined in ways that act to deterritorialise cultural systems and values (Appadurai 1996).
Individuals may then belong only to ‘third spaces’ that form betwixt the cultural spheres of the homeland and country of residence (Bhabha 1994). Identities may thus emerge as fluid and adaptive responses to changing structural conditions and cultural influences, in a way that unsettles concepts of the nation, rootedness and cultural essentialism by transgressing the national borders and historical narratives of both the sending and receiving country (Bhabha 1994; Brah 1996; Hollinshead
2004). However, it must also be recognised that diasporic identities and experiences are grounded in the everyday realities of specific local places, cultural and political institutions, and modes of hegemony and governance, from which ‘hybridity’ can never offer complete liberation (Mitchell 1997a, 1997b). Cultural processes and the articulation of identities are indelibly linked to particular historic, economic and political forces (Mitchell 1997a; Carter 2005). In essence, whilst diasporic identities and subjectivities can be fluid, dynamic and multiple, they are also products of both agency and structure.
A defining feature of diasporas and many groups of migrants is the reproduction of ideologies, mythologies and narratives of ‘return.’ A ‘myth of return’ involves the articulation of a desire, by a diasporic group, to return permanently to the homeland, and is ingrained within cultural memories and stories about the homeland, along with belief in a right to eventual return (Safran 1991; Baldassar
2001; Skrbiš 1999). This collective desire to return is transmitted generationally through stories, symbols and historical narratives that are manifested in migrant institutions, social practices and household activities. However, the return is always
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 11
contingent on various structural constraints or conditions changing, such as political regimes or personal circumstances (eg, individual work or family responsibilities). Yet when these conditions change permanent return does not always occur. Additional constraints are identified, creating a ‘perpetual suspension’ of actual return that is “suspended for external reasons which are beyond the influence of the individual” (Skrbiš 1999:51). As such, the concept of return is mostly an “eschatological concept” that makes “life more tolerable by holding out a utopia” (Safran 1991:94). Furthermore, material living standards and life opportunities may be better in the diaspora than in the homeland, making a permanent return undesirable, and since homelands are likely to have changed economically, politically and culturally since migration, the remembered and romanticised homeland of return ideology may no longer exist to be returned to
(Brah 1996; Markowitz 2004). Nevertheless, the myth of return may be retained to facilitate a sense of ontological security or generate solidarity within diasporic communities, even though such ‘myths’ are often politicised, and multiple, conflicting versions may exist (Smith and Jackson 1999).
However, permanent relocation to the homeland can and does occur. The myth of return can become a reality, yet return migration to the homeland is often characterised by complex and unexpected encounters and social relations, particularly when migrants have been absent from it for a long duration, or were not born there (Gmelch 1980; Oxfeld and Long 2004; Markowitz and Stefansson
2004; Potter et al. 2005). Individuals may ‘move back’ due to their life stage (eg, retirement), the presence of family members in the homeland, economic ‘success’
(or lack thereof) in the receiving country, the intensity and form of return ideologies, or their engagements with transnational economic, cultural or social ties with their homeland (Duval 2004a; Oxfeld and Long 2004; Potter et al. 2005).
However, such return migration also has social and economic implications for the places returned to (Gmelch 1980; Potter et al. 2005), and, for some individuals who
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 12
do not achieve the sense of belonging they desired, may result in a later move back to the receiving country (Markowitz and Stefansson 2004).
The most pervasive forms of relationships that emerge between migrants and their homelands can be broadly conceived as transnationalism. Migrant transnationalism involves the creation and maintenance of social, economic and political connections that span the borders of nation-states and link the homeland to one or more places its emigrants have settled in (Basch et al. 1994; Ong 1999; Portes et al. 1999; Vertovec
1999; Faist 2000; Levitt 2001; Blunt 2007). In the contemporary world transnationalism can act as both a consequence and a driver of flexible accumulation, deterritorialised national politics, ‘hybrid’ cultural products and diverse social networks (Basch et al. 1994; Appadurai 1996). Transnational linkages allow migrants to form various social and cultural connections to their homeland, allowing them to become co-located in two societies simultaneously. Such migrants may develop psychological and social attachments to these places, send goods or information between them, travel between them, or become politically involved with their homeland whilst living outside of it. Transnationalism may be mediated through community organisations in the diaspora and particular homeland institutions or, alternatively, through ‘small scale’ forms of everyday media consumption and emotional attachment to the homeland that constitute sporadic, voluntary and personalised forms of connection (Burrell 2003; McAuliffe 2008).
Transnational networks can also incorporate property and business investment, remittances, migration flows, media products or conceptions of ethnicity and nationhood (Mitchell 1997a; Ong 1999; Baldassar 2001; Duval 2003; Carter 2005).
‘Hybrid’ identities can become constantly reshaped and reproduced through these linkages and associated strategies.
Transnational networks also allow homeland politicians and governments to mobilise their ‘deterritorialised’ citizentry (citizens living outside the homeland) as
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 13
a source of political support or economic investment (Basch et al. 1994; Mitchell
1997a; Skrbiš 1999; Østergard-Nielsen 2003; Mavroudi 2007). Nation-states themselves have thus become partly deterritorialised, whilst some ‘transmigrants’ have simultaneously become involved in receiving country politics as they seek to advance their interests there (Basch et al. 1994). Diasporic politics and nationalist sentiments constitute an important subset of transnationalism. Political activities conducted by diaspora or migrant organisations that reinforce ties to the homeland and attempt to influence its political trajectories have been termed ‘long-distance nationalism’ (Anderson 1992, 1994; Skrbiš 1999). This may involve articulations of identity politics, propaganda, political party involvement (membership and/or financial support) and voting in homeland elections. Information about the homeland may also become selectively filtered through diaspora organisations that privilege particular nationalist narratives over other political positions (Skrbiš 1999).
However, living in a different country, individuals engaging in long-distance nationalism bear no political responsibility for these actions and rarely suffer their consequences (Anderson 1992). More broadly, long-distance nationalism can also combine with forms of ‘banal nationalism’ (Billig 1995) that foster nationalist sentiments towards the homeland through everyday social and cultural practices in the diaspora (Skrbiš 1999; Carter 2005). This is reinforced through particular representations, cultural memories and ideologies of the homeland, as well as through the creation of particular migrant spaces and urban localities that attempt to maintain and support certain cultural aspects of the migrant group (Skrbiš 1999;
Drozdzewski 2007; Ehrkamp 2008; McAuliffe 2008). These processes enhance a sense of an ‘imagined community’ of the homeland nation that becomes the prime cultural and political referent for personal and public spheres of migrant life.
However, there has been a tendency for many researchers to overlook the complex sets of travel mobilities contained within transnational practices, perhaps because of their very obviousness. Through physical visits to the homeland (or other
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 14
diasporic sites), flows of individuals (re)structure and (re)shape the economic, cultural and political terrain of transnationalism, whilst engaging with conceptions of identity, place and difference. Yet “diasporas have been under-valorized in tourism discourse” (Coles and Timothy 2004:13) and “the literature on diaspora and hybridity has on the whole neglected tourism” (Bruner 1996:290). The effects of transnational connections, mobilities and mobilisations on senses of and attachments to place(s) have also been underappreciated (Conway 2005). These dimensions come to the fore in the phenomenon of diasporic travel.
2.3 Diasporic travel
2.3.1 Charting the field
‘Diasporic travel’ refers to the phenomenon of people visiting a distant place to which they have kinship, cultural or ancestral connections. It includes visits to birthplaces, ancestral homelands, other sites in a diaspora, places of migrant settlement, former transit spaces, sites of ethnic oppression, and other locations of ethnic or cultural significance to individuals or their families (see Figure 2.1, page
16). This definition is intentionally broad and highlights the importance of ethnicity, culture, identity, migration histories, national belonging and attachments to place for diverse travel mobilities. It builds upon previous conceptualisations of these phenomena, which have been variously termed ‘personal heritage tourism’
(Timothy 1997), ‘ethnic tourism’ (King 1994), ‘ethnic reunion’ (Stephenson 2002),
‘ethnic pilgrimages’ (Kelly 2000), ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives’ (Moscardo et al.
2000; Duval 2003), ‘roots tourism’ (Bruner 1996; Basu 2007), and ‘visits home’
(Baldassar 2001), which are undertaken by ‘old-country visitors’ (Cohen 1974).
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 15
Ancestral homeland
Visiting the homeland (eg, Baldassar 2001; Homeland populations Stephenson 2002) Visiting the (distant) visiting the diaspora (eg, ‘Roots tourism’ (eg, ancestral homeland Levy 2004) Bruner 1996; Basu (eg, Voigt-Graf 2008, 2007) Bandyopadhyay 2008)
Diaspora Diaspora community community Visiting the or site diaspora (eg, or site Pinho 2008) Visiting the non- ’homeland’ birthplace (eg, Voigt-Graf 2008)
Travel to: ‘Second’ Spaces of migration (eg, Maddern migration 2004) Sites of ethnic or cultural diaspora site significance, collective oppression, etc (eg, Coles 2004) Cultural festivals (eg, Ray 2001; Che Potential flow 2004) of diasporic travellers
Figure 2.1: A schema of diasporic travel
The diasporic traveller is conceptually situated somewhere between the ideal types of the ‘migrant’ (relocating for a permanent or extended period), the ‘tourist’
(temporally sojourning for leisure) and the ‘pilgrim’ (journeying to a site of spiritual or religious significance) ( cf Cohen 1974, 1992). In a world shaped by mass migrations, time-space compression, accelerating cultural exchanges and the globalising tendencies of capitalism (Harvey 1989; Appadurai 1996; Dicken 2003), the distinctions between migration, tourism and pilgrimage have been blurred significantly. The social, political and cultural dynamics that motivate diasporic travel and shape their effects on places and people are often substantially different
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 16
to those of ‘mainstream’ tourism (Stephenson 2002; Duval 2003). The travels 2 of migrants between homeland and diaspora also shape (and are shaped by) networks of dynamic and multidirectional transnational engagements, as well as diasporic and hybrid identities.
Although migration experiences, desires to return ‘home’ and the quest for ‘roots’ have been extensively covered in autobiographical and fictional writing (White
1995), the academic study of diasporic travel is relatively recent. Earlier approaches, particularly from tourism studies, typically involved macro-level statistical analyses of tourism flows to identify the economic importance of homelands as travel destinations (Thanopoulos and Walle 1988; King and Gamage 1994; Asiedu
2005) and the prevalence of such travel for migrant groups (Ostrowski 1991; Hall and Duval 2004). For example, an estimated 11 per cent of first generation migrants to Australia visit their homelands regularly (O’Flaherty et al. 2007), and a majority of Chinese immigrants to New Zealand make regular trips to China (Feng and Page
2000).
Most case studies, however, have utilised ethnographic techniques to examine individual experiences of diasporic travel. The majority of studies have examined homeland visits or travel to trace genealogies and explore personal or family heritage, across many different cultural contexts. A list of case studies that focus wholly or mostly on diasporic travel is compiled in Appendix 1 (page 135), identifying the sites of origin and destination along with the general methodological approach and ‘scale’ of each study.
2 Throughout this thesis, the words ‘travel’ and ‘tourism’ have been used somewhat synonymously, although the former has a wider definitional scope (Cohen 1974) and the motivations and experiences of diasporic travel are not always necessarily ‘touristic.’
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 17
A small amount of theorisation has occurred in the field of diasporic travel. Coles and Timothy (2004) identified several ways in which diasporas and tourism intersect, such as through trips to a homeland or diasporic/ethnic enclave, genealogical research, homeland populations visiting the diaspora and tourism to
‘spaces of transit.’ They conclude that these intersections offer rich perspectives on migration, colonialism, race, power, tradition, choice and culture (Timothy and
Coles 2004:291). More specifically, Baldassar (2001) has conceptualised ‘return visits’ to the homeland as part of the migratory process itself, functioning to negotiate settlement in a new country, maintain connections with distant relatives, engage with nostalgia for past times and places, and to create fluid, transnational identities. The importance of kinship obligations and cultural values in generating visits to the homeland has also been highlighted (Baldassar 2001; Nguyen and King
2002; Stephenson 2002; Oxfeld 2004), albeit in culturally specific contexts. However, almost all ethnographic and theoretical forays into diasporic travel have been undertaken by anthropologists. Whilst many valuable outcomes have arisen, the spatial dimensions and geographic implications have often been marginalised.
The significance of diasporic travel has also been neglected by many governments
(and statistical agencies), with the implications for economic development, migrant adaptation and political engagements often underappreciated (Nash 2002; Coles and Timothy 2004; Scheyvens 2007). However, diasporic travel has numerous implications for the tourism industry. Visiting relatives or friends typically involves spending less on accommodation and transport, yet is more likely to involve longer stays and travelling to more places within a country or region, helping to spread the benefits of tourism spending (King and Gamage 1994; Duval 2003; Asiedu 2005;
Scheyvens 2007). In some respects, it is thus closer to domestic rather than mainstream international tourism (Scheyvens 2007), and may exhibit less variation over time as there is typically a greater personal interest in, or connection to, the destination. In some cases diasporas, expatriates and others with genealogical
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 18
connections have been targeted by tourism development agencies, leading to the production of institutionalised and commercialised diasporic travel services (Nash
2002; Morgan et al. 2002; Basu 2007; Schramm 2004; Timothy 2008). Other benefits may accrue, such as business and property investment or remittances (Lew and
Wong 2002, 2004; Oxfeld 2004). However, benefits may be unevenly distributed and disputes may arise as visitors attempt to reclaim former properties, or as diaspora populations become involved in domestic politics (Skrbiš 1999; Carter
2005).
2.3.2 Cultural identity, nostalgia and memory
If the past is a foreign country, nostalgia has made it ‘the foreign country with
the healthiest tourist trade of all’ (Lowenthal 1985:4)
Motivations to undertake diasporic travel—and, specifically, to visit a
‘homeland’—are complex and varied, ranging from visiting relatives and friends, maintaining cultural identities, attending festivals or celebrations, and engaging in tourism. 3 An historical awareness of the homeland is particularly influential, as are cultural practices in the diaspora (Baldassar 2001; Stephenson 2002). For first generation migrants, memories of the homeland can combine with feelings of alienation within the ‘receiving’ 4 society and a need to rekindle cultural identities to compel visits (Baldassar 2001; Duval 2003; Nguyen and King 2004). For example, many Vietnamese migrants travel back to Vietnam to preserve cultural meanings and achieve a ‘balanced life’ as their cultural practices adapt to living elsewhere
(Nguyen and King 2002). Caribbean migrants visit their homelands as a way of
3 The discussion from here onwards focuses only on homeland visits, the largest incarnation of diasporic travel and the focus of this thesis. 4 The term ‘receiving’ is used here to refer to the country where people have migrated from , and the term ‘sending’ to the country they have migrated to . These terms are imperfect, as they are inverted in the case of diasporic travel to the natal homeland. The terms ‘home’ and ‘host’ country have been purposely avoided, as notions of ‘home’ are often multiple and dynamic and, furthermore, those who visit their birthplace or homeland may be treated by relatives there as visitors to be ‘hosted’ (see Duval 2003).
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 19
negotiating their own identities by contextualising and maintaining social histories and cultural practices after emigration (Stephenson 2002; Duval 2003). Indeed, travel to the homeland becomes a way to observe economic and social changes there that have occurred since migration, and to situate the self within those changes (Duval 2003). Demonstrating connections to the homeland and recounting experiences of visiting can also become ways of enhancing self-esteem, social prestige and cultural capital in the diaspora (Lew and Wong 2002; Stephenson 2002;
Oxfeld 2004). For second and third generation migrants such travels may become ways of ‘consuming’ ethnic ‘goods’ to reinforce ethnic identities (Kelly 2000;
Nguyen and King 2004).
Emotional and sentimental attachments to place are of underlying significance to these dynamics. The complex relationships between place and memory, emotion, history and identity influence mobilities as well as the way that places are experienced (Nora 1989; Hoelscher and Alderman 2004; Bondi et al. 2005;
Conradson and McKay 2007; Legg 2007). For many first generation migrants, nostalgia for the people and places of the homeland may be a strong factor compelling trips ‘back home.’ For Italian migrants in Australia, no matter how settled or successful in their new location:
The agony of distance, the painful longing for home—like unresolved grief—
never totally leaves them and is apt to flare up with the same intensity as they
experienced on the day of their arrival… These episodes of grieving do not seem
to become less frequent with time. It is this nostalgia that fuels the ever-increasing
incidence of visits ‘home’ (Baldassar 2001:4, original emphasis)
Nostalgia is a form of longing for an earlier and idealised past place, or a particular social formation of a past time, that forms as a way of seeking comfort in the uncertain or unsatisfying present by looking back to times of greater continuity and durability (Lowenthal 1985; Pickering and Keightley 2006). The term denotes
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 20
‘homesickness’—nostos algia in Greek—literally a painful longing for a return home.
For migrants, the homeland is often remembered in a romanticised and sentimental form, as a way of engaging with a sense of place that is sanitised and historical, yet generates an emotional desire to return ‘home.’ This nostalgia can be brought on by communication with the homeland, representations of homeland landscapes, involvement in diaspora activities, and particular foods, smells, sights and sounds
(Anderson 1994; Baldassar 2001; Sutton 2001; Wulff 2007; Bandyopadhyay 2008).
Indeed, nostalgia can also arise as a longing for past times, seemingly simpler lifestyles or childhoods, inducing a quest for both personal and national heritage as security is sought in memory and history. Nostalgia thus compels much contemporary heritage tourism (MacCannell 1976; Lowenthal 1985; Hewison 1987;
Graburn 1995). Such nostalgia is posited to arise later in life, such as after retirement, when reflection upon past experiences, achievements and places provokes a longing to re-experience these (Baldassar 2001).
For migrants, visiting the homeland becomes a way of engaging with, and potentially quelling, such nostalgia, yet in a way that does not require the substantial disruption to settled lives in receiving societies that return migration would involve. The search for meaningful and satisfying experiences in the homeland also suggests that homeland visits exhibit similarities to religious pilgrimages (Graburn 1976; Coleman and Eade 2004; Basu 2004b). A strong emotive or spiritual pull may compel migrants and their descendants to visit their homeland, a form of secular pilgrimage that may also be translated into a desire to return to the homeland prior to death, or to close the migratory ‘loop’ by being buried there (Huseby-Darvas 2004).
For the children of migrants and subsequent generations, a desire to visit the homeland may also emerge from the stories of parents or grandparents, which foster curiosity for the homeland and/or a sense of diasporic consciousness
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 21
(Stephenson 2002; Carter 2004; Skerrett 2008). Second and third generations of migrants visiting the homelands of their parents or grandparents have attracted limited research (Kelly 2000; Baldassar 2001; Carter 2004; Kwiatkowski 2006). For these individuals, travel to the homeland can function as a ‘rite of passage,’ an international journey that is made independent of parents, yet in the company of relatives or co-ethnics (Baldassar 2001; Kwiatkowski 2006; Cohen 2008). Homeland visits may also be undertaken for university exchange courses, volunteering, political projects (Carter 2004) or ‘educational heritage tourism’ (Cohen 2004, 2008).
These journeys can become ways to assert ethic identities or establish connections to the homeland by creating personal experiences and memories of that place
(Skrbiš 1999; Carter 2004; Kwiatkowski 2006; Skrbiš et al. 2007).
2.3.3 Place and landscape
A frequently marginalised aspect of diasporic travel research is the crucial role of place and landscape. 5 Experiences and discourses of, and attachments to, place are fundamental to feelings of uprootedness, physical disconnection and longing for a homeland, as well as for the creation of particular spaces in the receiving society by migrants. For example, Italian migrants’ emotional connections to, and pride of, their natal villages ( campanilismo ) stimulates many to visit their homeland
(Baldassar 2001). Visual depictions of homeland landscapes, natural features and towns or cities (such as posters, photographs, books or calendars), when displayed in the diaspora, become important referents for the homeland that may evoke forms of nostalgia, even among successive generations of migrants who may never have been there (Basu 2007). Pictures, symbols and ethnic or national artefacts in diasporic homes and community spaces can serve as ‘ethnic shrines’ that seek to establish ongoing familiarity with homeland (Kelly 2000:71), whilst photographs
5 There are, of course, several notable exceptions, such as Baldassar (2001), Kwiatkowski (2006) and Basu (2007), which deal comprehensively with attachments, representations and experiences of place, respectively.
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 22
taken on visits can be used to recreate particular ‘homelandscapes’ by foregrounding particular people, monuments or landscapes that allow individual travellers to construct visual stories of their journeys which may then be told to others (Kwiatkowski 2006:225). The way places are remembered, represented and discussed in the diaspora also influences the reproduction of diasporic consciousness and the ‘myth of return’ by stimulating imagination about returning to the places depicted. The materiality of particular environments can thus provoke individual and collective memories that are situated in place and time (Legg 2007;
Drozdzewski 2008).
Notions of belonging, ethnic identity and of ‘homecoming’ thereby become embedded into the landscape of the ancestral homeland through such representations, as well as through travel patterns (Basu 2007). However, places are also entwined with many different sets of social relations, memories and cultural values (Bender 2001; Urry 2005), and the meaning of particular sites can become contested (Bruner 1996). Place identifications and emotions may also operate at different scales, from the local to the national or regional. For example, many Italian migrants go ‘home’ to their natal village, but then consider themselves ‘tourists’ when travelling elsewhere in Italy (Baldassar 2001). Roots tourists in Scotland tend to identify with the rugged landscapes of the Scottish Highlands (and their ancestors from that region), partly due to its frequent depiction in a romanticised form through paintings, film and literature of Scotland (Basu 2007). The way that diasporic travellers attach particular values to places and their representations—at both the specific local scale and a more abstract provincial or national scale—is an important way of maintaining an attachment to those places whilst living away from them. This ‘sense of place’ is fundamental to the nostalgia for the homeland, motivating visits to it, the (re)creation of diasporic spaces and the formation of links between diaspora and homeland.
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 23
2.3.4 Genealogical tourism
Genealogy is about significant places—family homes and ‘origins’—and complex
global networks of travel, desire and imagination (Nash 2002:29)
Travel to an ‘ancestral homeland’ may also be motivated by a desire to seek out personal and familial ‘roots’ by researching genealogies, family histories and significant historical events. Indeed, “tourism is increasingly a channel for the fulfilment of the desire to reconnect with a past ‘land of origin’” (Pinho 2008:71).
Such travel may consist of visits to churches, libraries or archives to uncover information about ancestors and plot family trees, whilst experiencing the place whence ancestors originated (Nash 2002; Basu 2007; Guelke and Timothy 2008) and rediscovering history through constructing personalised and localised narratives
(Meethan 2004). Such roots tourism tends to involve consumption of the landscape and built and cultural heritage in the country where ancestors once lived, or more specific visits to sites of family significance, such as villages, houses, ruins or graveyards. Even when little is known about individual ancestors or the exact villages or houses where they lived, there can still be a strong desire to experience and spiritually reconnect with these landscapes of personal heritage (Bruner 1996;
Schramm 2004; Basu 2007).
Researching and identifying—and identifying with—ancestral pasts can be a way of creating a sense of identity and belonging in the world, through forming connections to distant (and somewhat ‘exotic’) places and ancestors. Travelling to the ‘ancestral homeland’ might be undertaken to claim corresponding ethnic identities, embrace a sense of ‘indigeneity’ or ancestral rootedness, or to seek stability and historicity in the face of the disruptive and fragmentary nature of modern lives and socio-economic changes (Nash 2002; Basu 2007). By looking temporally backwards to family history, a sense of attachment to simpler times or
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 24
to different places can be established through affirming biological, inherent and essential connections (Nash 2002). However, genealogical research does not always solidify identities and attachments to place. If multiple ethnic backgrounds or unexpected actions by ancestors are uncovered, it may also, paradoxically, enhance feelings of up-rootedness, confuse identities and destabilise fixed notions of shared histories and cultural traditions (Nash 2002; Dawson and Johnston 2001).
However, roots tourism has become highly popular, particularly amongst African-
American and Jewish populations, or those descended from ‘Celtic’ countries.
Many middle-class whites in the US, Canada and Australia travel to the Scottish
Highlands to experience the landscape and ruined houses or graves of distant ancestors, forming personally meaningful attachments to the particular places they consider themselves descended from (Basu 2007). Similarly, many African-
Americans visit the slave castles of Ghana as a way of reconnecting with their ancestors, emotionally engaging with historical discourses of slavery to reassert and revalue their black identities (Bruner 1996; Timothy and Teye 2004). Through such ventures, a spiritual centre is sought—the source of identity—that allows traumatic cultural memories to be confronted to achieve a sense of catharsis
(Schramm 2004).
2.3.5 Personal experiences of diasporic travel
Travelling to a homeland that is a central part of cultural identities, family traditions and historical discourses in the diaspora has the potential to reaffirm seemingly stable conceptions of identity, belonging, place and culture. However, experiences are varied, and prior expectations are not always met. Social norms, languages, cultural practices, standards of living and political structures of the homeland may have changed since migrants left, and contemporary lives in the receiving society may be vastly different to those in the homeland. A desire to ‘fit in’ may be constantly denied by a plethora of unexpected differences, or by the
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 25
reception from those who live in the homeland. These encounters can challenge migrants’ memories of their birthplace and unsettle narratives of the homeland that have been passed onto subsequent generations. When a particular past version of the homeland is imagined, reproduced and longed for in the diaspora, the shock of experiencing a vastly different place can lead to conceptions of identity, belonging and home being questioned or realigned, even if, paradoxically, the purpose of the trip was to reinforce preconceived ideas about these notions.
For those who themselves emigrated from the homeland, a true ‘homecoming’ may thus be impossible, with the desire to experience the longed for (and inevitably past) version of that homeland becoming partly or wholly unsettled by experiencing a place that is vastly different (Brah 1996; Read 1996; Markowitz 2004; Levy 2004).
Although semi-fixed notions of ‘home’ held in the diaspora may change over time, for some migrants the homeland may become unrecognisable and, to varying degrees, feel hostile to them upon their return. The ‘homecomers’ feel out of place, denied the pure and uncontested form of ethnic identity they sought to claim or enhance (Baldassar 2001; Stephenson 2002). It may be possible to return to the place that is remembered or thought of as ‘home,’ but it is impossible to return to the time of what is remembered. Journeying ‘back,’ in a physical sense, may only be achieved spatially; temporal return can only be imagined. Anticipating that what is acutely desired has been lost or is unattainable is, furthermore, a major reason why some emigrants choose not to travel back to their homelands (Smith and Jackson
1999; Baldassar 2001). Disjunctive experiences in the homeland may also cause
‘home’ to be detached from ‘homeland,’ with a sense of belonging re-routed to the receiving society, or even up-rooted completely, producing a sensation of
‘homelessness’ (Rapport and Dawson 1998). “Home is not an ontological given; it is always emergent” (Markowitz 2004:24), and may become felt in the diaspora, particularly if the migrant did not experience a difficult and prolonged adjustment to that country. Alternatively, the homeland may remain a cultural and spiritual
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 26
homeland, a land of descent and identification, yet not the place of everyday belonging and social participation (Kelly 2000; Voigt-Graf 2008).
Yet the very popularity of homeland visits suggests that such negative potentials should not be overemphasised. For first generation migrants in particular, visiting the homeland can be a highly ambivalent experience. Visits are a way of engaging with the nostalgia for a past home, even when the experience is tempered with everyday realities of the homeland that are unexpected or unappealing. The positive aspects may only be fully realised upon returning to the receiving society.
For example, travelling to Vietnam enhances the sense of cultural identity of
Vietnamese-Australians (Nguyen and King 2004), and anticipating return to the
Caribbean homeland is a ‘fantasy’ that assists with negotiating everyday life and discrimination for Caribbean migrants living in the UK, even when these migrants find it difficult it fit in socially when returning to their homelands (Stephenson
2002).
However, visits to the homeland affect ethnic identities differently for second and third generation migrants. Having grown up in the receiving society, yet with familial and cultural attachments to the homeland, ethnic identities may incorporate elements of both places, and can be fluid or even multiple (Hall 1991b).
Ethnic identities may be inscribed by others (eg, through discrimination) or may be used to selectively assert a migrant background whilst remaining attached to the country of residence (Hague 2002). Indeed, identities can also be performed through drawing selectively upon ethnic symbols or cultural traits of the past, rather than relying on, or participating in, an organised ethnic ‘community’ (Gans
1979; Kelly 2000). Travelling to the ancestral homeland is thus one way of engaging with and shaping such ethnic identities. For example, visiting the homeland may become a way to learn how to be ‘Italian’ (Baldassar 2001) or ‘Polish’ (Kwiatkowski
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 27
2006) through consuming elements of those cultures.6 Successive generations of
Lithuanian-Americans tend to have more positive and fulfilling experiences than first generation exiles when visiting Lithuania (Kelly 2000). However, as visits increase in duration they experience the ‘real’ Lithuania, which contrasts with their ideas of it in the diaspora. This paradoxically makes them feel progressively more
American.
Furthermore, there appear to be important differences between diasporic travel by first and second generation migrants and those with a more distant connection to their ‘homeland,’ such as roots tourists. The latter distinction has not yet been explored in the literature. Roots tourists have no previous individual memory about the homeland in past times, may know few family stories or cultural memories relating to the homeland, and have no nostalgic longings for specific local places that can be ruptured by visiting them (in contrast to first generation migrants). Indeed, many roots tourists often do achieve the sense of identity affirmation and belonging that they initially desired (Bruner 1996; Basu 2007).
Furthermore, roots tourism is often about historical events, landscapes, architecture, ruins and graves—inanimate things—rather than interactions with relatives, social norms or everyday cultural practices—living things that can and do change over time.
6 These identities are also, for second and third generations, often oriented to entire nations or countries, rather than to particular villages or cities as the case may be for their parents and grandparents (cf, Baldassar 2001).
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 28
2.3.6 The social relations of return visits
Unlike migration… ethnic reunion [travel] entails a transversal-type movement
for the intention of satisfying cultural needs, personal desires and social
obligations (Stephenson 2002:397)
Travel to sites of familial, ancestral or cultural significance is entwined with particular social and power relations that both compel visits to be made and shape the experiences of visits as they occur. These dynamics are often contingent upon particular cultural, migratory or familial contexts, although a number of themes do emerge across the extant literature. For many migrants, the homeland is visited for personal reasons as well as to satisfy kinship obligations and cultural expectations
(Stephenson 2002; Mason 2004; Nguyen and King 2004) or even, for some male migrants, to find suitable wives (Skrbiš 1999; Baldassar 2001; Nguyen and King
2002). Migrants and their children may be expected to return to the natal village at some point, to stay with relatives, and bring gifts for them (Mandel 1990; Baldassar
2001; Lew and Wong 2004; Mason 2004; Oxfeld 2004; Kwiatkowski 2006).
Obligations may also extend to attendance at relatives’ ‘rites of passage’ or festivals, caring for elderly parents, or tending to ancestors’ graves (Stephenson 2002; Duval
2003; Nguyen and King 2002, 2004; Oxfeld 2004). There may also be a social expectation, as in China, that returnees donate money to local institutions or village authorities (Oxfeld 2004). These practices are important ways in which a continuity of culture, family and identity is maintained across transnational space and great physical distances.
However, individual decision-making capacities can become constrained through such obligations and social hierarchies, both in terms of the decision to visit the homeland (Nguyen and King 2002) and the freedom of movement or activity once there, particularly if there is an obligation to accept relatives’ hospitality (Baldassar
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 29
2001; Kwiatkowski 2006). Faced with complex social obligations or power relations in the homeland, visitors may question their sense of identity or belonging in that place. For example, many Italians migrated from their villages to accumulate wealth abroad, which would allow them to return ‘home’ and achieve sistemazione
(establishing an independent household) (Baldassar 2001). However, most have not moved back but, rather, make return visits. When doing so they find themselves and their children lower-down on the social hierarchy and obliged to assist with household work—characterised by gender-specific practices—for the relatives they stay with. More generally, returning migrants and their children do not usually consider themselves to be foreigners or tourists, yet homeland populations, including relatives, may perceive them as such, leading to “the disjunctive condition of being a ‘foreigner’ in the ancestral homeland” (Stephenson 2002:411).
Despite Caribbean migrants’ attempts to distinguish themselves from white tourists and fit into local ways of life, they are often marked out by their foreign clothing, possessions and accents (Stephenson 2002; Duval 2003). Similarly, Turkish
Gastarbeiter (migrant workers) in Germany that make trips back to Turkey are
“effectively barred from returning to their former identities and relationships [and] have become irrevocably marked by virtue of their extended absence from Turkey”
(Mandel 1990:159-160). In these and other situations, there may also be obligations for returnees to bring money and gifts for relatives and friends in the homeland, who, nevertheless, still treat them as foreigners (Mandel 1990; Oxfeld 2004).
2.4 Paths for exploration
The field of diasporic travel sits at the nexus of migration and tourism. This chapter has examined the relationships that migrants may form with their homeland, defined ‘diasporic travel’ and provided an overview of existing research in this field (which is dominated by case studies). Whilst some valuable work has recently
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 30
been conducted, many aspects are underdeveloped. This thesis attempts to fill these interstices by examining travel to the Estonian homeland.
First, existing studies have focused either on first generation migrants (and, to a lesser extent, their children) travelling to natal villages or places where familial and social connections have been maintained, or, alternatively, on roots tourists seeking to forge new connections to distant ‘ancestral’ places based on particular genealogical and historical claims. Less has been said about groups who have remained settled outside of their ancestral homeland for long periods of time with little or no material or social contact with the homeland. Little is known about how connections to, and longings for, the homeland may be reinvigorated or constructed through travel practices. Furthermore, whilst exiled and displaced populations have attracted an increasing amount of study (eg, Van Hear 1998), little has been said about their travel behaviour (Kelly’s 2000 study of Lithuanian exiles is the exception). There is a need to research visits to the homeland by exiled populations and their descendants once political conditions in the homeland change, and the implications this has for their sense of identity and belonging.
Chapter 4 thus investigates the intersections between return and roots travel as well as the exile context through examining why exiled Estonians and their children visit Estonia and the experiences they have there.
Second, other political aspects relating to diasporic travel have been under- researched. Motivations and experiences for visiting a homeland may be significantly shaped by the way historical events are remembered and narrated, homeland and diaspora political activities before and after migration, and the long- distance nationalist politics of migrant organisations (Skrbiš 1999; Carter 2004,
2005). Groups sharing a common history may remember or interpret their heritages differently, resulting in “the existence of parallel, but disconnected, pasts”
(Timothy and Coles 2004:292), along with tensions or misunderstandings between
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 31
residents and diasporic travellers. Disputes may also arise over the meaning and representation of particular homeland sites or the use of genealogical research or old documents to make claims to property that was seized or nationalised in the past. The way that politics, at all levels, affects Estonian-Australians’ travels is thus explored throughout this thesis.
Third, return visits are an important way in which transnational relationships are created, maintained and utilised for particular purposes, yet few studies have discussed in detail the ways that visits shape and are shaped by other forms of transnational connectivity (Stephenson 2002; Duval 2003, 2004b; Bandyopadhyay
2008). Travel to a homeland can become a key physical channel through which transnational processes are enacted and diasporic identities are shaped or challenged, and can become a conduit for financial, material or political exchanges
(Lew and Wong 2002; Carter 2005). Chapter 5 therefore discusses various dimensions of the ‘emergent transnationalism’ of Estonian-Australians.
Fourth, much previous research in diasporic travel has ignored its touristic dimensions, focusing instead on the kinship and cultural functions of visits
(Baldassar 2001; Stephenson 2002) or on the emotional, quasi-pilgrimage journeys to search for ‘roots’ and accompanying ontological meanings (Schramm 2004; Basu
2007). Research that has engaged with tourism aspects has quantified flows of people (Hall and Duval 2004), estimated economic impacts (King and Gamage 1994;
Asiedu 2005) or evaluated marketing strategies (Morgan et al. 2002). However, there have been no attempts to examine diasporic travel from the perspectives of tourism theory and the experiences of the tourist, as an explicitly touristic venture where visitors interact with ‘locals’ in the homeland, tour particular sites and seek recreation, relaxation, education or ‘exotic’ encounters as ways to escape from everyday life in the receiving country (Cohen 1974; MacCannell 1976; Urry 2002).
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 32
All these activities can be undertaken in the ancestral homeland, as discussed in
Chapter 4.
Fifth, there is a need for spatial and scalar perspectives on the complex phenomenon of diasporic travel. Geographic research that emphasises the dynamic articulations of senses of, and connections to, various places is needed. Diasporic travel can (re)produce multiple notions of belonging, home and place that exist at numerous scales and operate through trans-local as well as trans-national spatial and social relationships (Appadurai 1996; Conradson and McKay 2007). As noted, place and landscape have been considered only tangentially in most diasporic travel research (see Section 2.3.3, page 22). This thesis thus investigates how places are remembered, represented and travelled to, exploring the relationships between fluid or mobile identities and practices and fixed conceptions of place, territory and ancestral origins.
Chapter 2 Conceptualising geographies of diasporic travel 33
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-
Australians
34
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians
3.1 Introduction
Estonia has a complex and eventful history. The Republic of Estonia ( Eesti Vabariik ) is a small European country of 45,000 square kilometres situated on the Baltic Sea, bordering Russia and Latvia (see Figure 3.1, below). Of its 1.34 million residents,
397,000 reside in Tallinn, the capital and largest city. Some 69 per cent of the national population is considered ‘ethnically Estonian,’ with the remainder comprised mostly of Russians (Republic of Estonia 2008c). The twentieth century political history of Estonia is closely entwined with the history of emigration from it.
This chapter briefly describes Estonian history and migration to Australia. It then justifies the use of Estonian-Australians as the case study for the thesis, followed by an explanation of the research methodologies used.
N
Figure 3.1: Location of Estonia (Source: CIA World Factbook)
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 35
3.2 Estonian history
Estonia has a long history of foreign occupation, consisting of Danish, Swedish,
German and Russian invasions since the twelfth century AD and numerous border changes. From the sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, Estonia was occupied by
Sweden, then by Tsarist Russia, during which time German landlords established a largely feudal economic system (Salsaoo 1986; Raun 2001). Following the emergence of Estonian language newspapers and national consciousness in the late nineteenth century, Estonia declared independence on 24 February 1918, after the collapse of Tsarist Russia the previous year (Raun 2001).
For over two decades Estonia was an independent democratic republic, with a largely poor and agrarian population but significant cultural freedom that helped establish a distinctive sense of national identity. By 1939, Estonia had a population of 1.13 million (Salasoo 1986). However, in that year Nazi Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) formed the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that placed the Baltic States 7 in the Soviet sphere of influence (Raun 2001). In 1940, following Germany’s invasion of Poland and recall of Germans from the Baltic
States, the Soviet Union installed its own Communist government in Estonia. In
1941 many politicians, bankers, landholders and intellectuals were arrested and deported to remote Soviet labour camps, with an estimated 60,000-90,000 Estonians killed or deported that year (Salasoo 1986). In 1941 Germany invaded Estonia, only to retreat in 1944 after suffering losses elsewhere in the Second World War (Raun
2001). As this happened, the USSR began to re-invade and re-occupy Estonia, heavily bombing Tallinn in March 1944. This resulted in large-scale involuntary emigration, with thousands of Estonians fleeing westwards in fear of further deportations or repression (Salasoo 1986; Tammeveski 2003).
7 ‘Baltic States’ most commonly refers to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 36
From September 1944 until August 1991, Estonia was a Soviet Socialist Republic and constituent state of the USSR. The communist government nationalised many properties and individually run farms were converted into collective farms. Until the mid 1950s, Estonia was entirely sealed from the Western world, and emigration and mail to of from the West were prohibited. Russian became the language of instruction in schools during this period, expressions of Estonian nationalism were suppressed and there was extensive immigration into Estonia from other parts of the USSR (Kulu and Tammaru 2000; Raun 2001).
However, in the late 1980s, following various developments in Russia and the other
Baltic states—including policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(restructuring)—there was a push for Estonian independence. In August 1989, two million Balts formed a human chain between Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius (Lieven
1993), protesting for national autonomy in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. A Popular
Front emerged in Estonia, comprised of liberal members of the Communist Party alongside various Estonian nationalists (Lieven 1993). As the Soviet Union itself was collapsing, Estonia declared independence, which was attained in August 1991
(Lieven 1993; Nørgaard 1996). The Soviet occupation was deemed illegal and the constitution and citizenships of the first republic were restored. Since then, Estonia has undergone a transition to being a democratic and capitalist country. In 2004 it became a member of the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Since regaining independence, there has been only limited return migration from the West to Estonia, with an estimated 875 people returning in the 1990s, most of whom were exiles that left Estonia in 1944 or their descendants (Kask cited in Pehk
2007:17). Return migration has mostly been from the former Soviet Union, with
Western returnees comprising only 29 per cent of all return migrants (Kulu and
Tammaru 2000:354).
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 37
3.3 Estonian migration to Australia
An estimated 8,200 people of Estonian ancestry currently live in Australia (ABS
2007), emanating from three broad waves of Estonian emigration which reflect political developments in Estonia. 8 The number of Estonian migrants in Australia was small and insignificant until the 1920s, when many Estonians emigrated in search of better economic opportunities abroad and to escape ‘right-wing’ political developments in Estonia (Salasoo 1986). Around 36,000 Estonians migrated to
Western countries (Kulu and Tammaru 2000), mostly to North and South America, although 1,100 settled in Australia in the decade to 1933 (Vilder 1983). These
Estonians—later termed ‘Old Estonians’—established an Estonian Society in
Sydney and opened an Estonian House ( Eesti Maja ) there in 1938. Estonian Houses were later established in Melbourne and Adelaide. In addition, a small Estonian farming settlement emerged at Thirlmere, NSW, where some Estonians still reside
(mostly in the Estonian Retirement Village).
Between 1939 and September 1944, approximately 72,000 people—mostly educated, working-age professionals—fled Estonia, with 30,000 sailing to Sweden and the remainder mostly ending up in Displaced Persons (DP) camps in post-war
Germany 9 (Kunz 1988:59). National groups were mostly kept together in these camps, allowing Estonian schools, newsletters and cultural activities to be established in larger camps (Salasoo 1986, 2001). There was a belief that “the Allies would keep their promises to restore the independence of the Eastern European countries at the end of the war” (Salasoo 1986:122), and that return to a liberated
8 Little has been written about Estonian migrants in Australia in the English language. This section compiles information from such sources (eg, Vilder 1983; Salasoo 1986, 2001; Parbo 2007) along with census data, information gathered from the Estonian Archives in Australia (located in the Sydney Estonian House), and personal communication with various Estonian migrants living in Australia. 9 Displaced Persons camps were only established after the end of the Second World War in 1945. Refugees that arrived in Germany before then had to find their own accommodation.
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 38
Estonia would soon be possible. However, by 1947, DPs were encouraged to integrate into German society or migrate elsewhere.
Of the one millions DPs, Australia took 180,000 under an International Refugee
Organisation program that coincided with an Australian Government policy to accept non-British immigrants as a way to increase the Australian population.
Singles and childless couples from the Baltic States were the first refugees to enter
Australia under this scheme (Salasoo 1986; Kunz 1988; Tündern-Smith 2007). 10
Between 1947 and 1955, 5,329 DPs and 815 full fare or privately sponsored Estonian migrants arrived in Australia (Kunz 1988:43). Other Estonians had migrated to the
USA, Canada, Germany and Sweden (all in larger numbers than Australia), often with the intention of getting as far as possible from the Soviet Union. By the early
1950s, there were almost 90,000 Estonians living in the West, of which 75,000 were
DPs (Kulu and Tammaru 2000:351). An Estonian diaspora had emerged ( cf Cohen
1997) from these and earlier population movements, spread across Australia, the
USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Argentina and parts of the
USSR.
The majority of Estonian DPs were placed into migrant camps upon arrival in
Australia, after which most were assigned one or two-year working contracts to pay for their fare to Australia. Estonian qualifications were typically not recognised in Australia, and many migrants ended up working as labourers or domestics, often in rural areas (Salasoo 1986; Kunz 1988). Many of these then moved to major cities after their contracts expired—particularly Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and
Canberra. The ‘Old Estonians’ in these places were greatly outnumbered by the post-war migrants, who established new activities, schools and social networks to
10 The history of the Displaced Persons settlement scheme in Australia is detailed by Kunz (1988). The history of one of the largest camps (where many Estonians were placed), Bonegilla in northern Victoria, has been compiled by Tündern-Smith (2007).
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 39
facilitate their adjustment to Australian society and to maintain the Estonian culture, language and education of children in exile. Organised activities included
Saturday language schools, church services, scouting, folk dancing, singing, sporting groups, cultural festivals, a children’s summer camp, university students’ associations and seniors’ clubs. Many of these groups were linked to the Council of
Estonian Societies in Australia (Salasoo 2001). An Estonian language newspaper,
Meie Kodu (‘Our Home’) has been published weekly since 1949 and distributed throughout Australia.
During the Soviet occupation of Estonia (1944-1991), very few people managed to emigrate from Estonia, and Estonian diaspora groups were relatively uninfluenced by Estonians living in Estonia (Salasoo 1986:124). However, by the time independence was regained in 1991, most exiles had become too well established in
Australia to move back to Estonia, which had a markedly lower material standard of living.11 Yet independence also made it possible again for Estonians to emigrate to the West. A small number have moved to Australia since then, with an estimated
122 ‘New Estonians’ settling permanently in Australia between 1996 and 2007
(Commonwealth of Australia 2007:5). The majority of these have been young, working-age people in their 20s and 30s, mostly in the services sector in Sydney or
Melbourne. The total number of young Estonian-born people currently in Australia is higher due to the presence of temporary workers.
The number of Estonian-born people in Australia increased rapidly after 1947 and has declined since, with 1,933 in the most recent census (see Table 3.1, page 41).
However, the number of people identifying as being of Estonian ancestry rose from
6,334 in 1986 to 7,537 in 1996 (Republic of Estonia 2008a) and to 8,232 in 2006 (ABS
2007). Most of these live in the metropolitan zones of Australian capital cities (see
11 The transformation of the Estonian-Australian community over time is discussed in Section 5.2 (page 83).
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 40
Appendix 2, page 139). Estonian is the main language spoken at home by 1,249
Australian residents (ABS 2007).
Table 3.1: Number of Estonian-born people in Australia (Sources: Republic of Estonia 2008a; ABS 2007)
Year Number of Estonian-born people in Australia 1933 997 1947 1 102 1954 6 549 1986 3 895 1991 3 381 1996 2 828 2001 2 391 2006 1 933
3.4 The Estonian tourism industry
Western tourists were first able to visit Estonia from 1963, although they could only stay in specified hotels, could not travel outside Tallinn and were closely monitored by Soviet authorities. Hotel Viru (the In-Tourist Hotel) opened in 1972 for international tourists, with around 40,000 to 50,000 tourists from outside the USSR visiting annually by the end of the 1970s (Unwin 1996:266). Although regulations were eased during the 1980s, most restrictions on foreign tourists were not dropped until Estonian independence. Tourism has increased rapidly since then, with the number of nights spent by foreign tourists increasing more than fourfold, from
933,000 in 1995 to 4.5 million in 2006 (Republic of Estonia 2007). In 2007, 1.9 million foreign tourists made overnight visits to Estonia, with 1.38 million staying in commercial accommodation establishments and 500,000 staying with friends or relatives or in their own apartments (Republic of Estonia 2008b). The majority of
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 41
visitors came from Finland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia and Russia (in descending order). In 2006, 4,000 Australians stayed in Estonian tourism establishments for a total of 9,200 nights (Republic of Estonia 2007). Tourism is highly seasonal, with most tourists coming in the summer months of June to August, and concentrated in the coastal cities of Tallinn and Pärnu (Republic of Estonia 2008b). Travel and tourism account for 6.7 per cent of Estonia’s Gross Domestic Product and 9.1 per cent of exports. 12
3.5 Methodology
3.5.1 Why Estonians?
This thesis examines the diasporic travel of persons of Estonian background living in Australia. This group has been selected as a case-study for several reasons. The largest concentration of Estonian-Australians is in Sydney, where there is an
Estonian House from where many community activities in the region are organised.
I am also based in Sydney. Almost all Estonians in Australia speak fluent English, and thus this is a relatively accessible yet manageably small group to study. In addition, since most Estonian-Australians are post-war migrants or their descendants—and were unable to visit Estonia or freely communicate with relatives there for a substantial period of time—the effect of Estonia’s political history and the development of its Western diaspora on subsequent travel patterns of Estonian exiles and their descendants enables the influence of politics and forced displacement on travel behaviour to be studied (see Section 2.4, page 30).
Furthermore, both my maternal grandparents emigrated from Estonia in the late
1930s, and thus I am a third generation Estonian-Australian by birth. 13 Although I
12 Figures calculated using Bank of Estonia ( Eesti Pank ) data. 13 No personal relatives were interviewed for this project.
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 42
do not speak Estonian and have never been involved in any Estonian activities, I have visited Estonia once, in July 2008.
3.5.2 The research approach
This thesis utilises a mixture of qualitative techniques to investigate diasporic travel.
The primary methodologies used were surveys and interviews, supported by more indirect sources, including conversations with community figures and literature on the Estonian diaspora. Such qualitative and ethnographic approaches have become commonplace in geography since the behavouralist and cultural ’turns’ in the discipline during the 1970s and 1980s, allowing detailed perspectives on individual experiences, identities, social structures and spatial relationships to be elicited
(Cloke et al. 2004; Hay 2005; Winchester 2005; Crang and Cook 2007). However, particular caveats apply to the use of such methodologies (and ontologies) to ensure valid and useful conclusions can be drawn.
First, since research questions and methodologies are never independent of the values of the researcher (Cloke et al. 2004; Crang and Cook 2007), researchers should reflect upon their own ‘positionality’ in their works, even though it may be impossible to identify, let alone factor out, all resulting biases (Rose 1997). Second, when interacting with people, attempts must be made to ensure the topic is approached sensitively and ‘neutrally,’ identifying potential biases (Cloke et al .
2004). Since memories are imperfect, it is important to phrase questions unambiguously and carefully select the places where research interactions occur, which may affect respondents’ ability and willingness to recall information
(Stratford 1997; Horwood and Moon 2003; Sin 2003; Dunn 2005). Third, it is important to consider how respondents talk about themselves, as well as what is said (and is reflected in discourses and narratives) and what is not said (and is being concealed or, alternatively, lies beyond conscious thought).
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 43
3.5.3 Surveys
A survey, in both paper and electronic (website) format, was distributed to “any person born in Estonia, or of Estonian ancestry, who has ever lived in Australia”
(see Appendix 3, page 142). This consisted mostly of open-ended questions regarding demographic information, family migration histories, childhood experiences, participation in Estonian activities in Australia and, for those who have visited Estonia, details regarding these trips. The survey was distributed at
Estonian House in Sydney, via the community website http://www.eesti.org.au and through an advertisement in the Meie Kodu newspaper. 132 completed surveys were collected between April and October 2008.
The survey was primarily used to provide background information on people of
Estonian descent that live in Australia, as little is known about this group as a whole. However, the open-ended responses have been drawn upon only to a minimal extent in this thesis (see Appendix 4, page 148 for a more detailed analysis).
Although surveys can be objective and anonymous, it can be difficult to gather accurate and complete information on subjective experiences and, furthermore, responses may be limited or distorted by the phrasing of questions (Pocock 1983;
Cloke et al. 2004). However, the survey was also used to source participants for interviews, providing space for respondents to leave their name and contact details at the end. This enabled a broader sample of people to be found for interviews than could be achieved by relying solely on individual contacts or ‘snowballing.’
3.5.4 Interviews
To elicit more detailed and nuanced responses about travel to Estonia, 48 semi- structured interviews were conducted. Interviews ranged from 40 minutes to two hours in length and were tape-recorded and transcribed. All generational groups of migrants were interviewed, sourced through returned survey forms and established Estonian-Australian contacts, including referrals from respondents
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 44
themselves. 14 67 per cent of interviewees were female and the remainder were male, from all age groups. All but six were Second World War exiles or their descendants.
Table 3.2 (below) outlines the generational composition of both survey and interview respondents. The small number of third generation respondents (along with recent migrants) partly reflects their typically lower involvement in ethnic community activities or social networks, and echoes other researchers’ difficulties in finding such individuals (eg, Drozdzewski 2008).
Table 3.2: Generational composition of the survey and interview samples
Number Generation Surveys Interviews used in text 1 First generation (left Estonia when aged 12 21 6 or older) 1.5 ‘1.5’ generation (left Estonia when 31 16 younger than 12) 15 2 Second generation (born outside of 49 17 Estonia) 3 Third generation 15 5 R Emigrated from Estonia after 1991 12 4
Attempts were made to conduct interviews at times and in venues where participants felt most comfortable, to avoid any discomfort that could alter the responses given. Venues typically consisted of Estonian House in Sydney, cafés and respondents’ houses. 34 interviews were conducted in-person and 14 over the
14 The primary point of contact for this research was the Estonian Archives in Australia, located in Estonian House, Sydney. 15 The distinction between the ‘first’ and ‘1.5’ generation has been selected as the age at which children approximately finish their primary school education. This is an arbitrary distinction, yet still allows more meaningful information to be distilled than by including both these groups within the one category of ‘Estonian-born.’
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 45
telephone. 16 In-person interviews were preferred, and have been given greater weight in this thesis, as they allow for greater rapport to be established between the interviewer and interviewee, and generally offer a more friendly and personal environment (Cloke et al . 2004; Dunn 2005). Telephone interviews were used only when in-person interviews were not possible (eg, with respondents who lived outside of Sydney). The project was briefly explained to respondents before interviews commenced, and where appropriate I shared elements of my own family history and experiences of visiting Estonia throughout interviews to build rapport.
All questionnaire and survey data were collected following approval from the
University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Reference Number 05-
2008/10839). All interviewees were aged 18 or over and were required to read a participant information statement and sign a consent form prior to the interview commencing. Interviews were tape recorded only with the signed permission of respondents. 17 All names assigned to respondents in this thesis are pseudonyms, 18 and are followed by their generation number (see Table 3.2, page 45) and gender
(M or F).
Interviews discussed migration histories, Estonian community involvement and motivations and experiences of travelling to Estonia (see Appendix 5, page 158 for the list of guiding questions). A ‘funnelling’ questioning style was used (Dunn
2005), where open-ended questions eliciting descriptive responses were followed by analytical questions eliciting more detail or respondent reflection on the
16 This figure includes one interview conducted on Skype, an internet telephone program. 17 Verbal consent was obtained for telephone interviews, which were not tape recorded but were transcribed as respondents spoke (with their permission). Paper consent forms were collected prior to all in-person interviews commencing. 18 Respondents with Estonian-sounding names have been assigned common Estonian given names. Otherwise, respondents were assigned English names.
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 46
processes being researched. Many respondents provided oral histories of their migration experiences in the early stages of interviews, often followed by detailed narratives about their experiences of visiting Estonia. These techniques allowed for an understanding of how memories of past events are understood, remembered and socially constructed, as well how these are mediated through individuals’ words in the present (Thomson 1994; Smith and Jackson 1990; George and Stratford
2005).
Silences were used strategically, with pauses allowing respondents to reflect before offering further comments. This was particularly important when respondents were recollecting painful or traumatic memories, such as experiences of migration, displacement, adaptation to life in a new country, or having had relatives sent to
Soviet labour camps. Attempts were made to change the topic when interviews became highly emotional, yet many respondents wished to continue with their stories, either because they had become somewhat desensitised to recounting them in particular narrative forms (Thomson 1994) or because the interview presented an opportunity to share stories of experiences that were of extraordinary personal significance.
Research based on discursive techniques must also recognise the imperfect nature of human memory, language and expression. Respondents may not always be able to identify how their social, class or gender positions influence their behaviour
(Crang and Cook 2007), and events told from memory are subject to nostalgic revision, human error and subconscious forgetting (Thomson 1994; Legg 2007). It is likely that the recollections and experiences of respondents formed through some mixture of personal experiences, historical knowledge and the stories of others
(particularly parents or other family members). At times, certain details were mentioned quickly or avoided, hinting that painful or personal factors were restraining responses. Although attempts were made to elicit truthful and complete
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 47
responses from respondents during interviews, it remains possible that some interviewees disclosed only what they thought was useful for the research, or adjusted their responses accordingly.
It has been pertinent throughout this research to reflect on my own Estonian ancestry and personal attachments to Estonia. Although my grandparents were not
Displaced Persons, my family background has provided me with a personal connection to my research topic that I have been able to use to build rapport with interviewees. Instead of acting as a hindrance and ‘bias,’ my own ‘Estonianness’ permitted greater interaction between myself and interviewees, enabling something to be ‘given back’ to participants during interviews. It also assisted me to analyse the data collected. Such an ‘insider’ approach has also been used in other studies of diasporic travel (Baldassar 2001; Kwiatkowski 2006).
3.5.5 Potential sources of bias
Both the survey and interview samples were subject to biases arising from the way participants were selected. Respondents who were more strongly involved in
Estonian-Australian organisations, participated in Estonian cultural activities or had Estonian friends were more likely to have known about the survey. Older people (ie, retirees)—especially those that were Estonian born—may have been more likely to fill out the survey, due to having more time available, stronger involvement in Estonian activities and a higher likelihood of having visited Estonia.
Furthermore, there may have been a bias towards individuals who have made visits to Estonia, even though the survey and interviews were also explicitly targeted at individuals who have not visited. There is a potential language bias, as the survey and interviews were conducted in English, although this is unlikely to have affected responses or survey response rates, due to the high English language proficiency of Estonian-Australians. Professionals, scientists and retired academics are strongly represented in both the survey and interview samples, possibly
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 48
reflecting a greater propensity to be interested in university research projects, although also possibly reflecting high tertiary education rates amongst Estonian-
Australians. As a result of the above factors, qualitative analysis has been used rather than quantitative and statistical evaluation.
3.6 Conclusion
This chapter has examined the historical context of Estonian migration to Australia and justified the use Estonian-Australians to research diasporic travel. It then explained the qualitative methodologies used, identifying potential sources of bias.
Surveys and interviews have been used in this research to understand why
Australians of Estonian descent make visits to Estonia and the experiences they have when doing so. Listening to the stories of Estonian-Australians is important not just for understanding the specificities of this migrant group, but also to construct a more general picture of the complex relationships between diasporic travel, migration, ethnic identities and connections to a homeland.
Chapter 3 Researching Estonian-Australians 49
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland
50
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland
4.1 Introduction
There are a multitude of reasons why people might visit their ancestral homeland, and a wide spectrum of possible experiences they may have there. This chapter examines how stories of the homeland were passed from Estonian post-war exiles to their children. It then focuses on nostalgia, kinship links, a quest for heritage and curiosity as factors motivating visits to Estonia. Following that, data on the number of visits made by the sample is provided, along with a discussion of first impressions, experiences of meeting relatives, engagements with places and landscapes, and how changes to Estonia over time are perceived. The chapter finishes with an exploration of how visits affect senses of identity, belonging and
‘home.’
4.2 Being Estonian in Australia
Ethnic identities and the desire to visit a ‘homeland’ are shaped by involvement in activities and events in the diaspora, along with the consumption of stories and images of the homeland. This is particularly so for ‘1.5,’ second and third generation migrants who have little or no memories of the homeland and have mostly grown up elsewhere. Post-war Estonian migrants in Australia attempted to maintain their Estonian language and cultural traditions and pass these onto their children. For these children, the almost exclusive sources of information about
Estonia consisted of stories from parents or other Estonian community members,
Estonian Saturday school classes, and a small number of books and images representing the homeland. These sources of information were typically limited and partial, particularly for families that were not strongly involved in Estonian
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 51
community activities. Indeed, the relatively small size of the migrant group
(concentrated mostly in larger cities), intermarriage with other ethnicities, similar physical appearances to Anglo-Australians and the fast adoption of the English language resulted in minimal discrimination from wider Australian society along with fast integration into it (see Section 5.2, page 83). Furthermore, the experience of personal hardship, or the trauma of losing family members or having to flee
Estonia, led to many migrants actively embracing Australian cultural and social norms, and attempting to rear their children as Australian rather than Estonian.
Australia offered an opportunity to establish ‘new lives’ in a new country a great distance from the homeland.
As such, there was substantial variation in the strength of cultural identity and diasporic consciousness amongst Estonian migrants, with some attempting to maintain the traditions of the homeland and pass these on to their children, whilst others sought to establish new lives. As such, 1.5 and second generation children had varied degrees of knowledge about their distant homeland, and came to relate to Estonia in different ways. Parents and grandparents did not always wholly share their life stories with their children, with many talking about their childhoods or about Estonian landscapes and history in general—sometimes only when children asked—and avoiding painful memories relating to war, the circumstances of displacement, or the fates of family members. Many respondents recalled how
Estonia was an emotional topic for their parents, with particular narratives often repeated—often in romanticised forms—whilst other details were conspicuously omitted:
As I got older my father might have said a little bit about it, but it was a sore
point for my mother. She didn’t want to talk about it. [She] didn’t even talk
about her father (Tiiu, 2F)
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 52
[It was] a utopian discussion. Everything was better in Estonia… [My father] was
too scared to go back (Peeter, 2M)
In some families, there was a conscious desire to forget, a self-induced process of historical and cultural amnesia as past lives were uprooted by traumatic events and new lives had to be established elsewhere. There may also have been fear of Soviet
Union retribution if particular events or themes were discussed, even with family members. However, for others, information was shared and discussed with children as a way of instilling a ‘diasporic consciousness’ and generationally transmitting an ideology of return to the homeland, along with a need to defend its culture and language (see Section 2.2, page 9). Stories were used to maintain the
‘trauma of exile’ (Skerrett 2008), with narratives reflecting the socially constructed memories of parents (Smith and Jackson 1999). However, the “macabre histories” of the homeland and displacement were incompletely transferred, with narratives emphasising positive themes of patriotism, luck and struggle ( cf Drozdzewski
2008:216).
Yet by conveying cultural memories in these ways—or not conveying historical details at all—many children of Estonian migrants had fragmented and incomplete knowledge about their distant ‘homeland.’ 1.5 and second generation respondents knew their parents were Estonian—and thus they were too—yet had few or no personal memories or experiences of Estonia. Combined with a perceived general ignorance about Estonia (and its occupation by the Soviet Union) in wider
Australian society, the inability to relate to parents’ stories led some respondents to
‘switch off’ as young adults, largely abandoning their Estonian identities and involvement in community activities:
As a rebellious teenager I felt that my parents should have integrated, rather
than trying to find out more about Estonia. The stories about Estonia over the
years were always doom and gloom… I heard it all. I didn’t relate to it. It was
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 53
foreign to me. I couldn’t picture what they were talking about… There was so
much negativity you started to switch off after a while (Maarja, 2F)
However, a curiosity often emerged later in life, with a desire to ‘fill in the gaps’ and resolve uncertainty about family histories and, thus, respondents’ own identities:
I started to ask my mother a lot of questions. I really wanted to know about my
father… I was often getting the same stories again, but there were other things I
wanted to know, in between. I wanted a fairly coherent and well sequenced
narrative in my mind, but that never happened… The whole idea of loss, and
family… I wanted to start to make sense of it all, and wanted to know more
about Estonia (Krista, 1.5F)
My Dad never spoke to me about Estonia or his upbringing, and as a little girl I
used to ask and even as an adult—it was a close subject and he just wouldn’t
speak… I didn’t know about my grandmother or grandfather, or my aunts or
uncles. It was completely unknown to me… I think [my father] was saying,
‘You’re in Australia, I’m trying to make sure you have a wonderful life, and
that’s what I want you to focus on’ (Aino, 2F)
Incomplete knowledge about Estonia, and a sense by some that it evoked emotional pain for their parents, led to confused senses of ethnic identity and belonging for many respondents. Some were unable to imagine what Estonia would look or be like. It was an imaginary land, a concept more than a physical place, that was distant and mysterious ( cf Kelly 2000):
I had a more of an image of a fantasy land of Estonia, but the fantasy land was
populated by kind of monsters. And the monsters, of course, are stories I got
from my parents and their friends, the picture I built up over my childhood of a
very dark, threatening place. Although fantasy as well, you know, lovely, very
picturesque villages, yada yada yada (Martin, 2M)
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 54
Hearing about parks and seeing pictures, you know, paintings and that sort of
thing, you always get that slightly more romantic vision about what it was like
(Kaja, 3F)
Many stories were filtered through romanticised narratives of picturesque farming landscapes, forests, and the mediaeval old town of Tallinn. For all generations of migrants, stories mixed with other sources of information—such as images of
Estonia and community activities—to produce particular forms of ethnic identity, diasporic consciousness and emotions of pain and longing. 19 The ‘myth of return’ became blinkered and partial as it was transmitted generationally. However, for many respondents, incomplete knowledge about Estonia and the inability to visit it when they were children led to a desire, later in life, to travel to the ancestral homeland.
4.3 Motivations for visiting
It is a pilgrimage. It is something, it’s almost you need to do, it’s almost like
touching with your roots because your parents have come from there as well
(Helve, 1.5F)
4.3.1 Nostalgic longings
Nostalgia, memory and a longing for the homeland were important dynamics compelling many first and 1.5 generation Estonians to visit their homeland. For this group, a mixture of personal memories, the stories of others in the diaspora, and various representations of Estonian places (such as paintings of landscapes or the
Tallinn old town) evoked particular sentiments for the homeland along with a curiosity about how it has changed physically and socially since the 1940s. Yet for
19 The political dimensions of these narratives, cultural practices and ideologies of return are explored in Section 5.2 (page 83).
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 55
many first generation respondents, there was a tension between their nostalgic remembrances of childhood times and places and the trauma of war and displacement that led to great upheaval and change. This tension was coupled with an awareness that many particular places and experiences of Estonia were confined to the past and could never again be directly experienced, nor visited.
The compulsion to visit Estonia arose both out of a desire to see, feel and experience the landscapes, buildings and places of memories, as well as to engage with ideals of the homeland that offered reassurance, cultural identity or forms of social engagement whilst living in Australia. Stories and representations of Estonia attempted to instil a nostalgic longing for subsequent generations to eventually
‘return’ to the homeland. However, for these generations, such longings were not necessarily for particular places or objects in Estonia itself. “Nostalgia is often for past thoughts rather than past things” (Lowenthal 1985:8), and a romanticised longing for individual childhoods and the enjoyment of Estonian activities whilst growing up (wherever this may have been) also motivated visits to Estonia. For the second generation, such nostalgia also mixed with the exoticism of Estonia, a distant, strange and ‘fairytale’ land of which little was usually known about its contemporary inhabitants or ways of life.
4.3.2 Family and heritage
I have to say that a lot who come here, who are now researching their roots, if
they haven’t gone back they have an intention of going sometime… In the 40
years that [the archives have been] here I have seen an ever-increasing interest in
heritage and looking for your roots, and for going back to Estonia 20
The presence of relatives in Estonia is, unsurprisingly, a major reason for travelling there. Visits were a crucial way of reconnecting families after the trauma of war,
20 M. Barrow, Archivist, Estonian Archives in Australia, personal communication.
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 56
displacement and disconnection from the homeland, particularly for the first generation. However, for subsequent generations who had not met their Estonian relatives before, and knew about them only through the fragmented stories of parents or grandparents and periodic letters (see Section 5.3, page 91), visiting
Estonia was an important way of (re)establishing family relationships. This was especially the case when parents had died, did not establish contact with Estonian relatives or did not talk much about such relatives. For respondents in these situations, attempting to locate and meet relatives in Estonia was an important way of engaging with their personal heritage, family pasts and cultural identities, particularly for those who grew up without knowing extended family members (eg, aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents).
The desire to seek out Estonian relatives—or details of parents’ lives in Estonia— was often triggered by particular life events, such as a parent dying, an onset of a feeling of mortality (often around middle age), retirement, or children finishing school (allowing time to undertake genealogical research). For others it was triggered by Estonia regaining independence or by a relative attempting to make contact:
My first cousin had written to me… I really had this additional incentive of
meeting a relative. My mother died in 1999 and really I had nothing to do with
her for 30 years… I said, ‘Bother it!’ She’s cut herself off from her family, but
she’s also cut me off from my family. I have no relatives that I know of in
Australia.’ So you know, what do I do? I think I better find my family! (Kristiina,
2F)
These pursuits were taken with great seriousness by several respondents as they embarked on a quest to discover relatives and establish a greater connection to, and knowledge of, Estonia:
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 57
I’m now searching, doing family history searches, family tree searches. And I’m
finding out missing things from the family story that my parents didn’t know,
especially because my Mum was adopted out, and my relatives in Estonia don’t
know. I found their relatives they didn’t know about (Priit, 1.5M)
It’s a blank canvas. I’m now an adult. Unfortunately my mother and father have
passed on, but my father wouldn’t discuss anything about it. It was a blank
canvas. I’ve got a couple of snippets of information… I now want to start filling
in the canvas. I’ve got some dots and I hope to have it landscaped and actually
have an understanding. And part of the landscape I hope will be a visit back to
Estonia (Aino, 2F)
These were also journeys of self discovery that enabled respondents to establish a stronger sense of self. Researching family histories almost inevitably resulted in respondents travelling to Estonia, or a strong compulsion to make a visit, especially when living relatives could be communicated with. These respondents had an urge to trace their ‘roots’ and “visit their heritage” (Urve, 2F), a desire to gaze upon, touch, smell, taste and engage with their homeland. This desire to investigate family (and cultural) heritage lies alongside a quest to reconnect families that were separated by the Soviet invasion of Estonia and exile to faraway places.
4.3.3 Curiosity and compulsion
However, not all Estonian-Australians held such a strong yearning to visit their homeland. For others, especially of second and third generations, an awareness of
Estonian ancestry triggered a curiosity about Estonia, which typically led to at least one visit being made. A novelty factor was involved, with personal heritage being used to select among numerous competing tourism destinations in Europe, or to establish a degree of cultural capital or social prestige among peers by visiting an
‘exotic’ and small country in Eastern Europe (especially if this was done during the
Soviet occupation). In some cases there was also a (weak) sense of duty to visit and meet relatives, especially if one or both parents regularly travel to Estonia.
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 58
For such individuals, ‘Estonian’ may be only one layer of their identity, changing in intensity over time. This was particularly the case for those who had little involvement in the Estonian community, did not know much about Estonia or their family history, or have a non-Estonian parent. Those who visited Estonia mostly out of curiosity tended not to visit more than once or twice. Indeed, this curiosity element was also present in many first and 1.5 generation migrants, who felt compelled to visit their homeland to find out how much had changed, and to experience Estonia’s transition to a capitalist democracy.
Yet for these generational groups in particular, trips to the homeland were often made for reasons that cannot be precisely identified or deconstructed. There was typically a mixture of factors involved, combined with an inner compulsion to visit.
Several respondents ‘just had to go’ as soon as they had the time and money to make the trip:
[I went] to meet the relatives, but it was more than that too. I mean it was just to,
just to be back there, to re-establish that connection that we had never lost. That
emotional connection is always there… It was just kind of self evident that we’d
go (Jaan, 1.5M)
I guess it was always the feeling that I needed to go, I wanted to go. I just wanted
to see, wanted to connect (Krista, 1.5F)
Several respondents visited Estonia during the 1960s and 1970s, although it was not until the late 1980s or early 1990s (after independence) that the majority felt they could safely visit. Indeed, once Estonia regained independence, many felt they no longer had a reason not to visit:
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 59
It was just ‘Oh wow, hey, the trip’s on! Let’s go!’… If it was free then there was
no reason not to go, because we were always concerned about not being able to
come back out (Malle, 2F)
4.3.4 Not visiting
The sense of compulsion and a need to visit Estonia for some migrants are also directly related to the reasons why others—particularly of the first generation—do not visit their homeland, even when they have the ability to do so. Although most respondents had travelled to Estonia at least once, three interviewees and 12 survey respondents (9.3 per cent) had not done so. Most of these individuals had a strong desire to visit yet had been unable to do so, impeded by high travel costs, insufficient time or opportunities to visit, and/or work or family commitments.
Some also sought to find out more about their homeland, establish communication with lost relatives or learn some Estonian before visiting:
I couldn’t go… In 1993 [my mother] was starting to get sick, she was quite sick…
And there was no opportunity. And my father’s not really a traveller. Now I
can’t go because I have to look after him. One day I will get there… My aim now
is to learn the language so I can understand it… [I want] to get in touch again,
because I’ve always felt it’s such an important part of my heritage (Karen, 2F)
Furthermore, many respondents’ parents had never visited Estonia since emigrating. Many refused to visit when Estonia was under Soviet occupation, out of fear for their own or relatives’ safety, or not wanting to be seen to support the
Soviet regime in any way. This was particularly the case for those who fled fearing that they would be deported to labour camps by Soviet authorities if they stayed.
However, even after independence, many still refused to go back to their homeland, even if they were healthy and could afford to travel. They may have feared that visiting would bring up painful and traumatic memories and that the shock of seeing Estonia so different to how they remembered it (or to how it was socially
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 60
constructed in the diaspora) would cause them to feel alienated. Nostalgia for a harmonious pre-war Estonia has been used by elderly Estonians in the diaspora as a source of identity and ontological security (Tammeveski 2003), and a visit could risk undermining and collapsing this comforting mental structure.
4.4 Experiences of visiting
4.4.1 Overview of visits to Estonia
Visits to Estonia were highly popular amongst both interview and survey respondents, with the majority of both having visited multiple times. Table 4.1
(below) disaggregates the travel frequencies of the survey sample by generation, and Table 4.2 (page 62) shows the frequency of visits by respondents who have visited Estonia. First and 1.5 generation respondents were slightly more likely to have visited Estonia, and tended to visit multiple times, whereas a higher number
(but still a minority) of second and third generation respondents had never visited or visited only once.
Table 4.1: Frequency of visits to Estonia by generation, survey sample (Percentages)
Generation Visited once Visited more Never than once visited First generation 0% 95% 5% ‘1.5’ generation 13% 80% 7% Second generation 24% 63% 12% Third generation 29% 57% 14%
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Table 4.2: Frequency of visits to Estonia conditional upon having visited at least once, by generation, survey sample (Number of respondents. This subsample excludes surveys with an unspecified total number of visits, or where such information could not be otherwise determined)
Generation Once Twice 3-5 times 6-10 times More than 10 times First generation 1 0 6 8 4 ‘1.5’ generation 4 2 13 6 3 Second generation 12 12 12 2 2 Third generation 3 4 4 0 0 Total, percentage of 20.4% 18.4% 35.7% 16.3% 9.2% subsample
In total, 477 visits were made by all respondents in the survey sample combined, lasting in duration from several days to many months, and averaging approximately three weeks. Most visits were made during the northern summer.
The average number and length of trips is similar for the interview sample (see also
Section 5.4.1, page 93). The majority of respondents travelled with spouses, children or parents, and some visited Estonia as part of a broader European holiday itinerary. Most respondents stayed with relatives or in apartments (rented or owned), although some—especially those making shorter visits—stayed in hotels.
Figure 4.1 (page 63) depicts the years in which survey respondents visited and the number of respondents who visited each year. Visits were impossible until the
1960s when Westerners were permitted to apply for visas, and remained fairly low until Estonia regained independence in 1991. During the Soviet period, foreign tourists were confined to specific hotels, could not stay in relatives’ houses, needed written permission to travel outside Tallinn, and had their movements monitored by authorities. However, after 1991 many Estonian-Australians travelled to their homeland. The frequency of visits has remained high since, increasing over the past five years as travel costs have fallen, as the ‘1.5’ generation has reached retirement and as Estonia’s tourism infrastructure has improved.
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Number of visits by survey sample (combined)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Year 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Figure 4.1: Visits to Estonia made by the sample over time 21
21 The figure for 2008 is lower than the years 2004-2007 because the survey was conducted during April-October 2008 and thus does not represent all visits made by respondents during 2008.
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4.4.2 Expectations and first impressions
Visiting Estonia was a poignant experience for most respondents. Living in
Australia and having little connection with Estonia itself for a long time—or, for second and third generations, not knowing much about Estonia—often resulted in marked differences between what was expected and what was actually encountered. Almost all respondents anticipated that the Soviet occupation had substantially altered the society and built landscape of Estonia, yet many still felt shocked when they first visited. For first and 1.5 generation respondents, born in
Estonia, some places, buildings and farms were remembered, but memories were often incomplete and many things had changed. In particular, those visiting prior to 1991 were shocked by hostile social attitudes, displays of arrogance or power by
Russians, and poor living standards (experiences of visiting in the Soviet-era are discussed in Appendix 6, page 161).
However, as Levy suggests, “for many people, the trauma of being driven from one’s home will now be matched by the shock of returning to a home that does not exist” (cited in Long and Oxfeld 2004:11). The frameworks of memory—whether of the individual or parents who have told them stories—shaped expectations about what Estonia would be like, yet the reality of being there led to initial feelings of estrangement or alienation. One 1.5 generation respondent found that going back to
Estonia put her previous conceptions of it into stark contrast with the reality of a homeland that had changed markedly:
I expected to be absolutely overcome with emotion, and I was disappointed that
all that was missing. I didn’t feel anything. I landed and I thought I’d be like the
Pope kissing the ground… [But] I thought, this has got nothing to do with me… I
thought [Estonian folk-hero] Kalevipoeg is sure to be waiting for me at the
airport and take me off to a picnic… It didn’t feel like [a homecoming],
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unfortunately. I would have loved that feeling. But, I think, too long an absence
(Pille, 1.5F)
Several second and third generation respondents found that Estonia was substantially different to how their parents had described it, or to how they had imagined it. Their expectations partly reflected the nostalgic stories told by their parents:
I discovered it wasn’t as pretty as my parents had painted it (Peeter, 2M)
What [my parents] told me was kind of sugar coated, they didn’t tell me all the
bad stuff… Basically up until the war it was sort of like a fantasy land, a fairytale
land, everything was lovely… But in fact, it was not at all like that at all. It was
quite terrible… Driving from the airport to the city, you have go to through a
kind of industrial area… Suddenly it was ‘My God, this is what Estonia really is!’
(Martin, 2M)
For other respondents, however, initial experiences of Estonia were quite positive.
Many expressed surprise that Estonia actually existed, having long thought of it as a kind of ‘fairytale land’ and an ideal of their parents, rather than an actual place where real people lived. Added to this was a sense of curiosity and discovery, of being in a place to which they had a strong connection:
It was a mix of emotions, but mainly sort of joy, a sense of unreality I suppose,
finally being there. I didn’t remember Tallinn of course… I was just a little bit too
young [when I left], so the whole sort of notion of Estonia was a slightly mythic
thing, just the stories you’d heard from parents and teachers and the books (Jaan,
1.5M)
We sort of thought it was this fairytale land, you know, that was just brilliant
and beautiful and lovely and all the rest of it. But we didn’t really think that it
really existed. So when we went and saw it, it was just amazing… We flew in…
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and I just remember seeing the outline of the country and thinking, ‘Oh my God!
This is a real country!’ (Malle, 2F)
4.4.3 Meeting relatives
An integral part of visiting Estonia was meeting relatives. Many Estonians who migrated to Australia left behind siblings, parents, or even children. 86 per cent of survey respondents, and almost all interviewees, had relatives in Estonia.
Travelling to meet them served to reconnect families after having been kept apart for many decades. Most 1.5, second and third generation visitors had never met their Estonian relatives before. Emotions were often overwhelming, with many feeling a sense of inclusion and that their trips felt like a reunion or a homecoming, a way of re-establishing kinship ties across great spatial and temporal divisions.
Indeed, some female respondents said they could see similarities between the appearance, behaviour and mannerisms of their Estonian relatives and themselves, their children or their parents:
We landed in this tiny little plane, and walked out, and I saw my half sister…
with her two sons, who I recognised. One of them was a dead split of one of my
children, absolute, just looking at me. We just looked at each other and burst into
tears and cried and cried and cried (Susan, 2F)
You know that they’re family, but you don’t know them, so that’s pretty
emotional. And even to get close to them in that short time is pretty amazing…
It’s great just to see the faces, the family traits—like who do they take after?
(Helve, 1.5F)
However, meeting respondents could also be unsettling. Some respondents felt awkward, that whilst they were blood relations, vastly different life experiences and little contact with each other had resulted in different worldviews and few commonalities—and thus little to talk about. This was especially awkward when there were language barriers (see Section 4.5, page 73):
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I don’t know whether [meeting them again] was such an emotional thing,
because such a long time had passed, and we hadn’t had any connection with
these people in the meantime. They were sort of strangers to me (Salme, 1F)
There was an old lady in old clothes from another time, another era… both of us
recognising this bond, glowing and eyes shining, and not knowing quite what to
say, or to ask, or to offer. But still there was an awkwardness there, because [of]
this churned up mix of other place, other world, other people, and blood…
They’d obviously prepared for months before, or whatever, because they knew
we were kind of coming… Everything they owned practically was on the table.
And wanting us to receive, to eat, to consume, to touch, to use, you know, to
offer whatever they can. And you being conscious that this was your role as well,
to do that (Priit, 1.5M)
Despite this awkwardness, most respondents were welcomed and accommodated by their Estonian relatives, who often invited them to stay in their homes, drove them around the country and prepared meals for them, sometimes at substantial financial cost to the relatives. There was also an obligation to accept relatives’ hospitality, but where visitors had a number of relatives or family groups to visit, this led to a dilemma of choosing which ones to stay with (especially for couples visiting). Several decided to stay in apartments to avoid the ‘family politics’ of staying with some households and not others. However, Estonian family obligations on visiting relatives seem to be much weaker than has been reported in other cultural contexts (Baldassar 2001; Kwiatkowski 2006).
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4.4.4 (Re)connecting with place and landscape
Visits frequently involved reconnecting with places, in a general sense by seeing the Estonian landscape and old town of Tallinn, and more specifically through visiting the houses, farms or graves of relatives or ancestors. Almost all respondents did this, usually on their first or second trip to Estonia. These sites became destinations of pilgrimage, even when they had been reduced to rubble or it was not possible to go inside houses.
For a minority of respondents, houses and farms were still owned and inhabited by living relatives. For others, the location of former houses, or even ancestors’ villages, were not always known. Some respondents arrived at these houses to find them bulldozed, destroyed during the Second World War, replaced with other buildings, or occupied by strangers:
It’s a very moving experience to be… in the house where generations of your
family have been born and there you are… It’s just a very, very good feeling. A
very strong feeling… You’d go to the cemetery and see all these people, and
they’re all your relatives and ancestors. So you do have a sense of them, and of
the history (Martin, 1.5M)
It was pretty emotional. Certainly the pile of rubble that used to be my mother’s
house… This house obviously someone had bulldozed everything into a heap.
We were going, ‘Here are the floorboards, here is where the fireplace is’… I
found it pretty emotional. My mother just doesn’t want to know about it, I have
photos but she just doesn’t want to look at it (Maarja, 2F)
Houses were visited to see, smell and touch the places where parents or grandparents had grown up (or where one was born), the places from where the family’s identity and source of nostalgic longing was derived. Graves became
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 68
markers of family history and sites of ancestry. Visits to gravesites were typically made with relatives:
We visited the grave of [my mother’s] grandfather… We went there with my
second cousins, and sort of tidied up the grave and put flowers… That was quite
emotional (Sean, 3M)
Travel routes through Estonia were also based around visiting such important sites, seeing landscapes that parents or grandparents had talked about, and meeting relatives, some of whom lived in nearby towns. Ancestors’ graves and houses—or their remnants—became powerful material objects that elicited deep feelings of historicity and identity. They were personal “sites of memory” (Nora 1989)— symbolic monuments embedding historical narratives into the landscape—in which collective and familial beliefs about history and ancestry could be tangibly engaged with through sensory experiences. Indeed, this desire to trace the physical remnants of family pasts represents a “spatialisation of memory,” where such sites function as “‘sources of identity’: originary places from which the identity of the self is perceived to derive” (Basu 2007:158). For ‘roots tourists’ generally, walking through sites of family history and elaborately imagining ancestors’ lives can establish a deep sense of ontological security and historical ‘rootedness’ (Holsey
2004; Schramm 2004; Basu 2007).
The Estonian landscape and natural environment were also consumed by diasporic travellers. The mostly flat, green and wet natural landscape, dotted with forests, contrasted starkly to the drier, browner, less densely vegetated Australian rural landscape:
[The] nature’s fantastic… There’s a greenness we don’t experience, a smell we
don’t experience [in Australia] (Tiiu, 2F)
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There was also something a bit special about being just in the countryside and in
the natural environments, walking around the forests and things… I got a certain
thrill walking around in the natural environment (Jaan, 1.5M)
For some respondents, the landscape and nature—and traditional Estonian pastimes involving these—became sources of identification, represented in photographs and paintings in their homes. Images of the Estonian countryside or old town of Tallinn evoked longings for the homeland (including nostalgia for past trips) amongst all generations of respondents. Visits to Estonia often reinforced the attachment to these landscapes and symbols by physically being in the natural and built environments. Visits are thus an important way in which a sense of identity and historical belonging are tied to particular places. For diasporic Estonians, a crucial means of engaging and identifying with the homeland is through forming one’s own sense of that place.
4.4.5 Tourism and authenticity
Diasporic travel is also very much a touristic venture for many Estonian-
Australians. First generation migrants were absent from their homeland so long that it became foreign to them. For many second and third generation Estonians,
Estonia is a tourist destination, a place to pass through whilst holidaying in Europe, and somewhere there may be relatives to stay with. Yet for many of these travellers, the ancestral ‘homeland’ is primarily a curiosity, somewhere ‘exotic’ to be
‘discovered.’
When Estonian migrants and their descendants ‘returned’ to their homeland after a long period of absence and disconnection, there was frequently a “mixture of nostalgia and exoticism” (Kwiatkowski 2006:204). The ‘strong’ attachments to place that ‘ethnic reunion’ or ‘roots tourism’ imply might also be paralleled by, or
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 70
replaced with, weaker attachments (in the sense of lesser emotional investment) of enjoyment, relaxation and touristic exploration.
MacCannell (1976) argues that tourists seek to witness the ‘back stages’ of the cultures they visit—where locals live their everyday lives in non-contrived ways— yet the very presence of tourists causes these locals to change their behaviour, resulting in a set of ‘staged backs’ that are presented to tourists. Visiting sites of ancestral or familial importance—such as old houses or graves—is a key way in which Estonian-Australians distinguished themselves from mere ‘tourists’ in
Estonia. There was a desire to see the ‘authentic’ and ‘real’ side of Estonia, a side which they felt privileged that they could see and comprehend as persons of
Estonian descent. Such ‘back stages’ were often distant or hidden from the
‘touristy’ areas and performances of major towns.
Whilst Estonia has an important historic connection for individual diasporic travellers, it is also an exotic country. Visiting ancestral sites is a way of engaging with one’s own historic exoticism, a deep sense of connection to the homeland yet a parallel curiosity to experience what it is like in the present (Basu 2007). Indeed,
Estonian ancestry is seen as a key to the ‘back door,’ to see the ‘back stage’ of
Estonia and Estonian society, where visitors may themselves gaze upon what is seemingly ‘authentic’ and beyond the ‘tourist gaze’ (Urry 2002). Furthermore, visits often entailed relatives taking visitors to see particular sites and monuments that they consider to be the ‘real’ Estonia, yet this constitutes and interpretation of authenticity that is based on collective memories and identities (of the Estonian nation or Estonian culture) as well as collective forgetting (of the Soviet period).
4.4.6 Perspectives on change
Estonian-Australians that had visited Estonia multiple times—especially those who visited both before and after independence—formed particular impressions about
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 71
how the country had changed (see also Section 5.4.1, page 93). Such respondents mostly referred to the rebuilding of Tallinn (the construction of new buildings and the restoration of the old town), the ‘Westernisation’ of retail and shopping, shop assistance becoming gradually more helpful, high rates of inflation, the increasing
English language fluency of younger Estonians, a declining visibility of Russian people and audibility of the Russian language, and increasing numbers of foreign tourists.
In these discourses of the changing homeland there were both expressions of surprise at the pace of change as well as satisfaction that real incomes were rising and more goods and services were available as Estonia develops and ‘Westernises.’
Indeed, many changes were interpreted through frameworks of ‘Westernisation’ and ‘modernisation,’ where capitalist development and the convergence of goods and services to the same quality levels as Australia (or better) were seen as a move towards ‘normality.’
However, there was also disappointment that income inequality had increased markedly since independence and, in particular, that many pensioners (often of similar ages to first and 1.5 generation visitors, and including their relatives) were quite poor. Some social changes were also interpreted negatively:
Even now they seem to have a different mentality altogether. These 50 years
under Communist rule have really made a difference. The people there are
completely different. Isn’t it strange. They are not so open and forthcoming…
And they treat you with sort of restraint somehow. They’re not really open
towards you (Kati, 1.5F)
When independence came, it changed people’s attitudes a lot… People were
smiling in the shop, and saying, ‘Can I help you?’… But now they’re reverting
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back again to the sort of arrogant service. They look at you [funny]. We’re not
used to it! (Salme, 1F)
These negative aspects were typically explained as lingering remnants of communist rule, social characteristics that would not have existed prior to the
Soviet occupation. 22 Along with the rapid trajectory of economic and architectural change in Estonia (particularly Tallinn), feelings of disconnection arose for some respondents. Since only a small number of respondents made visits on a sufficiently regular basis to encounter only minor differences on each trip, many found it difficult to continually identify with a place that was so rapidly changing.
4.5 Home, identity and belonging
There has always been this connection, this bond with the country that my
parents and thus we, their children, had been forced to leave. Part of you belongs
there (survey respondent, 1.5F)
Experiences of visiting the homeland are often reflected in the way individuals come to form a sense of belonging, attachment, identity or ‘home’ in relation to both their homeland (Estonia) and place of residence (Australia). Many respondents felt some degree of belonging in Estonia, that they ‘fit in’ and had a strong sense of connection to place. Yet ‘Estonia’ took on diverse meanings. For some respondents, of all generational groups, it became a central part of their identities, even if they did not want to live there and also identified as being
Australian. Visiting Estonia was a crucial way of reconnecting with family history
22 Interestingly, it is difficult to distinguish the effects of the Soviet occupation on Estonian social attitudes, public behaviours, etc, from what would otherwise occur as part of ‘Estonian culture.’ Racialisation may be implicit in these discourses. Some respondents claimed that Estonians are traditionally stubborn and introverted, although negative traits that caused a sense of shock amongst visiting Estonian-Australians were invariably explained as being ‘Russian’ influences.
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and cultural origins. Many respondents said that they strongly felt Estonian after visiting:
[Estonia is] something that belongs to me. It’s part of who I am. It’s, um, yeah, I
belong to it, and it belongs to me. It’s part of me, it’s part of my identity (Kadri,
2F)
It’s my roots. Everything about me is there… I am what I am because both of my
parents are Estonian… I think basically I’m still a little Estonian girl (Marje, 2F)
There was also a sense of ‘homecoming’—or of ‘going back home’—felt by many, particularly on their first visit. For some Estonian-born and Australian-born respondents, visiting Estonia was a symbolic repatriation with the homeland their families had been exiled from:
Even though I’d never been there before, I felt that I was home. I felt quite
sentimental about it, being where my parents had grown up, and being in the
houses that they had lived in. I was quite choked up initially (Peeter, 2M)
Indeed, these sentiments did not always emerge whilst visiting but became felt much later:
It means that I too have a homeland, somewhere. That really, basically, there is
somewhere where I belong… When we sing the [Estonian] national anthem, I’m
definitely very tearful. So no matter how much I protest that [visiting Estonia]
meant nothing for me, I suppose it does. That you know, for us people, there is a
home too (Pille, 1.5F)
Travelling to Estonia also became a way of better understanding childhoods and having grown up as an Estonian in Australia, providing a greater sense of appreciation of parents’ efforts to maintain Estonian traditions and the language:
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[Being in Estonia is] a feeling of being at home… It becomes a part of why you
are who you are. It validates all that stuff you’ve been through, the dancing
you’ve done, the singing you’ve done, why you speak the language, why you
wear the costume (Helve, 1.5F)
However, a key aspect in feeling a sense of belonging in Estonia was being able to speak and understand the Estonian language. The majority of both interview and survey respondents said that language was the key factor in being considered truly
‘Estonian’ whilst in Estonia. The ability to speak Estonian also engendered feelings of being more strongly attached to Estonia. Hearing Estonian spoken in multiple public and private spaces—especially by young children—elicited strong feelings of belonging and sentimentality amongst Estonian-speaking respondents, evoking a feeling of being ‘at home.’
Indeed, language is one of the key ways in which väliseestlased (‘foreign Estonians’) were distinguished from kodueestlased (‘home Estonians’):
If you don’t speak the language, Estonians don’t regard you as Estonian… You
can’t be Estonian without having that connection (Merle, 1.5F)
My Estonian is accented, so as soon as I start talking people will know I’m from
somewhere else (Martin, 1.5M)
Estonian-speaking respondents were conscious that their use of language differed from that of kodueestlased , since the language had evolved differently in the homeland to the diaspora. Very few respondents claimed to speak Estonian flawlessly. Most found differences—or had difficulties—with grammar, vocabulary, nuances and jokes. Many 1.5 and second generation respondents in particular, who were comfortable speaking Estonian with their parents about everyday things,
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were unable to express themselves in a more complex manner, especially to strangers. Some had also been told by relatives that they had developed foreign accents, or that they spoke a very ‘old’ form of Estonian. Their language marked them out as different, just as clothing and behaviour marked foreign visitors that visited during the Soviet period (see Appendix 6, page 161), instantly inscribing them as väliseestlased or välismaalased (‘foreigners’).
Indeed, other respondents felt a sense of alienation in Estonia, of not belonging.
This was more likely amongst those who did not have any known relatives there or were unable to speak at least some Estonian. For most respondents the feeling of belonging was only partial, with the different life experiences of people in Australia compared to those in Estonia, legacies of communism and different social structures serving as constant reminders that Estonia is, in many ways, a ‘foreign’ country. There was a sense that even when in their homeland, they were not a part of it:
I went with [my daughter] to the song festival… There were some very poignant
songs that everybody in the audience knew but me and [her]… I was sitting
there thinking, you know, I’m not really a part of this country… I’ve got the
language, but I haven’t shared the same experiences as them… That’s when I felt:
Why do I come here? I don’t really belong here (Malle, 2F)
There is definitely Estonians, and then there’s foreign Estonians. And there’s a
certain element of Estonian society where I’d never be accepted, because
although I’m Estonian, and I have a passport, I wasn’t born and raised there, I
wasn’t there underneath the Russians… I mean I’d fit in, until I open my mouth.
And at that point I’d become a foreigner (Mihkel, 3M)
Whilst there was often a sense of enjoyment when meeting relatives, and a welcoming attitude from them, there was typically never a complete sense of
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 76
attachment or a complete understanding of Estonia and its people felt by visitors.
Regardless of whether they were born in Estonia, or how many times they had visited, they were still väliseestlased .
For second and third generations in particular, visits to Estonia became a way of engaging with their ethnic identities, and one of the many symbolic ways in which these are expressed. Many of these respondents did not consider Estonia to be
‘home’ or that they fully belonged there, yet did feel some looser form of attachment. Meeting relatives when visiting led to familial bonds being formed with the homeland, evoking a sense of belonging in Estonia—or at least of being a welcome guest—whilst potentially strengthening their Estonian identity. Visiting
Estonia was also potentially a way of becoming closer to (or showing respect towards) parents or grandparents (especially those who have died), by visiting the country of their birth or childhoods. Even for those with mixed ethnic backgrounds,
‘Estonian’ became selected as an identity, and a way of distinguishing themselves from other Australians. For these diasporic travellers, being marked as väliseestlased was not so much of a problem, as there was typically less personal investment in an
Estonian identity, and fitting in completely in the ‘foreign’ homeland was less important.
Indeed, several respondents professed to having confused identities, particularly if their experiences of Estonia did not match memories, parents’ stories or prior expectations, or if they felt unable to comprehend what it meant to be Estonian as a child (such as possessing cultural and linguistic traits different to other children).
Visiting Estonia did not feel like a homecoming; Estonia was not the place of childhood memories. Yet visiting did become a way to negotiate identities and senses of belonging. Estonia was a kind of cultural or ancestral home, and a key part of identity—yet Australia was also home, and they were Australian as well:
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You know my instant word is it’s my homeland. It’s my father’s homeland, and
it’s a large part of me. And yet Australia is too (Susan, 2F)
Australia’s my homeland because I was born here, I grew up here, but the other
homeland is Estonia. Strong feelings were nurtured over the years of talking to
my parents. I felt at home there (Russell, 2M)
[Estonia is] a different type of home. That’s where my relatives are. [Australia] is
where I know how the society operates and the social and political and legal and
health systems… I feel as though I’ve been allowed to become Estonian again,
but it’s a different kind of home for me. It’s like I’ve got two homes (Kristiina,
1.5F)
Rather than feeling that they did not completely belong to either Australia or
Estonia, many respondents—particularly of the 1.5 generation—felt they were simultaneously both Estonian and Australian. Many said, for example, they would not know which country to support in a sporting match between Australia and
Estonia, as they have attachments and loyalties to both.
For others, however, visiting Estonia triggered new ways of thinking about being
Australian. Whilst most respondents enjoyed travelling to Estonia, the many differences with life in Australia made them conscious that they were well established in Australia, behaved more like Australians than Estonians, and that
Australia was their true home:
I’m Australian, there’s no—there’s no kaks [‘two’] ways about it (Tiiu, 2F)
Well I’m really Australian, and I identify as Australian here, except in some
contexts… [Sometimes] I might feel some of my Estonian things sort of bubbling
up, or I might talk about it, and so I think it’s a dynamic thing… Yeah I was born
there [Estonia], blah blah, that’s it (Priit, 1.5M)
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 78
Notions of home and belonging are thus overlapping, multiple, at times incomplete and vary between people. Visits to Estonia reinforced some respondents’ ethnic identities and there was a sense of a homecoming. For others, however, the attachments to the homeland were looser, and they came to identify with Australia, or formed a different kind of Estonian identity. Ethic identities do not fade over time, but are constantly recreated and reinterpreted in different ways, being selectively utilised to adapt to the life contexts of those who hold them (Gans 1979;
Hall 1991b; Baldassar 2001). Visiting the homeland or a source of the ethnic culture is a key part of this identity maintenance process, yet in individually specific ways that engender a renegotiation of conceptions of home and belonging.
For many respondents, both Australia and Estonia were seen as ‘home,’ but in different ways. Australia was the home of everyday life, work and immediate family, whereas Estonia was an identity, a cultural or even spiritual home. Home is where one grows up or lives, forms memories, and develops attachments to that place. Yet for those living in the diaspora, a distant homeland can also be considered a home, one around which many stories and cultural activities are based. Estonia was discursively constructed by respondents in ways that made it familiar and special to them, a cultural homeland rather than a literal home or house. Estonia is also the kodumaa , the spiritual homeland, even when it is not the sole component of identity.
Rootedness to the homeland is thus typically partial and varies over time and across people. There are family connections and cultural roots in the homeland. For many older respondents, Estonia was a sentimental connection, a place to which one can partly—but rarely fully—anchor one’s identity and sense of belonging.
This was demonstrated by the home-making practices of several respondents, who placed Estonian books, flags and images in their houses. However, these were often
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 79
intermingled with pictures of the Australian landscape. Australia, at the same time, was also a source of identity, affiliation and family. Indeed, being Estonian and maintaining an ethnic identity can even be a way of being part of ‘multicultural’
Australian society, as one third generation respondent observed. Ethnic identities and feelings of ‘home’ are not mutually exclusive, and are at once anchored to fixed, physical territories even though they are expressed in dynamic, multiple and flexible ways, adapting to different life circumstances and migration contexts.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter has examined the motivations and experiences of diasporic Estonians visiting their homeland. Parents’ often incomplete yet nostalgic stories of the homeland shaped children’s consciousness of the homeland and later curiosity to visit it. Furthermore, nostalgic longings, kinship links, quests for heritage, curiosity and identity are important factors motivating travel to Estonia. Such travel has been undertaken by the majority of both the interview and survey samples, with many respondents having visited multiple times. However, the first impressions of actually visiting did not always align with expectations. Meeting relatives was an emotional but awkward experience. Travel to Estonia typically involved respondents visiting and interacting with particular landscapes and ancestral sites, although there was a notable touristic dimension to such travel as well. Experiences of visiting do not appear to have any discernible patterns relating to gender, although female respondents were slightly more likely to say they felt ‘emotional’ and to explain these emotions. There were no significant age differences that could not be accounted for by respondents’ generations. Visits have significant effects on senses of identity, home and belonging, which may come to take on multi-faceted dimensions as different attachments are formed to multiple places simultaneously.
These themes are carried over to an analysis of transnationalism in Chapter 5 and the discussion in Chapter 6.
Chapter 4 Visiting the homeland 80
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism
81
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism
5.1 Introduction
I’ve got a foot in both countries (Urve, 2F)
Transnationalism is a process through which groups and communities—often of a common background or ethnicity—conduct social, political, economic or cultural activities that transcend the borders of nation states and connect multiple, spatially disparate, localities (see Section 2.2, page 9). These engagements can consist of material and immaterial forms of connection, from exchanging goods and money to the consumption of homeland media in the receiving country. However, actual flows of people between places are a crucial dimension for sustaining contemporary transnational networks. The physical movements of diasporic travellers act to (re)structure and (re)shape cultural expressions, ethnic identities, political mobilisations, economic projects and tourism.
This chapter discusses the emergence of particular forms of transnationalism that link Australia and Estonia. It describes changes to the Estonian-Australian community over time, showing how politically-oriented forms of ‘long-distance nationalism’ have been largely replaced with more loosely organised ways of engaging with Estonia that constitute increasingly transnational forms of engagement. It examines why some Estonian-Australians travel to Estonia repeatedly yet few Estonians travel to Australia, highlighting the uneven nature of these transnational connections. Social, cultural and economic forms of engagement that Estonian-Australians have with Estonia, including the significance of claiming
Estonian passports, are then discussed. Some potential implications of diasporic
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 82
travel and emergent transnationalism for Estonian tourism and development are also identified.
5.2 The Estonian-Australian community
5.2.1 Long-distance nationalism
The population of Estonians and their descendants in Australia has undergone several significant transformations over time. This population grew rapidly when the post-war wave of migrants, mostly Displaced Persons, arrived in the late 1940s and early 1950s. There was an expansion of both institutionalised and informal activities in major cities (Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide) and more occasional and looser engagements, such as social groups and church services, in smaller cities and rural towns (to which many Estonians had been posted on work contracts) (see
Section 3.3, page 38). These activities and social networks had a number of purposes. They formed institutional structures and connections that facilitated migrants’ adjustment to the Australian society and environment, and to the English language. They also enabled the Estonian culture and traditions of the homeland to be maintained in the diaspora, as a way of establishing a form of cultural continuity and passing on specific values and traditions to children. Furthermore, there was also a political dimension, with the Soviet occupation of Estonia and the deportation of many intellectuals and politicians leading to fears that the Estonian language and culture were threatened in Estonia itself (by the persecution of individuals and the Russification of schools), and thus needed to be maintained in the diaspora.
The confluence of these factors resulted in the enculturation of many children with
‘Estonianness,’ particularly through Saturday language schools, regular gatherings, annual summer camps, and activities such as dancing, singing and scouting.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 83
Estonian community 23 activity was reportedly very strong during the 1950s and
1960s, particularly in Sydney where there was the largest concentration of
Estonians in Australia. Post-war migrants and their children established close-knit social networks and organisations and held regular events and functions. For those living in cities with an Estonian House, attendance at these venues was common for many migrant families. When parents were unable to attend (due to working hours or living too far from central Sydney), children were often sent to Estonian House to learn the Estonian language and other traditions, and to interact with other children.
Involvement in Estonian community activities was not uniform across the Estonian-
Australian population. Many ‘Old Estonian’ migrants and their children become less involved in organised activities as the much larger post-war cohort established its own activities, with the exile situation adding a political dimension to some of these.24 Some post-war migrants sought ‘new lives’ in Australia—particularly if they experienced great trauma or loss during wartime—and did not become strongly involved in many Estonian activities. Those who were involved varied in their participation, with many children becoming less engaged with the community as they grew older. In addition, the political discussions that took place at Estonian
Houses—coupled with Saturday schools and other activities steeped in ideology, nationalism and nostalgia for the homeland—also apparently discouraged many
Estonian-Australians from involvement in organised activities.
23 The term ‘community’ is used here to refer specifically to the set of organisations and institutions that were formed by Estonian migrants in Australia. It does not intend to encompass all Estonian- born Australians, which are referred to as the Estonian-Australian population. 24 Allegedly, many ‘Old Estonians’ left Estonia during the independence period (1918-1940) because they held socialist political views. Most post-war migrants were, on average, more highly educated and held strongly anti-socialist and anti-communist attitudes. This is likely to have made many ‘Old Estonians’ feel alienated and discouraged them from participating in events and activities.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 84
As such, various forms of ‘long-distance nationalism’ arose (see Section 2.2, page 9).
The articulation of cultural and nationalist politics regarding the homeland became dominant within the diaspora setting. Nationalist politics focused on fighting for a
‘free’ (independent) Estonia, with Estonian organisations often mobilising around opposition to the USSR, the need for other countries (eg, Australia) to recognise the illegality of Estonia’s occupation, and support for free-market economic policies or ideologies. This often involved collaboration with Latvian and Lithuanian migrant groups, whose homelands were also occupied by the Soviet Union. Furthermore, many instilled anti-Russian and anti-communist attitudes in their children, alongside both an awareness of (and pride for) their Estonian ethnicity and a sense of displacement and exile from Estonia. Political events in the homeland thus exerted a substantial influence on the activities of the Estonian diaspora in the West
(Salasoo 2001; Tammeveski 2003; Pehk 2007).
The activities of Estonian-Australian groups were also oriented towards preserving and maintaining particular versions of what were considered ‘true’ Estonian cultural traditions. In the decades following migration to Australia, ideas of
Estonian national identity and Estonianness were constantly (re)created in a multitude of ways through everyday practices, social interactions and representations of Estonian landscapes, folk heroes and national symbols—a form of ‘banal nationalism’ (Billig 1995). In the exile context, the cultural practices and rituals of the homeland were more strongly practiced and kept in essentialised, non-evolving forms in the diaspora, compared to the homeland itself (Tammeveski
2003). However, such ‘cultural preservation’ was itself political, with independence-era (1918-1940) Estonian values, traditions and language maintained in the belief that these would need to be eventually re-introduced to the homeland
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 85
(once it was freed of Soviet occupation) by the diaspora to counter the Russification and cultural suppression the Soviet Union was presumably imposing. 25
Through such activities, often focused around particular ‘ethnic’ spaces that had been created in Australia (eg, Estonian Houses), post-war Estonian migrants identified with Estonia in two different but interrelated ways: Estonia as a place— kodu Eesti (‘home Estonia’)—and Estonia as a source of cultural and political reference—välis Eesti (‘foreign Estonia’). This välis Eesti , created in the diaspora, was reinforced through the publication of a weekly Estonian language newspaper, Meie
Kodu (‘our home’), allowing Estonians in Australia to imagine themselves as part of an Estonian-Australian community with shared purposes and ideologies of the homeland ( cf Anderson 1991). However, low levels of communication with the homeland, that were also distorted or censored, added to the disconnection between kodu and välis Eesti for many decades (see Section 5.3, page 91).
These cultural and nationalist activities constituted means to maintain Estonian ways of life and cultural values whilst living in exile, and means to express and confer to future generations an ideology of eventual return to Estonia. Articulations of Estonianness in the diaspora were entwined with Estonian nationalism and political activism, leading to particular forms of long-distance nationalism, even though these activities had little influence on the homeland itself. Community activities were also used to maintain an image of Estonian community political and cultural solidarity—to perform ways of “narrating the nation” from outside of it
(Smith and Jackson 1999:368)—even when many Estonian-Australian individuals and families held different views.
25 Similar sentiments were also felt amongst many Estonian exiles in the United States and Canada (cf Tammeveski 2003). Indeed, there were various forms of communication and interaction between Estonians in different Western countries of the diaspora (see Section 5.6.1, page 99).
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 86
5.2.2 Changes over time
After having lived in Australia for several decades, the above cultural and political practices of post-war Estonian migrants changed in particular ways. The maintenance of the Estonian language and cultural activities served to remind migrants of ‘home’ and instil a ‘diasporic consciousness’ (see Section 4.2, page 51) whilst achieving particular political goals (cf Drozdzewski 2008). However, these practices and Estonian language fluency became difficult to maintain over time.
The relatively small size of the Estonian migrant group and fast adaptation to
Australian society (most Estonians held similar religious beliefs and had a similar physical appearance to many Anglo-Australians) meant that many individuals became less reliant on other Estonians for assistance or social activities over time.
Furthermore, the English language was widely adopted and many individuals formed friendships with non-Estonians. Indeed, the Estonian-Australian community has never been large enough to support facilities outside of the major cities, or even specialised ethnic shops, churches, radio stations or television programs. Other than a few printed publications, there was very little Estonian language media available, making it difficult to use Estonian outside the home or migrant community spaces. Those who married non-Estonians were typically unable to rear their children in an Estonian-speaking household environment.
Estonian language skills thus declined over time with successive generations. These dynamics have also been exacerbated by the lack of new flows of migrants from
Estonia until quite recently.
Furthermore, once Estonia regained independence in 1991, there were very few political aims left for Estonian organisations in Australia to strive for, to use as means of building community solidarity, or to gain support for from outside the
Estonian community (or outside migrant groups from Baltic countries). There was also a reduced sense of urgency and importance of maintaining Estonian activities and language in the diaspora, as these were no longer threatened by suppression,
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 87
destruction or Russification in Estonia itself. Many activities and groups thus became markedly depoliticised and, combined with the ageing of first generation of post-war migrants, this led to a decline in participation in most Estonian community activities, particularly by younger generations. 26
Activities have thus shifted from political to more socially oriented forms that tend to be less structured or formalised. Most organised Estonian activities at present are undertaken by first and 1.5 generation migrants, with only a small number of children and young adults who typically become less involved upon leaving school or marriage. 27 Predictably, many first and 1.5 generation interview respondents expressed a sense of regret and loss at these developments, raising concerns over a
‘crisis of succession’ and uncertainty about who will lead the community in the future once the present leaders and organisers have died:
The whole social activity has slowed down and become less interesting… I don’t
think that is a bad thing, but it’s a loss for Estonia. Estonia is so small, and there
are so few Estonians in the whole world. I feel that every one I should cherish
and help them with being Estonian (Luise, 1F)
However, there have been various responses to these trends. There has been a shift towards conducting activities in English rather than in Estonian, due to declining proficiency in the Estonian language, particularly among children. Some respondents also noted that independence in Estonia was followed by a more inclusive attitude by many community organisations (as the need for political solidarity diminished), which became more willing to embrace those who had
26 The exceptions appear to be seniors’ clubs, which many first generation migrants are currently involved with. 27 Second and third generation Estonians appear to become involved usually when they have two Estonian parents, or have a parent that is moderately to strongly involved in Estonian community activities. Indeed, many children and grandchildren of Estonian migrants do not even identify as being Estonian, due to having adopted the ethnic identities of other parents or because they consider themselves to be ‘ordinary’ Australians.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 88
married non-Estonians. Activities became more about celebrating Estonianness in a way that was perceived to be non-political, and thus more accepting of others.
However, the most significant recent development has been the propensity of
Australians of Estonian background, of all generational groups, making trips to
Estonia. This includes many who have never been involved in the Estonian community in Australia. Younger people are thus engaging with their Estonian heritage and ethnic identities in different ways, such as through tourism experiences, which have become much more accessible. Whilst the strength of involvement in Estonian activities has decreased with successive generations,
Estonian identities still exist yet are being articulated differently. Rather than being involved in particular activities or groups in the diaspora, there has been a substitution towards visiting Estonia and experiencing the ‘real thing.’ The long- distance nationalism of earlier years has become markedly reduced in both its political and cultural forms. It has thus become supplanted by other forms of engagement that amount to an emergence of transnationalism.
5.2.3 New Estonians
Since Estonia regained independence in 1991, a small number of Estonians have moved to Australia (see Section 3.3, page 38), although this has not affected the abovementioned trends, and there has been no coinciding surge in Estonian community involvement in Australia. Recent migrants constitute a heterogeneous group, although it appears to consist largely of working-age people (often in their
20s or 30s) moving to Sydney or Melbourne to work in the services sector. This is part of broader flows of labour migrants out of Estonia, seeking work or study in
Western Europe or North America. 28 Emigration—temporary or permanent—is typically undertaken to improve English language skills or because average real
28 Indeed, many individuals seek work or study in multiple places over time.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 89
wages are much higher in the West than in Estonia. Four interview respondents were of this migration cohort, all of whom had settled in Australia, although none ruled out eventually settling elsewhere or moving back to Estonia.
This group of ‘New Estonians’—sometimes called värskaeestlased (‘Fresh
Estonians’)—emigrated from Estonia for vastly different reasons (primarily employment) than the post-war group (political exile). Indeed, the värskaeestlased are able to return to their homeland at any time, and many do make regular trips back to Estonia to maintain contact with relatives and friends. Childhood memories and the Estonian landscape are important factors compelling their return visits, yet unlike the earlier post-war migrants, these visits—as well as instant communication with Estonia (via telephone and the internet)—have always been possible.
Furthermore, these värskaeestlased have also been relatively uninvolved in Estonian organisations and activities in Australia. 29 Instead, young Estonian migrants to
Australia have established their own social networks and friendships. 30 This is due to big age differences between themselves and established community leaders, the temporality of many stays in Australia, and the different forms of ‘Estonianness’ that are celebrated by the established community in Australia. Many post-war migrants and their descendants still celebrate a more essentialised Estonian culture
(of a past era) and are more defensive of Estonian nationality than many of the värskaeestlased , who do not feel a need to strongly engage with their Estonianness
29 Of course, this varies across individuals, and some ‘New Estonians’ have had extensive contact with the established Estonian community in Australia (see also Pehk 2007). Indeed, some respondents even complained that they wished to make contact with the established community here, but found this difficult, due to finding Estonian Houses closed or receiving a frosty reception there. 30 Two respondents (living in Sydney) told me that young Estonian workers meet regularly for ‘drinks’ and social gatherings, coordinated through the online social networking website Orkut.com, where the group Eestlased Austraalias (‘Estonians in Australia’) had over 900 members as of October 2008. However, this figure also apparently includes many tourists and people who have since left Australia.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 90
(especially if they are seeking novel experiences outside Estonia). Substantial differences in the circumstances of, and time since, migration have resulted in different world views between these two cohorts.
5.3 Communication with Estonia
Flows of information are an important factor in the establishment of transnational networks between diasporas and homelands. For many years after Estonia became a constituent state of the USSR (in 1944) it was not possible to communicate with relatives or friends there or to visit. Letters and photographs could only be exchanged from the mid-1950s onwards, sometimes using Red Cross assistance to find the addresses of relatives.31 However, many regulations were imposed by
Soviet authorities on the exchange of letters and goods, resulting in distorted and limited forms of communication. Letters that disclosed what had happened to individuals during the Second World War, political events (either in the USSR or the West) or historical details that did not match the ‘official’ Soviet line were confiscated or censored. Open communication was not possible, with Soviet authorities monitoring mail, and the exchange of information was often kept to a minimum out of fear for Estonian relatives’ safety. This led to many misunderstandings and did little to reduce the isolation between the homeland and diasporic groups of Estonians:
In the 50s it wasn’t… advisable for people in the Soviet Union to actually get
letters from overseas, because you came under suspicion if you got letters from
overseas. The Soviet propaganda was that the people who went overseas were
deserters, that they’d left the Communist paradise for the capitalist world… It
was very restricted what you could send (Anu, 1.5F)
31 However, some families could only re-establish contact with Estonian relatives after independence when they were also able to visit or search archives without restrictions.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 91
The early letters… were all sort of very bland, they were all kind of ‘apparent
loss of memory’… It was their code way of talking to each other. So, for example,
my grandmother… would have said, ‘Well of course my husband went to
university for a few years.’ That means he was taken to Siberia (Priit, 1.5M)
Various objects were also exchanged through parcels, although money (ie, foreign currency) was not sent out of fear that the Soviet customs agency would intercept and confiscate it. ‘Remittances’ to the homeland thus consisted of coffee, spices, jeans, fabrics and other material goods that could not be easily obtained in a communist economic system, yet could be sent by Australian relatives without confiscation. In exchange, literature, picture books and music recordings could be posted from Estonia to Australia although, ironically, such items could not be sent in the opposite direction. However, exchanges were typically sporadic and small quantities of goods were sent, partly due to high postage costs and duties.
However, over time communication became less censored as restrictions were eased in the 1980s, and following Estonian independence phone calls could be made. Since the 1990s, with the rapid growth of information technologies, communication has also occurred more frequently via emails, internet instant messaging and internet telephony. 32 However, contact tends to be sporadic, consisting mostly of exchanging Christmas cards or occasional emails. These transnational forms of communication also extend to other Estonians in the diaspora—such as in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden or Finland—with whom communication was less restricted before 1991. Approximately half the interview respondents had relatives or Estonian friends in these places. 33
32 This is most commonly undertaken using Skype, an internet telephone service that uses a microphone and speakers attached to a computer. Skype is used by many Estonians and Estonian- Australians, partly because the program was invented in Estonia. 33 For the 1.5 generation, many such friends were schoolmates they went to school with in Estonia or in Displaced Persons camps in Germany.
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5.4 Repeat visits
5.4.1 From Australia to Estonia
Many Estonian-Australians who visit Estonia do so multiple times. Some visit once or twice, whilst others go back every one or two years. A small number have even purchased apartments or reclaimed properties that were nationalised by the Soviet government in the 1940s (see Section 5.6.2, page 100). Some retirees make annual or biennial extended trips lasting between two and six months. These repeat visits involve the strengthening of existing transnational linkages and the forging of new ones. Regular trips allow individuals to maintain and expand their connections with Estonia without having to give up the comforts of living in Australia (see
Section 5.5, page 96).
Respondents’ activities in Estonia changed over multiple trips. Typically, the first few visits consisted of meeting relatives—often for the first time—in various parts of the country, along with some sightseeing. Later visits tended to involve spending less time with relatives and more time travelling around Estonia for sightseeing ( cf Baldassar 2001; Kwiatkowski 2006). Some second and third generation respondents that have visited Estonia repeatedly enjoyed being able to explore different parts of the country, and to escape from their everyday lives in
Australia:
It’s quite a charming place, especially Tallinn, the buildings and the history there,
and the cobbled streets. It’s quite nice to leave everything behind and you’re
almost in a fairy city (Kaja, 3F)
Further visits then tend to involve more time dedicated to particular activities, or staying in the one location for most of the trip duration, and often become
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 93
increasingly banal as visitors no longer behave like ‘homecomers’ (meeting relatives for the first time) or ‘tourists.’ First and 1.5 generation respondents were more likely to make regular visits than second and third generations, as most were retired and better able to afford to make frequent trips (see Table 4.2, page 62).
Those who had formed friendships with people in Estonia also tended to visit more frequently, as did those whose employment took them to other countries in Europe, from where they then made side trips to Estonia. A substantial number of older respondents (first and 1.5 generations) also visited Estonia to attend events, especially singing festivals. 34
Whilst repeat visits were sometimes made for specific purposes (see Section 5.6, page 99), respondents could not always say exactly what drew them back to
Estonia. Many first and 1.5 generation Estonian-Australians felt compelled to visit their homeland as often as they could afford to do so:
It’s very hard to explain, after having lived here for so many years, that there’s
something that calls you back. I feel that I must go again. I can’t explain it really
(Kalev, 1M)
There’s sort of a sense of a mission still [to Estonia], a sense that you’ve got some
sort of obligation not to lose the entity (Jaan, 1.5M)
My roots are there, that’s for sure. It’s, well, my identity in a way… For a long
time I’ve struggled with this… [Estonia] is this tiny little jewel that is so rich.
And problematic—because it carries the heritage. But it’s part of my heritage…
And I think part of knowing who I am is tied up with Estonia… I just want to
explore more this Estonian thing. I’m very proud of so many things that are
Estonian (Krista, 1.5F)
34 Many respondents said that they intended to visit Estonia again in 2009 for the Estonian Song Festival ( laulupidu ), which is held every five years.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 94
Repeated trips also functioned to provide ‘snapshots’ of the homeland, allowing individuals to immerse themselves in Estonian society (and an Estonian language environment) whilst witnessing and experiencing the social, economic and physical changes to Estonia as it developed from a centrally-planned economy to a capitalist democracy. These snapshots allowed a dynamic mental picture of Estonia to be composed, and possibly also a clearer image of the self and family heritage:
I’m loving to see, you know, the people, how they’re developing, getting on,
their sort of enthusiasm. Having myself understand more of them and them
more of me… Having the freedom now to actually see more corners and more
parts of the country that I haven’t experienced before (Priit, 1.5M)
Furthermore, frequent visits to Estonia were ways to reconnect with places from where respondents, or their parents or grandparents, grew up and were separated from, and to reinforce Estonian ethnic identities (see Chapter 4). One second generation respondent, for example, was attempting to bring up her daughter ‘bi- culturally’ by taking her to Estonia every two years to develop friendships with relatives her daughter’s age, and to learn to speak Estonian. Repeat visits have transnational dimensions that are both individually (identity-affirming) and socially (maintaining and establishing links with relatives and friends) oriented.
Such visits constitute the major way in which transnationalism between Australia and Estonia has emerged.
5.4.2 From Estonia to Australia
Whilst significant numbers of Estonian-Australians visit their ‘homeland,’ there is no equal reverse flow of Estonians visiting their relatives in Australia. These tend to be one-off, rather than repeated, visits, and are shaped by historic and economic factors. During the communist period (1944-1991), the majority of Estonians were unable to afford international travel, especially to the West. In more recent years as
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 95
incomes in Estonia have risen (albeit not to the same level as in Australia), other places in Europe have become more popular as travel destinations than Australia.
Approximately half of interview respondents had had relatives in Estonia visit them, yet these were usually one-off visits in the late 1980s, when Soviet Union citizens could obtain cheap flights to Singapore. Australian relatives then typically paid the airfares from Singapore to Australia. Whilst such visits from Estonian relatives were important events that triggered many Estonian-Australians to then visit Estonia, since Estonian independence such visits of Estonians to Australia have become less frequent. Transnational flows of people (and tourists) between
Australia and Estonia are thus substantially one-sided.
5.5 Moving and (im)permanence
Despite the popularity of frequent visits to Estonia, respondents were more ambivalent about whether they would ever move to Estonia, either for an extended period or permanently. During the five decades Estonia was under Soviet occupation many of the initial desires of migrants to return to their homeland were lost. Yet since independence numerous factors have made a permanent move to
Estonia unappealing: lower average real wages than in Australia, significantly lower aged pensions, a very cold climate, the healthcare system, political uncertainty, Estonia’s proximity to Russia, and the ‘attitudes’ of Estonian people which some respondents felt were not as ‘friendly’ as those of Australians:
Even though the job [my wife] was offered in Estonia was really good money by
Estonian standards and we could have lived off that, it wouldn’t have given us
the lifestyle that we could have had in Australia… I wasn’t sure about my job
prospects because I’m in a fairly niche field… and I don’t speak Estonian (Mihkel,
3M)
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 96
I’m not ready for it and it is not ready for me yet… There are too many things
that I don’t like in Estonia, and one of them is the ethics… There’s a lot of
bureaucracy in Estonia. When you try to arrange something official it’s very
difficult… People’s attitudes are not as helpful as they are in Australia (Luise, 1F)
Personal factors were also mentioned, such as old age and an inability to speak
Estonian. Furthermore, the majority of respondents had strong attachments to
Australia, such as immediate family, numerous friendships and property ownership. Moving back to Estonia was not always feasible or desirable given the confluence of these factors, although some respondents suggested they would have moved to Estonia if they did not have children or elderly parents in Australia to care for, or should their non-Estonian spouse pass away. However, some second and third generation respondents expressed an interest in working or studying in
Estonia for a period of one or two years, rather than permanently:
I wouldn’t mind working there for a while. I’m considering seeing if I can get a
job that I could like. If I could, I would definitely move over there and live. But I
don’t think I’d stay… I’d come back to Australia definitely (Linda, 2F)
It’d be great if I could find six months or a year living there, and picking up the
language… The idea of spending six months in Estonia, which is something
connected to me, would be something fantastic (Jenny, 3F)
The desire to move to Estonia ranged in intensity—from a feeling of urgency to a lifestyle or retirement option—yet in all cases was contingent on some factor or condition changing. The ‘myth of return’ was thus kept alive by considering a possible future extended stay or permanent move to the homeland (Safran 1991;
Skrbiš 1999). Since Estonian independence the factors preventing such a return have shifted from political to individual constraints (although economic considerations have changed only gradually). However, many respondents who
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 97
felt they were unable to move to Estonia resolved their longing for the homeland by making annual visits:
I go back and forwards because it’s a compromise. If I have to live here, I have to
go there every year… As soon as [my] family commitments are resolved, I will
be on the next plane out (Martin, 1.5M)
Regardless of the sense of attachment to Estonia—as a place or an identity—the majority of Estonian-Australians do not move there permanently. Only a very small number of post-war migrants have done so; some respondents knew of such people but the numbers were not large. Instead, repeat trips to Estonia were made. Regular visits were thus a way to engage with the ‘myth of return’ and, especially for older people, to find a sense of belonging and solace within their ethnic identity. Strong yearnings for the homeland—as envisioned in ideologies and myths of return— may become translated into temporary visits. These are symbolic ways of returning
‘home’ without the reduction in living standards or employment opportunities a permanent move ‘back’ to the homeland would entail, and without the need to sever important familial and social connections with the receiving country. Repeat visits thus represent a modification of ideologies of return, which change in form to adapt to migrants’ changing life circumstances in the receiving country, yet still retain an obligation to ‘return’ (temporarily) to maintain kinship relations and ensure cultural continuity (Baldassar 2001; Nguyen and King 2004). Furthermore, for first generation migrants that visit their homeland and find it vastly different to what they remembered or expected—yet still maintain kinship and emotional connections to it—the ‘myth of return’ does not compel (eventual) permanent relocation, because the original and remembered homeland is a past version that no longer exists, and thus cannot be returned to. Rather, repeat visits are the only
‘return’ that can ever be achieved.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 98
5.6 Manifestations of emergent transnationalism
5.6.1 Social and cultural connections
Transnational connections between Estonia and Australia have emerged through various social, cultural, economic and political linkages as well as through diasporic travel. Several respondents had established non-familial social connections to Estonia. These social relationships are maintained across time and space through forms of travel and communication, maintaining friendship ties that embed individuals into transnational networks (Duval 2003). Friends and acquaintances in Estonia were often schoolmates or other visiting Estonian-
Australians, but also included people met through relatives, special events (eg,
Estonian festivals around the world), special interest groups (eg, folk dancing organisations), undertaking university courses in Estonia, or by having hosted
Estonians visiting Australia. For example, many Estonian visitors to the Estonian
World Festival in Melbourne in 1988 were billeted to stay with Estonian-Australian families, and multiple friendships thereby formed. Some respondents had also developed personal and professional connections through work activities, research interests and attending conferences in Estonia. When visiting Estonia, several respondents stayed in apartments owned by these friends and acquaintances, or were given ‘tours’ to parts of the country by them. Although only the minority of
Estonian-Australians appear to have developed friendships in Estonia—kinship ties are more prevalent, particularly in motivating repeat visits—the overall number of social connections is nevertheless increasing over time.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 99
Furthermore, such social connections also extend across the Estonian diaspora.
Estonian World Festivals 35 have functioned as meeting places for Estonian communities across the West, where Estonian cultural activities are performed, the
Estonian language is spoken and transnational social connections can be formed amongst Estonian migrants and their descendants in multiple places. Through such festivals, along with magazines such as the Global Estonian , the Estonian diasporic consciousness was reproduced and sustained on a global scale, particularly before independence, with conceptions of Estonian nationalism becoming deterritorialised through the emergence of this long-distance ‘transnational nationalism.’
However, by contrast, cultural and institutional linkages between Australia and
Estonia have been fewer and weaker, with most emerging only since independence, whilst overall involvement in Australia’s Estonian community has declined. Such engagements consist of folk dancing groups that participate in festivals in Estonia, archives conferences and the exchange of documents between Estonian archives in
Sydney and Estonia, and the donation of books or objects to libraries and museums by a small number of respondents.
5.6.2 Economic connections
Transnational economic connections have also emerged between Australia and
Estonia. However, these are mostly based around property ownership rather than remittance flows or business investment. As noted, post-war Estonian migrants did not send monetary remittances to relatives in Estonia due to fears that Soviet customs would intercept these funds. However, since independence, a small number of Estonian-Australians have purchased houses, flats or farmland in
Estonia. This has been undertaken as a financial and emotional investment in the
35 These ‘ESTO’ festivals have been held every three to four years since 1972. Until the 1990s, all were in the Estonian diaspora in the West.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 100
homeland, providing a place to stay when visiting. 36 However, respondents who had purchased flats in Estonia expressed frustration at coordinating repairs and renovations (which were often necessary and extensive) and dealing with tradesmen and suppliers:
I bought an apartment in Tallinn, so I’ve got a home there. And I built a little
house on my grandfather’s farm… When I bought my apartment, it needed
repairs and renovations. And to get workmen to do the work was difficult. And
to get workmen who did it well was almost impossible (Luise, 1F)
Other respondents obtained properties through inheritance, or by claiming houses or farms formerly owned by family members which were nationalised by the communist government. In this context, genealogical research or the recovery of identity documents became ways to make particular material claims to the homeland. However, many such properties had been tenanted by others for years at rents well below ‘free market’ levels. Exiled Estonians and their children returning to reclaim these properties thus became a significant source of social and political tension in Estonia:
Everywhere that you went people were concerned, if you were looking at
property, that it might actually be yours and you were wanting it back. So we
ran into a really cranky lady that came and basically threw us off the property.
We were just looking at the house. Mum was saying, ‘Oh that was my window.’
So we didn’t get a very good reception everywhere we went (Kadri, 2F)
5.6.3 Political connections
The political dynamics of transnationalism between Australia and Estonia are somewhat different to the social and economic connections. Rather than growing
36 Some such properties, however, were rented out and thus their Estonian-Australian owners stayed elsewhere when visiting Estonia.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 101
steadily over time, political involvement and long-distance nationalism declined markedly after Estonian independence, whilst new forms of political engagement have arisen more recently that are distinctly different. Political parties in independent Estonia have never attempted to utilise the resources of the diaspora population in Australia, nor have there been attempts in Australia to enlist members or raise funds for Estonian political parties (Kulu 2000; Pehk 2007). For example, only one respondent was a member of an Estonian political party, and was no longer actively involved. For the remainder, political involvement was articulated more weakly, through particular engagements with Estonian citizenship rather than through forms of nationalist politics conducted from Australia.
Many Estonian-Australians, of all generational groups, have claimed Estonian passports. Citizens of the first Estonian republic (1918-1940) and their descendants were automatically granted Estonian citizenship in 1991, and are eligible to claim passports or identity cards once they prove their identity. These have been claimed by many Estonian-Australians on their visits to Estonia, or via the Estonian
Consulate in Sydney. As Australia permits dual citizenship, many also hold
Australian passports.
Estonian passports were claimed for a mixture of instrumental and emotional reasons. 37 Estonia has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 2004, and thus passports issued since then allow holders to enter the EU more easily than on an Australian passport, whilst conferring legal rights to work in the EU without requiring a working visa. Passports were often claimed for such work and travel privileges and also, in many cases, to assert an Estonian identity. However, very few respondents wanted to work or live in Estonia itself, with the benefits of EU
37 Pehk (2007) has specifically studied second and third generation Estonian-Australians claiming Estonian passports. The findings presented here for those generational groups are similar to some of her more detailed results.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 102
membership being the prime factor behind claiming passports, particularly for second and third generations:
Work rights in Europe was the only reason [for claiming a passport]. I figured
that they’d go into the EU eventually, and that would make it much easier for
travel and work (Linda, 2F)
Whilst passports were often claimed for instrumental reasons, allowing an expansion of life or employment opportunities, for many respondents passports were also a way of engaging with their cultural heritage and ethnic identity, as symbols of Estonian identity. For older first and 1.5 generations in particular— many of whom were retired—passports were claimed as a way of asserting a personal connection with Estonia, or to make it easier for their children to claim
Estonian passports, even though possessing a passport did not necessarily make them feel more Estonian:
I did mine because I could. Australia relaxed its laws so we could have dual
citizenship. I thought, ‘I can have one of those, I want one.’ It was more the
sentimental reasons. I never thought I’d actually use it (Kadri, 1F)
I’m Estonian. I had to have an Estonian passport (Luise, 1F)
By having proof of citizenship, passports made many respondents feel valued by their homeland, reinforcing their psychological links to it through legal means of recognition and obligation. However, Estonia has compulsory military service for all male citizens aged 18-26. Even though those who do not live in Estonia or speak
Estonian are never called up, 38 this was nevertheless a cause of concern for younger male respondents, with a risk that they might be conscripted to fight should
38 Estonian Consulate, Sydney, personal communication.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 103
Estonia ever be involved in a future military dispute. Indeed, for this reason—and suspicions about dual citizenship—some respondents (of all ages and generations, and both genders) decided not to claim Estonian passports. Furthermore, almost all said unequivocally that if they had to give up one passport, it would be their
Estonian rather than their Australian passport. Australian citizenship was valued as recognition of their lives in Australia and the diplomatic and welfare protections it could provide, whereas Estonian citizenship was more of a novelty, a connection to a country that opened opportunities and had emotional value, but not one that respondents would fight for or sacrifice their Australian citizenship for.
Citizenship connections to Estonia were also articulated through voting. 39 Several respondents—particularly of the first and 1.5 generations—had voted in Estonian elections (which can be done at the Estonian Consulate or via post), especially in the first elections after Estonia regained independence. However, voting has become less popular since then. Several respondents felt uneasy about voting, claiming that they did not know enough about Estonian domestic politics or political parties, and did not wish to contribute to decisions for a country in which they did not have to live:
I voted very early on, when they had the elections after they got their freedom. I
think a lot of people did, simply caught up in the emotion of the thing. But it
wouldn’t vote again… because I don’t feel a right to vote. I don’t live there. I
don’t understand the politics of it all (Marje, 2F)
As discussed above, Estonian-Australians as a group have become less involved in migrant political activities over time. After Estonia regained independence, political forms of transnationalism became individualised, manifested in passports or voting, with no significant organised political movements emerging. Whilst passports were
39 Voting is not compulsory for Estonian citizens.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 104
claimed by respondents of all generations, the majority of respondents who had established multiple social connections, participated in cultural exchanges or were involved in property ownership in Estonia were retired first or 1.5 generation migrants. All were able to visit Estonia every year or several years, suggesting that they had significant economic resources. It thus seems that transnational involvement with Estonia comes in two forms: those who possess ‘strong’ ties, consisting of multiple engagements and regular visits, and those with ‘weak’ ties, who visit only once or sporadically and whose only social connections are to relatives. The specific transnational linkages that link Estonia and Australia are thus highly uneven, consisting of particular types of social, cultural, economic and political engagement that operate more on an individual than a collective level, and that can be highly dependent upon individuals’ economic resources.
5.7 Implications for Estonian tourism and development
The growing popularity of Estonian-Australians visiting Estonia and the desire by many to make repeated, sometimes regular, trips—along with other forms of transnational engagements—suggest that the Estonian diaspora is a significant tourism market. Indeed, visiting friends and relatives tourism typically exhibits less year-to-year variation than overall tourism markets for particular destinations
(King 1994; Feng and Page 2000), and the homeland is typically visited for reasons other than just ‘recreation’ or ‘exotic encounters’ (Cohen 1974; Urry 2002; see
Chapter 4). Although diasporic travellers may stay with relatives or friends, or even in their own residences—reducing accommodation spending—they are also more likely to stay for longer time periods than conventional tourists, and may thus have higher non-accommodation expenditure.
Furthermore, the majority of tourists to Estonia that are not diasporic travellers tend to cluster in the towns of Tallinn, Pärnu and Tartu. Since many diasporic
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 105
travellers have relatives living outside these places, or may be visiting former family farms, graveyards or ancestral sites in rural areas, diasporic travel presents opportunities to spread the benefits of tourism spending across the country ( cf
Unwin 1996). Such benefits may be unevenly spread, however, since many
Estonian refugees of the 1940s were from the northern and western parts of the country (where it was possible to escape by ship). Nevertheless, many diasporic travellers do seek to see many places throughout Estonia. Indeed, some of these tourists even avoid Tallinn during the summer when it becomes crowded with foreign tourists.
Such tourism development may lead to greater economic development in some parts of Estonia. Other economic benefits may also arise from forms of diasporic engagements with Estonia, such as when Estonian-Australians study or work in a
Estonia for a period of time or engage in property investment. Those who hold
Estonian passports yet work elsewhere in the European Union are also a source of taxation revenue for the Estonian Government. However, the ability of diasporic
Estonians to hold Estonian passports and vote could, potentially, cause political difficulties or risks in the future.
5.8 Conclusion
This chapter has examined the various ways in which transnationalism between
Estonia and Australia is mediated. As it has become easier to communicate with and visit Estonia over time, there has been a paradoxical decline in involvement by
Estonian-Australians in Estonian activities in Australia. Whilst some first and 1.5 generation migrants are still involved in community organisations, and have established a multitude of connections to Estonia, for second and subsequent generations attachments are somewhat weaker. Many visit Estonia—albeit less frequently—and come to identify as ‘Estonian’ in different ways.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 106
Indeed, being ‘Estonian’ is no longer about defending a country, language and ethnicity from foreign occupation and repression. The välis Eesti (‘foreign Estonia’) established in the diaspora was small, disconnected by distance and political barriers from kodu Eesti (home Estonia). Migrants and their children adapted quickly to Australian society, leading to a decline in Estonian activities over time.
However, forms of long-distance nationalism in the Estonian-Australian community have, since Estonia regained independence, become largely supplanted by different forms of engaging with the homeland. This emergent transnationalism involves more individual attachments to Estonia and is operated in a more direct manner—principally via regular visits—even though return migration is notably rare. The transnationalism that has emerged is predominantly ‘small scale,’ operating on an individual level in an emotive manner that varies between individuals ( cf Burrell 2003).
Furthermore, these attachments and transnational engagements are personalised relationships, mediated through direct kinship and friendship connections to the homeland, rather than indirectly through attempts to foster political solidarity in the diaspora ( cf Faist 2000). The difficult of being immersed in ‘Estonianness’ in
Australia, even within the home, has contributed to the decline in community involvement whilst also ensuring the desire to (re)connect with the homeland has been translated transnationally to physical visits and other forms of engagement.
However, this transnationalism is not uniform, affecting kodueestlased (‘home
Estonians’) and väliseestlased (‘foreign Estonians’) differently, as reflected by migration and travel behaviour by both groups.
Chapter 5 Emergent transnationalism 107
Chapter 6 Conclusion
108
Chapter 6 Conclusion
What Estonia means to me: it’s a deep sense of connection. It’s a connection to—
that’s where my father and his family was born and raised, and my father lost
that connection due to the war and being a Displaced Person… Part of me, part
of who I am, part of my soul, has a great sense of connection there. It’s a
connection I can’t see because of the forest. I’ve got a find a way through to
understand that connection. It also means I’ve lost extended family, not having
grandparents, not having aunts and uncles and cousins to be raised with—so a
loss of connection with family. Also a little bit of loss of identity. I’ve often
described the fact that I feel a bit like a wandering person, knowing that there’s a
strong connection there… It will be interesting when I do go back whether I feel
that sense of connection (Aino, 2F)
6.1 Overview
Diasporic travel is a valuable field of study that weaves together the treads of mobility, identity, culture and transnationalism that run through global tourism.
This thesis has investigated how migration histories and political processes inform the motivations and experiences of people travelling to their ‘homeland,’ focusing on Estonian-Australians as a case study. This chapter discusses the key findings, relating them to existing literature, and identifies future research possibilities.
The key conclusions of the thesis relate to the complex mixture of motivations for visiting Estonia, along with the varied experiences of those who undertake such visits. Nostalgia, memory, ethnic identities, politics and kinship connections are important, interrelated factors that compel trips to Estonia to be made. These trips often entail emotional experiences of meeting with relatives and interacting with particular sites and landscapes in the homeland. Visits also shape identities and can
Chapter 6 Conclusion 109
be used to create multiple notions of ‘home,’ where Australia is the literal home and Estonia is the cultural or ancestral home. However, attachments to the homeland are partial, often incomplete, and vary across generations and over time.
Furthermore, emergent forms of transnationalism connect Australia and Estonia.
As Estonian community activities in Australia have become less political and more socially focused there has been a shift from semi-institutionalised forms of long- distance nationalism within migrant organisations to more individualistic and emergent forms of transnationalism. This transnationalism has multiple strands that are oriented around travel mobilities. Due to the long duration of the Soviet occupation (1944-1991), many Estonian exiles and their children were unable to return to their homeland, expressing their longing to do so through ideologies of eventual return. Yet when Estonia did regain independence in 1991, many had established lives in Australia and integrated into Australian society, and instead transposed their longing to return into temporary visits. The homeland still functions as a source of family, identity and recreation. Social and economic engagements with it are growing over time, most commonly through Estonian-
Australians claiming dual citizenship, even though overall there is a notable lack of institutionalised transnational connections or engagements influenced directly by the Estonian state.
6.2 Mobility, home and place
This thesis has shown that migrants and their descendants travelling to their homeland have many motivations and experiences in common, yet these can also diverge. Visits are popular amongst Australians who identify as being of Estonian ancestry (see Table 4.1, page 61). Political and economic changes in the homeland, along with the way that memories, cultural practices and diasporic consciousness have been utilised in the diaspora, have shaped motivations to travel to Estonia,
Chapter 6 Conclusion 110
along with the timing, length and number of trips made. Indeed, travel to Estonia is neither entirely ‘return travel’ nor ‘roots tourism,’ but something between these concepts. When relatives are known and places are remembered, returning allows kinship networks to be reconnected and provides a glimpse at how Estonia has changed. For others, who have no known living relatives or know little about
Estonia, visiting is a way to discover family histories and ancestral places.
For some, visiting the homeland is a deeply emotive experience, as exiles return to places of deep cultural and spiritual affinity, or as their descendants who were born elsewhere seek out their ‘roots,’ meet their distant relatives and place themselves within landscapes and amongst artefacts that give tangible dimensions to their imaginations of the ancestral homeland. Reconnecting with this homeland is a way of coping with feelings of alienation in modern everyday lives by seeking a connection to something that is of, yet beyond, the self (Basu 2007:199). It is a way of anchoring the self to the present and to a particular past. Visiting the homeland, to meet relatives and experience the landscape, can also become ways of visiting and understanding the self, where the self is seen to be fundamentally shaped by ancestral roots and migration histories. Homeland travels are thus pilgrimages for and of the self. The ‘centre’ towards which these pilgrims gravitate (Cohen 1992;
Coleman and Eade 2004) is to be found somewhere in the homeland, yet cannot always be pinned down precisely (Basu 2005b), particularly if the sense of belonging and acceptance felt there is not complete. Repeat visits may be subconscious attempts to get closer to a social and cultural ‘centre’ that has shifted—or perhaps even disappeared—during the long period of time migrants
(and their descendants) were away from the homeland. However, this homeland itself remains a geographic ‘centre’ for the identities and mobilities of many diasporic travellers. In this sense, the homeland is a displaced centre of gravity for diasporic travellers, one that is outside their land of residence that draws members of its ‘diaspora’ towards it with varying degrees of intensity. Yet, paradoxically,
Chapter 6 Conclusion 111
visiting the homeland is simultaneously a centrifugal force that can elicit a consciousness about the receiving country and the sense of home and belonging provided by that place. The ‘routes’ of migration, exile and contemporary lives can be just as identity-defining as the ‘roots’ of the homeland and ancestral histories
(Clifford 1997; Basu 2005b).
Yet for first, 1.5 and some second generation respondents, repeat visits to Estonia were a way of engaging with ideologies of return. Estonian traditions and language were not destroyed during the Soviet occupation as many exiles feared. Once
Estonia regained independence almost five decades later the diaspora was not embraced by the homeland as having maintained a more ‘authentic’ Estonian culture. Few post-war exile migrants and their descendants migrated permanently back to the former homeland. The ‘myth of return’ thus became transposed into the practice of making temporary return visits, symbolic homecomings that enabled families to be reconnected and individuals to experientially engage with their homeland. Diasporic travel thus represents a temporary or provisional return to a homeland, in a similar way that a ‘myth of return’ creates an imagined homecoming, and return migration constitutes repatriation (Long and Oxfeld 2004).
The financial, citizenship, familial, social and emotional connections to place that have arisen in Australia do not need to be severed. Visiting Estonia is a way of maintaining a sense of attachment to two places, Estonia and Australia.
Furthermore, memories, childhood stories, images and visits combine to create a sense that Estonia is a cultural or spiritual home, alongside Australia as the actual, everyday home. However, ‘rootedness’ to Estonia is partial, often incomplete, and varies over time. Sometimes neither Estonia nor Australia feel like home, particularly for first generation migrants, for whom home may be constantly ‘on the move’ (Liu 2008) as they negotiate their sense of belonging between two places.
A sense of the ‘home’ place by migrants can act as a spatial ‘anchor’ for identities
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and attachments, even though mobility and immobility change throughout life courses and across generations.
‘Return’ to the ‘homeland’ is therefore about reconnecting with kin, culture and place, and also about reconnecting with the self. It is about understanding one’s place in the world and coming to terms with political and migration histories and the innate human need for a sense of belonging—even though, paradoxically, this may ultimately be found in the receiving country. Hobsbawm (1991:6) suggests that,
“‘home’ for [political exiles] is not just the ‘old country’ but, if they are to return to it, must become in some sense a new country.” Repeat visits and transnational engagements become means to re-engage with the homeland and adapt to it, and thereby make it a new country.
For many people who visit their homeland, it becomes a place to which they can centre their identity and emotions of nostalgia, family or loss. For such diasporic travellers:
Home—as an ideal of uncomplicated belonging, as a site of memory, a source of
identity, a shrine of self—is made material in homeland, and is thereby given
specific temporal and spatial coordinates (Basu 2007:228)
‘Home’ is a physical place, a point of origin, which is inseparable from the web of familial and social relationships which embed individuals to this location but may also partly exclude them from it, or may operate in contradictory ways through the dynamics of acceptance, obligation, ethnicity and kinship. Estonian-Australians’ attachments to Estonia as a place are necessarily never complete, particularly for first and 1.5 generations. They were not born in Australia but their everyday lives are firmly based there; Estonia is their birthplace but they cannot fully participate in its society.
Chapter 6 Conclusion 113
The articulation of senses of place(s) in diasporic travel has not been widely examined in the literature (the exceptions are Baldassar 2001; Kwiatkowski 2006;
Basu 2007). Places are sites where multiple social relationships become entangled with each other and with the physical landscape (Massey 1994; Crang 1998;
Creswell 2004); fully understanding a place requires physical and sensory engagements with it (Tuan 1975). In the context of migration and dispersion, coupled with contemporary tourist mobilities, places may take on complex, overlapping, contested, unsettling or disjointed meanings. Travelling to the homeland becomes an important way to engage with emotional geographies of that homeland—based around family, memory, childhood stories and ancestral sites— and thereby establish a sense of place that is nourished by making repeat visits.
For Estonian-Australians with strong psychological attachments to their homeland, the difficulty of establishing an Estonian sense of place in Australia is resolved through the experiential consumption of Estonia itself. However, many also feel a sense of place for Australia, which keeps them living there. Visits, images, phone calls, emails and the internet link these two places together as transnational engagements come to bridge the homeland and diaspora, with Estonian local and national places linked to other places further afield in the diaspora. These connections between places across multiple scales come to define the very nature of places (Massey 1994), shaping how places exist in physical, cultural and imagined forms. Estonia is, simultaneously, a nation-state, a homeland, a birthplace, a tourist destination, a language, a culture, a site of belonging, and a collection of constituent local and provincial places. Such connections also lead to the emergence of a transnational sense of place where diasporic travellers move between the local and national spaces of both the homeland and receiving country, constantly reshaping their senses of identity, ‘home’ and place.
Chapter 6 Conclusion 114
This thesis has also explored how travel to Estonia shapes identities. Identifications with Estonia are both fluid and fixed, changing dynamically over the life course
(especially with visits to Estonia) yet are frequently centred upon notions of the fixed, static territory that, in all respondent discourses, was the Estonian nation.
Rather than trans local forms of connectivity, for exiles there is a “quintessentially transnational” engagement that is primarily oriented to the homeland as a nation state (Burrell 2003:332). Yet identifications with Estonia typically do not preclude identifying with the Australian nation. Identities are not fixed categories but, rather, are always evolving and ambivalent (Hall 1991a, 1991b), even though they may also be contextual or ideological. Being ‘Estonian’ in Australia is increasingly a matter of individual choice, particularly for subsequent generations of migrants, who may identify as Estonian or make visits to Estonia only at particular junctures in their lives.
Furthermore, as geopolitical changes in Eastern Europe and the integration of the small Estonian migrant group into wider Australian society has made it less necessary to preserve (or defend) Estonian traditions, language and identities, there has also been an increasing ability to visit and communicate with Estonia.
Preserving Estonian cultural practices and engaging in these in Australia have, ironically, become less necessary and desirable as doing so has become easier. At the same time, experiences of visiting have challenged dominant narratives of the homeland that circulated in diaspora organisations prior to independence, causing divergence in ways of ‘narrating the nation’ (Smith and Jackson 1999). Diasporic
Estonian identities are no longer as politicised as they were during the Soviet occupation—Estonia is now an independent country on the world map—and have thus been adopted in more ‘symbolic’ ways by subsequent generations of migrants.
Rather than being a ‘glue’ that binds together a group of exiles as they adapt to a different country and attempt to engender political solidarity, Estonian identities are now more individualistic and flexible, selectively asserted by progressive
Chapter 6 Conclusion 115
generations of migrants, even as many become genetically less ‘Estonian’ through mixed marriages. Identities and attachments to the homeland do not necessarily fade with time and with new generations. Rather, they are flexibly utilised and adapted to particular familial, political, economic and technological circumstances, whilst being articulated as means of establishing a sense of belonging (and, through visits, a sense of place) in a distant homeland. Yet, at the same time, Estonian identities have also been partially re-politicised through the practice of claiming
Estonian passports and thus dual citizenship, which is often done for instrumental reasons, creating a (literal) form of long-distance trans national citizenship.
Tourism theories can also enhance understandings of the particular activities and encounters of diasporic travellers in their homeland. Although journeys to Estonia are part pilgrimage, part family ritual and part tourism, they function as ‘windows’ through which individuals can witness aspects of history, geopolitics, post-Soviet transition and also themselves. However, gazing through these windows is a kind of ‘romantic tourist gaze’ (Urry 2002), looking upon Estonian places, landscapes and people to which there is some sense of familiarity, but also a large degree of exoticism. Visits to the homeland are highly touristic in many ways, with diasporic travellers believing that they are able to see the ‘authentic’ or ‘back stage’ regions
(MacCannell 1976) of that country by virtue of their ancestry, cultural or ethnic identity and kinship connections. Consuming the landscape in a personal manner by moving through it and touring different places in Estonia thus becomes a way of consuming an ethnic identity. When these travellers are placed in the homeland landscape there is a quest to see the ‘real’ Estonia, visit the ‘authentic’ ancestral villages (that mainstream tourists do not see) and experience people, place and change from the perspective of being Estonian, albeit a foreign Estonian.
With the rapid ‘Westernisation’ of Estonia, advances in air travel and the potential for instant, unhindered communication via the internet, there has also been a
Chapter 6 Conclusion 116
convergence of Estonia and Australia in time-space and material living standards.
Estonia is not as ‘exotic’ or different as it was when encountered by the small number of people who visited during the Soviet period. Conceptions of a timeless
Estonian culture and language have been disrupted by the realities of both communism and its aftermath. In particular, for first generation migrants travelling to their homeland, no matter how distant the ancestral connection, an ‘authentic’ experience—in terms of experiencing an ancestral culture and society that matches memories or stories about life in the homeland—may be elusive. The authentic is always some time else as well as some where else.
For diasporic travellers, Estonia has shifted from imagined to real, exotic to banal,
‘fairytale’ land to place of relatives, remotely distant to instantly close. Yet visits are still immensely popular and appear to be increasing in frequency (see Figure 4.1, page 63). Given the great physical distance between Estonia and Australia—with the latter a migration destination partly because it was so far from Soviet-occupied
Estonia—and the large costs involved in making trips, there is still something important that attaches Estonian-Australians to their homeland and compels them to make visits. This may be some combination of familial connections, a sense of attachment to Estonia and the assertion of an ethnic identity (and ancestry) in multicultural, postcolonial Australia.
6.3 Final comments
This thesis has made a number of important contributions towards understanding diasporic travel. Unlike most other studies, it has focused on the mobilities of an exiled group that were separated from their homeland for many decades before visiting became safe or desirable. It has also examined and compared a range of generational perspectives, which few other studies have attempted (Kelly 2000;
Baldassar 2001; Stephenson 2002; Bandyopadhyay 2008). Furthermore, it has
Chapter 6 Conclusion 117
emphasised the significance of meeting and reconnecting with relatives, the individualised ways in which emerging incarnations of transnationalism are operating, and the ‘touristic’ dimensions of these travel experiences. Moreover, it has stressed the important influence that political, economic and culturally specific contexts have on the motivations, experiences and expressions of both diasporic travel and transnationalism.
There have, however, been a number of limitations to this research. It has investigated a small migrant group with a specific history, limiting its generality.
Though this specific focus has enabled the importance of particular political and social influences to be explored, it would, however, have been desirable to compare groups of Estonians living in different places of the diaspora (eg, Canada and the
USA as well as Australia). It would have also have been useful to conduct more interviews with third generation migrants—especially those that are not involved in Estonian community activities or have no connections to it. Furthermore, follow- up interviews with respondents would have been valuable, allowing the findings of this thesis to be explored in more depth and further refined. 40
Indeed, there are a number of aspects of diasporic travel more broadly that require further research. Attention needs to be directed towards the diverse geographies of diasporic travel, focusing on how migration, travel, identity, ethnicity and belonging differ between places and affect places, as well as how these concepts relate to dynamic attachments to and senses of place. The articulation of diasporic travel at multiple spatial scales, from the local to the national and transnational, needs to be researched through more critical, historically grounded and specific analyses. Although there are several detailed studies of particular cultural or national contexts, there have been no empirical attempts to develop comparative
40 Follow-up interviews were not conducted due to time constraints.
Chapter 6 Conclusion 118
perspectives on the motivations and experiences of diasporic travel. Analyses which make use of ‘multi-sited’ ethnographies (Marcus 1995) across different historic, economic, geographic and cultural contexts are required.
Furthermore, there is a need to integrate culturally specific philosophies—such as
Confucianism (Nguyen and King 2002)—to improve understandings of diasporic travel. There is also scope to expand research away from the contemporary dominance of case studies on migrants in ‘settler’ societies (Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada) making trips to poorer homelands (see Appendix 1, page
135). Other research might also consider gendered perspectives, why some people do not travel to places they have the ability to visit and identify strongly with, the role of political mobilisation (Carter 2005), relationships between diasporic travel and return migration (Duval 2004a), the paths of travellers as they transverse the landscapes of the homeland (Kwiatkowski 2006), the experiences of homeland populations visiting the diaspora, and the travel patterns of groups with multiple places—or no place—they consider to be their ‘homeland’ (Gilroy 1993; Clifford
1997; Levy 2004).
This thesis has shown that visits to the homeland have complex individual and social implications. Ethnic identities and feelings of ‘home’ are not mutually exclusive. They are anchored to fixed, physical territories even though they are also expressed in flexible and multiple ways, adapting to life circumstances and migration experiences. For many diasporic travellers, the homeland is familiar but foreign, ordinary but exotic. Relatives are family yet also strangers. The visitors are
‘tourists’ gazing on ‘natives,’ yet also claim their own nativeness and ancestral indigeneity to place. These diasporic travellers are engaging with multiple attachments to place, to ancestry and to themselves. Why people visit their homeland cannot always be precisely distilled. I still do not quite know exactly why I went to Estonia myself. Visiting the distant, ancestral homeland is just one of
Chapter 6 Conclusion 119
the many ways in which people can engage with an ethnic identity, embrace their personal heritage and envisage a sense of place for that ‘homeland.’ So, incidentally, can writing a thesis.
Chapter 6 Conclusion 120
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List of Appendices
Appendix 1 Studies of diasporic travel...... 135 Appendix 2 Estonians in Australia...... 139 Appendix 3 Survey form...... 142 Appendix 4 Survey statistics and analysis ...... 148 Appendix 5 Interview questions...... 158 Appendix 6 Soviet-era visits...... 161
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Appendix 1 Studies of diasporic travel
The following case studies focus wholly or mostly on diasporic travel. ‘Scale’ refers to the principal geographic and social scales used in the analysis: ‘individual’ refers to analyses of personal experiences and identities, ‘community’ to social relationships and related implications, ‘demographic’ to aggregated or ‘macro’ level movements of people, and ‘transnational’ to explicit consideration of the implications for transnationalism and diasporas. A dash (-) in the travel origin column denotes a study where the specific origin of travellers was not specified, or where there were multiple origins (eg, the diaspora in general).
Table A1.1: Studies that focus substantially on diasporic travel
Author(s) Travel Travel origin Methodology Scale destination / receiving country Thanopoulos and Greece USA Surveys, Individual, Walle (1988) statistical demographic analysis Mandel (1990) Turkey Germany Ethnography, Individual, interviews community Ostrowski (1991) Poland - Statistical Demographic analysis King and Gamage Sri Lanka Australia Surveys, Demographic (1994) statistical analysis Bruner (1996) Ghana USA Ethnography, Individual interviews Smith and Ukraine UK Interviews Individual, Jackson (1999) community Feng and Page China New Zealand Surveys, Demographic (2000) statistical analysis
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Author(s) Travel Travel origin Methodology Scale destination / receiving country Kang and Page Korea New Zealand Surveys Individual, (2000) demographic Kelly (2000) Lithuania USA Ethnography, Individual surveys Baldassar (2001) Italy Australia Ethnography, Individual, interviews community, transnational Basu (2001, 2004a, Scotland USA, Ethnography, Individual, 2004b, 2005a, (Highlands Canada, interviews transnational 2005b, 2007) and Islands) Australia, New Zealand Oxfeld (2001, China - Ethnography, Individual, 2004) interviews community Hartman (2002) West Africa - Ethnography Individual Lew and Wong China - Secondary Demographic (2002, 2004) analysis Morgan et al Wales - Surveys, Individual (2002), Morgan textual and Pritchard analysis (2004) Nash (2002) Ireland - Ethnography, Individual interviews Nguyen and King Vietnam Australia Interviews Individual (2002, 2004) Stephenson (2002) Caribbean UK Ethnography, Individual, interviews community Duval (2003, East Canada Interviews Individual, 2004a, 2004b) Caribbean community, transnational Carter (2004, Croatia USA Ethnography Individual, 2005) transnational Cohen (2004, Israel - Ethnography Individual 2008) Coles (2004) Germany USA (Jews) Secondary Individual, (sites of analysis demographic Jewish significance)
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Author(s) Travel Travel origin Methodology Scale destination / receiving country Collins-Kreiner Jewish sites USA, Canada Secondary Individual and Olsen (2004) in Israel and analysis Europe Hall and Duval Samoa, New Zealand Statistical Community, (2004) Tonga, Cook analysis demographic Islands, Fiji Hannam (2004) India - Secondary Individual, analysis demographic Holsey (2004) Ghana USA Ethnography Individual Huseby-Darvas Hungary USA Ethnography Individual (2004) Ioannides and USA (sites of USA (Jews) Ethnography Individual Cohen Ioannides Jewish (2004) significance) Levy (2004) Morocco Israel Ethnography, Individual, (Jewish interviews community settlements) Mason (2004) Pakistan UK Interviews Individual, community Schramm (2004) Ghana USA Ethnography, Individual, interviews community Timothy and West Africa USA Ethnography Individual Teye (2004) Asiedu (2005) Ghana - Statistical Demographic analysis Richards (2005) Ghana - Ethnography Individual Kwiatkowski Poland Australia Interviews Individual (2006) Jordan (2007) Ghana USA Ethnography Individual Scheyvens (2007) Samoa - Ethnography, Demographic interviews Underabi (2007) Afghanistan Australia Ethnography, Individual, interviews transnational Wulff (2007) Ireland - Textual Individual analysis Bandyopadhyay India UK Interviews Individual (2008)
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Author(s) Travel Travel origin Methodology Scale destination / receiving country Pinho (2008) Brazil USA Ethnography, Individual, (African- interviews transnational Americans)
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Appendix 2 Estonians in Australia
The number of Estonian-born people in Australia increased rapidly after 1947 and has declined since, with 1,933 in the 2006 Australian Census (see Table 3.1, page 41).
However, the number of people of Estonian ancestry in Australia—which includes the descendants of those born in Estonia, as well as others who identify as
Estonian—was 8,232 in 2006 (ABS 2007). There are more female (56.3 per cent) than male (43.7 per cent) Estonian-born people living in Australia. This most likely reflects the fact that the largest wave of Estonian migration to Australia occurred just after the Second World War, along with the higher average life expectancy of females compared to males. More females (53.1 per cent) than males (46.9 per cent) identify themselves as being of Estonian ancestry. In addition, 1,249 Australian residents speak Estonian at home (ABS 2007).
The geographic distributions of people who were born in Estonia and people who claim Estonian ancestry are markedly similar (indeed, there is likely to be substantial overlap between the two groups; most of the former are likely to also be in the latter, and their descendants may also live nearby). The high concentration of
Estonians in the metropolitan zones of Australian capital cities—principally in
Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide—reflects both post-war settlement patterns in these centres combined with the fact that many recent migrants from Estonia to
Australia (including short-term labour migrants) are likely to work and/or settle in large cities (see Table A2.1, page 140 and Figure A2.1, page 141).
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Table A2.1: 2006 Census data on Estonians in Australia (Source: ABS 2007)
Born in Estonia, 2006 Estonian ancestry, 2006 Males Females Total Males Females Total NSW 329 491 820 1 576 1 827 3 403 Sydney (Statistical 255 387 642 1 122 1 277 2 399 Division) City of Sydney (Local 0 12 12 50 51 101 Government Area) Thirlmere (Suburb) 34 53 87 40 63 103 NSW remainder 74 104 178 454 550 1 004 ACT 27 33 60 128 128 256 Victoria 180 228 408 812 947 1 759 Melbourne (Statistical 136 175 311 614 715 1 329 Division) Victoria remainder 44 53 97 198 232 430 Tasmania 14 14 28 81 102 183 Greater Hobart 9 4 13 55 51 106 (Statistical Division) Tasmania remainder 5 10 15 26 51 77 South Australia 129 155 284 432 493 925 Adelaide (Statistical 118 146 264 383 435 818 Division) South Australia 11 9 20 49 58 107 remainder Queensland 98 93 191 522 551 1 073 Brisbane (Statistical 45 42 87 268 262 530 Division) Queensland remainder 53 51 104 254 289 543 Western Australia 65 71 136 284 286 570 Perth (Statistical 52 60 112 215 223 438 Division) Western Australia 13 11 24 69 63 132 remainder Elsewhere in Australia 2 4 6 26 37 63 Capital cities 615 814 1 429 2 657 2 963 5 620 Outside of capital cities 229 275 504 1 204 1 408 2 612 AUSTRALIA 844 1 089 1 933 3 861 4 371 8 232
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Australian residents born in Estonia Other, 8.7%
Perth, 5.8%
Brisbane, 4.5% Sydney, 33.2%
Adelaide, 13.7%
Hobart, 0.7% Victoria remainder, 5.0% NSW remainder, 9.2% ACT, 3.1% Melbourne, 16.1%
Australian residents of Estonian ancestry Other, 11.2%
Perth, 5.3% Sydney, 29.1%
Brisbane, 6.4%
Adelaide, 9.9%
Hobart, 1.3% NSW remainder, Victoria remainder, 12.2% 5.2% ACT, 3.1% Melbourne, 16.1%
Figure A2.1: 2006 Census data on the residency of Estonians in Australia (Source: ABS 2007)
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Appendix 3 Survey form
Brad Ruting Geography Honours student School of Geosciences Madsen F09 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Telephone +61 (0)4 0566 8765 Facsimile +61 (0)2 9351 0184 Email [email protected]
SURVEY FOR ESTONIANS IN AUSTRALIA
Tere! I am a Geography Honours student at the University of Sydney currently researching people travelling between Australia and Estonia. This project attempts to document the motivations and experiences of Estonian migrants to Australia, and their descendants, making trips to Estonia.
The project is called: Touring the Old Country: Politics, identity and diasporic travel amongst Australians (re)visiting Estonia.
This survey is open to any person born in Estonia, or of Estonian ancestry, who has ever lived in Australia. If you have never visited Estonia, you may still complete the survey. The survey will take around 10-15 minutes to complete, and your participation is highly valued.
All responses will be treated anonymously and with respect. If you are interested in participating in a follow-up interview, you may disclose your name and contact details at the end of this survey. This information will be separated from your survey responses so you cannot be identified. However, you are under no obligation to participate in an interview, or to disclose any personal information.
By participating in this survey, you give permission for any statements you make to be quoted anonymously in research output.
Surveys may be returned to the locked survey box located at Estonia House, or to the address below.
This project is being undertaken with the support of the Estonian Archives in Australia. If you have any questions, please contact the researcher, Brad Ruting, by phone (mobile) on 0405 668 765 or by email at [email protected] . Alternatively, you make contact the researcher’s supervisor, Professor John Connell, by phone on (02) 9351 2327, by fax (02) on 9351 0184 or by email at [email protected] .
Thank-you for your time!
Brad Ruting Honours candidate in Geography School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney Mobile 0405 668 765 Email [email protected]
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Your background
What is your gender? (Please circle) [Female ] [Male ]
Which age bracket do you fit into? (Please circle) [18-24 ] [25-34 ] [35-44 ] [45-54 ] [55-64 ] [65-74 ] [75+ ]
Where do you currently live? (Suburb, city and country)
Where were you born? (City and country)
What is your occupation?
What is your ethnicity? (eg, Estonian, Estonian-Australian, Australian, Russian, English, German)
In which country/countries do you have citizenship?
Do you currently have an Estonian Passport? [Yes ] [No ]
Migration
If you were NOT born in Australia, please describe when you migrated (and your age at the time), and whether you lived in any other countries during your migration.
If you were NOT born in Australia, when you and/or your family migrated to Australia, what were the main reasons for migrating?
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If you WERE born in Australia, please describe your connections to Estonia. Were one or both of your parents, or some of your grandparents, born in Estonia?
Growing up and contact with Estonia
In which country/countries did you undertake your primary school education?
Do you have any family members in Estonia? [Yes ] [No ] [Don’t know ]
If you answered Yes to the above question, do you communicate with these family members (eg, letters, emails, visits)? Please describe briefly.
Have your or anyone in your family moved from Australia to Estonia? If so, please provide brief details of when and why they did so.
Do you have relatives or friends in the Estonian ‘diaspora’ who you communicate with (ie, Estonians living somewhere other than Estonia or Australia)? If so, please provide brief details (eg, which country, your relationship to them, the type of communication).
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Culture
Have you ever participated in any Estonian community activities or cultural events in Australia (eg, festivals, singing, dancing, language classes)? If so, please provide brief details.
Have you been to the exhibit, Meie uus kodu: Estonian-Australian stories at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney? [Yes—once ] [Yes—more than once ] [No ]
Where in the world would you describe as being ‘home’? Why?
Travel
Have you visited Estonia (That is, if you were not born there or, if you were, since emigrating)? [Yes—once ] [Yes—more than once ] [No ]
If you have NOT visited Estonia…
Is there a reason why you have not visited Estonia?
Would you consider visiting Estonia in the future? Please give details.
Thank -you. Please skip the next section and turn to the last page of the survey.
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If you HAVE visited Estonia…
How many times have you visited? (Please list the years in which you visited, if possible)
How old were you when you first visited? Why did you go on that occasion?
Have you visited the place(s) where you or your family once lived?
How long did you spend in Estonia on your most recent trip there?
Why did you go?
Who did you travel with?
Who did you stay with? (eg, family, friends, in a hotel)
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Did you visit any other countries whilst you were away from Australia?
If you were born in (or have previously lived in) Estonia, did you notice any unexpected changes when you returned? Please give details.
If you met family or friends in Estonia, do you think they perceived you to be an Estonian or an Australian? Please give details.
Thanks
Thank-you for participating in this survey. If you know anyone else who would be willing to fill in this survey, please take a copy for them or refer them to the website: http://tinyurl.com/2rxq44
Alternatively, if you wish a paper survey to be posted to you or someone you know, please contact the researcher, Brad Ruting, at email [email protected] or mobile 0405 668 765.
Are you willing to participate in an interview regarding the themes referred to in this survey? If you do, your interview responses will be treated anonymously and confidentially. Please fill in your contact details below if you are interested. The researcher will be in contact with you.
Name: ______Phone: ______Email: ______
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Appendix 4 Survey statistics and analysis
132 completed surveys were collected for this research. This appendix provides an overview of the survey results. It incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data that was provided by survey respondents. Demographic information on the survey sample is given, followed by summaries of respondents’ migration histories, communication with Estonian friends and relatives, involvement in the Estonian-
Australian community, motivations and experiences of visiting Estonia, and senses of ‘home.’ The survey methodology is explained in Section 3.5.3 (page 44), and a copy of the survey is provided as Appendix 3 (page 142).
A4.1 Demographic overview
Males comprised 38.8 per cent and females 61.2 per cent of the survey sample, compared to 46.9 per cent and 53.1 per cent respectively for Australian residents of
Estonian ancestry in the 2006 Australian Census (ABS 2007). The age distribution of the survey sample is outlined in Table A4.1 (page 149). The disproportionate numbers of females and older age groups in the sample may reflect some of the biases described in Section 3.5.3 (page 44). The generational distribution is provided in Table 3.2 (page 45).
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Table A4.1: Age composition of the survey sample
Age group Proportion of sample 18-24 4.7% 25-34 17.1% 35-44 7.8% 45-54 14.7% 55-64 19.4% 65-74 22.5% 75+ 14.0%
Figure A4.1 (page 150) shows the current place of residence of respondents in the survey sample, compared to 2006 census data for the place of residence of
Australians of Estonian ancestry. Unsurprisingly, most respondents live in Sydney, the place where most Estonian-Australians reside and also where the survey was distributed from. The differences between the survey sample and Estonian-
Australian population are most likely due to the latter fact. Thirlmere has a significant number of respondents as it is a locality where many Estonian immigrants settled in the 1920s and 1930s, and where a number still remain.
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50% Survey sample 45% 40% 35% 30% Census data 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%
Figure A4.1: Place of current residence, survey sample and 2006 Census (Relative percentages. Source: survey data and ABS 2007)
Just under half the sample (46.5 per cent) was born in Australia and a similar proportion was born in Estonia (47.3 per cent). The remainder were mostly born in
Germany, typically in Displaced Persons camps (4.7 per cent). 54.9 per cent of respondents had the self-ascribed ethnic identity of ‘Estonian.’ A smaller number labelled themselves as ‘Estonian-Australian’ (28.6 per cent) and some identified only as ‘Australian’ (5.3 per cent), mostly second and third generation respondents.
The remaining 11.3 per cent of respondents either stated a different mixture of ethnicities or did not respond to this question. Most respondents were dual citizens of Estonia and Australia (54.5 per cent; versus 37.1 per cent for Australia only and
7.6 per cent for Estonia only). This may reflect the ease of, and propensity to, claim
Estonian passports, which 63.1 per cent of the sample currently possessed.
However, many respondents may have conflated ‘citizenship’ with holding a passport when identifying their citizenships in the survey (see Section 5.6.3, page
101).
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A4.2 Migration
The large majority of respondents were post-war exiles and their descendants. Most left Estonia in 1944 in family groups and then went to Displaced Persons camps in
Germany (or, in some cases, Sweden) for several years before moving to Australia in the period 1947-1953. Australia was often chosen as it was a ‘new country’ in which to establish ‘new lives,’ and because of its distance from the Soviet Union.
Indeed, overall the survey sample reflected the general emigration history of
Estonia (see Section 3.3, page 38).
A small number of ‘New Estonian’ migrants that emigrated after 1991were also in the sample (10.3 per cent). These individuals had mostly moved to Australia for employment or lifestyle reasons, or because they had married an Australian.
Only 15.2 per cent of respondents had a family member or friend who had moved from Australia to Estonia (and intending to remain there permanently). Only four respondents (3.0 per cent) had done so themselves. Those who moved were mostly siblings or cousins—and occasionally parents—of respondents and had done so out of curiosity or because they had a longing to return to their homeland (ie, non- economic reasons) (see Section 5.5, page 96).
A4.3 Relatives and communication
Most survey respondents had family members in Estonia (86.4 per cent), although some (3.8 per cent) were unsure whether they did. Almost all of these respondents communicated regularly with their relatives in Estonia, most commonly through emails, letters, Christmas cards and visits (and, occasionally, through exchanging photographs). Some also made telephone calls or used internet messaging or telephone services (eg, Skype). Whilst some respondents were in regular contact
151
with their Estonian relatives, the majority had only occasional or sporadic communication, usually around Christmas time.
Many respondents also had relatives or friends of Estonian ancestry who lived outside of both Australia and Estonia. 64.4 per cent of respondents had maintained communication with other nodes of the Estonian diaspora. This mostly involved occasional correspondence with relatives (mostly cousins) or friends (mostly schoolmates, met through Estonian World Festivals, or met at scouting/guides jamborees), through occasional emails, letters and Christmas cards. Some had even met up with these relatives or friends in Estonia itself. Most of these other diasporic
Estonians lived in Canada or the United States, although there were a small number in Germany, Sweden and other countries to which respondents’ family members had emigrated (either from Estonia or from Australia).
A4.4 Estonian-Australian community involvement
Involvement in Estonian community activities and organisations in Australia varied across the survey sample. Some respondents were strongly involved, others were involved only as young children, others had only ever been weakly or sporadically involved, and others had never been involved. However, 84.8 per cent of the sample had been involved in community activities or cultural events at present or in the past. Activities were broad and included Saturday language schools for children, church services and congregations, Christmas celebrations, boy scouts and girl guides, folk dancing, choir singing, sporting groups (typically basketball, volleyball or gymnastics), cultural festivals ( Eesti Päevad festivals held every three years which rotate between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide), a children’s summer camp ( Sõrve ), university students’ associations, arts and crafts groups and seniors’ clubs.
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Respondents were also asked whether they had seen the Meie uus kodu: Estonian-
Australian stories exhibition on Estonian migration to Australia at the Powerhouse
Museum in Sydney. 54.2 per cent of respondents who lived in the Sydney region had visited this exhibition at least once.
A4.5 Visiting Estonia
Most respondents, across all age, gender and generational groups, had visited
Estonia at least once (see Section 4.4, page 61). Overall, 20.9 per cent had visited once only, 69.8 had visited more than once, and 9.3 per cent had never visited. The frequencies of visits by the survey sample, disaggregated by generational group, are provided in Table 4.2 (page 62).
The majority of respondents visited in their 40s or 50s, although this was highly dependent on their generation. There was significant variation across the sample, with the age when respondents first visited ranging from 10 to 73 years. The most common reason for travelling to Estonia was to visit relatives, although a desire to reconnect with one’s heritage, visit ancestral places and a sense of a bond to the homeland were also frequently cited. Other factors motivating visits included a curiosity to ‘see the place for myself’ or to see how the Soviet occupation had changed people and places in Estonia. Others went soon after Estonia regained independence (1991) and they felt safe enough to travel there. Some respondents also visited because they had finished school or university, had a conference or business activities in Estonia (a very small number), wanted to attend a song festival, were in Europe at the time, or because a parent or grandparent was already planning to visit (see Section 4.3, page 55):
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There has always been this connection, this bond with the country that my
parents and thus we, their children, had been forced to leave. Part of you belongs
there (1.5F)
The iron curtain was down, the country was safe and I was desperate to go so [I]
took out a personal loan to get there with my Australian sister. I wanted to visit
my Estonian family, my half sister, nephews, aunts, and see where Dad grew up
(2F)
The median length of respondents’ most recent trips to Estonia was three weeks
(the average length was four weeks). Most made return visits to see more parts of the country, meet with relatives again, introduce their children to their Estonian relatives, or because they had the opportunity to visit and felt compelled to do so
(see Section 5.4.1, page 93).
All but one respondent that had visited Estonia went to the place(s) where they or their family once lived, with many attempting to visit the houses of parents or grandparents, even when these had been demolished or it was not possible to go inside (see Section 4.4.4, page 68). Being able to visit such places was a significant and emotional aspect of many respondents’ journeys.
The majority of respondents that had visited Estonia travelled with at least one other person on their most recent trip, although a large minority visited Estonia on their own. Most went with their spouse or partner, although some went with children, siblings or, to a lesser extent, friends. Most respondents stayed with relatives (or their spouse’s relatives) in Estonia, although a significant number stayed in hotels or in a combination of hotels and with relatives as they toured around the country. A small number rented (or owned) an apartment, especially respondents making longer visits. A small number also stayed with friends.
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Most respondents had visited other countries whilst making trips to Estonia.
Northern European countries were the most common destinations, although some also visited Southern Europe and Asia. The distance and cost of travelling to
Estonia meant that trips there were often combined with wider holidays or extended stopovers in places near Estonia or en route .
A4.6 Reception
The experiences of Estonian-Australians who visited Estonia whilst it was still under Soviet occupation are discussed in Appendix 6 (page 161).
Most respondents said they felt their relatives or friends in Estonia perceived them to be Australian, but of Estonian ancestry. Fluency in the Estonian language was commonly cited as a key factor in being perceived as an ‘Estonian’: respondents who could speak Estonian (albeit often with an accent) were considered väliseestlased (‘foreign Estonians’), whilst those who could not were considered to be
Australians (see also Section 4.5, page 73):
They like to think that I am Estonian, but as I speak Estonian with a strong
Australian accent they know I am an Aussie (2F)
[I was considered an] Australian who could not speak Estonian. Their lives had
been exposed to so many more political challenges, that to be truly called an
Estonian one would have had to shared those experiences (2M)
They see me as an Estonian who lives in Australia. My language is fluent and
cultural alignment is strong, which helps them to form and maintain this
perception (2M)
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Generally people see me as some kind of Estonian but it’s always a väliseestlane
[‘foreign Estonian’], not a ‘real Estonian’ (3M)
A4.7 Not visiting
As noted, 9.3 per cent of respondents had never made a trip to Estonia. A number of factors were cited, such as the high financial cost of visiting, not having had sufficient time or opportunities to visit (eg, leave from work), and having to care for elderly parents in Australia. Some respondents had only become interested in their
‘Estonianness’ recently and had not visited as yet. However, almost all respondents who had not visited intended to do so some time in the future (see Section 4.3.4, page 60).
A4.8 Where is ‘home’?
The location of ‘home’ varied for survey respondents. The majority considered
Estonia to be an ‘ancestral home’ and ‘family home’ (or a birthplace), yet for most,
Australia was their current home by virtue of having lived and worked, owned houses or brought up children there. Many respondents also nominated the particular Australian town or city in which they lived when answering the question,
“Where in the world would you describe as being ‘home’?” Australia was the only
‘home’ for many respondents, although some felt that, at the same time, Estonia was a spiritual or ancestral home, even though they would never consider moving there (see Section 4.5, page 73 and Section 5.5, page 96):
Australia [is home]. This is where I grew up, where my brother and children live.
Here is where I feel comfortable and free to live the kind of life I choose (1.5F)
Australia is my home but my spirit belongs in Estonia (2F)
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Home is where my heart is. My heart loves both Australia and Estonia (2M)
Sentimentally I think of Estonia as my home country, though I wouldn't want to
move there (1.5F)
However, a small number of respondents felt that Estonia was their true ‘home,’ and that Australia was only the place where they happened to live at present:
Estonia will always be my true home as I feel a definite affinity and an at peace
feeling every time I visit. Australia is where I work and live (2F)
Estonia [is home], because there's no place like it (1M)
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Appendix 5 Interview questions
Where were you born? Are you Estonian?
Where your parents or grandparents born in Estonia? Tell me about your
family.
What is the ethnic or cultural background of your other parent/grandparents?
[If applicable] Do you feel you identify more with that side or your Estonian
side? Why?
Tell me about your childhood—where did you grow up and go to school?
Describe the place where you grew up.
As a child, were you or your parents involved in any Estonian cultural
activities, community events or summer camps? Did you enjoy these activities?
Can you speak any Estonian?
Do you have any siblings?
[If respondent was born in Estonia]
How old were you when you left Estonia? Who did you migrate with? Where
did you go en route to Australia?
For what reasons did you and/or your parents leave Estonia?
What are your most vivid memories of Estonia before you migrated?
What are your most vivid memories of migrating?
Was Australia it as you expected it to be? Was it difficult living in Australia at
first?
Do you feel at home in Australia?
Growing up, what did ‘Estonia’ and ‘being Estonian’ mean to you?
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Do you have family in Estonia? Do you keep in contact with them?
Did you maintain any contact with Estonia whilst it was under Communist rule?
(eg, letters to family, visits, sending money/gifts to family, donations to
charities)
Do you have Estonian family or friends who live elsewhere in the world (eg,
USA, Canada, Germany)? What is your relation to these people, and how do
you keep in contact?
[If respondent was born in Estonia] When you left Estonia, did you think that
one day you would return?
Do you think your parents/grandparents wanted to move back to Estonia
eventually?
Have you ever thought about moving (back) to Estonia?
Do you know anyone who has moved back to Estonia? When and why did they
move?
Do you know any ‘New Estonian’ migrants (ie, those who emigrated from
Estonia after 1945)?
Have you made a visit to Estonia?
[If respondent has visited Estonia]
How many times have you visited?
When did you first go?
Why did you decide to go?
Where did you go and who did you stay with?
Who did you travel with?
What was the trip like?
What were your first impressions of Estonia? Was it as you expected?
Did you visit the place/s where you or your family grew up?
Does Estonia feel like ‘home’?
How has Estonia changed? Has this been for the better, or for the worse?
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(If respondent has visited multiple times) What did you do differently on
subsequent trips? How has Estonia changed since the first time you visited?
When you travelled to Estonia, did you visit other countries as well (eg, as part
of a wider holiday)?
If you stayed with family or friends, how did they react to your visit? Did they
recognise you? Did you get along? Do you think they considered you to be an
Estonian or a foreign tourist?
Would you describe yourself as a tourist? (If not, then what?)
Will you visit Estonia again? Where will you go and what will you do next time?
(If respondent has visited multiple times) Why do you keep going back there?
[If respondent has not visited Estonia]
Why haven’t you visited? Is this because you haven’t been able to, or because
you don’t want to go?
Have family or friends told you stories about visiting? [If so] How did you
react?
Would you consider visiting Estonia in the future? Why or why not?
Have any Estonians (living in Estonia) visited you in Australia? [If so] Why did
they come? What did they think?
Have you claimed an Estonian passport? Why or why not?
Why do you think it has become so popular for Estonian-Australians to travel
to Estonia?
What does Estonia mean to you?
What does Australia mean to you?
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Appendix 6 Soviet-era visits
Experiences of visiting Estonia before August 1991, whilst it was still under Soviet occupation, were particularly jarring for some respondents. Although visits have been much more popular after independence than before (see Figure 4.1, page 63), often those with stronger sentiments towards Estonia, along with the means and time to visit, travelled there during this period. These respondents were typically of the 1.5 generation, who were born in Estonia and retained strong psychological attachments to Estonia as their birthplace and homeland, but did not have upsetting or traumatic memories of war, displacement and upheaval like their parents did. Visiting was difficult during this period, especially in the 1960s and
1970s, as visas were often expensive and time consuming to obtain. Due to this, other restrictions placed on visitors and a fear of Soviet authorities, only those with known relatives in Estonia tended to visit.
Going back to Estonia whilst it was behind the ‘iron curtain’ often led to a ‘culture shock,’ where the various restrictions on tourist movement, Soviet architecture and sometimes hostile social relations in public led to alienating experiences. Travellers were only allowed to stay in designated ‘In-Tourist’ hotels, all of which were located in Tallinn, and forbidden from leaving the Tallinn district without special permission. Staying with relatives was impossible, and relatives who lived outside of Tallinn typically had to travel to that city to meet visiting diasporic Estonians.
Many respondents who visited in the Soviet period referred to the lack of product quantities and choices in shops. Many also felt marked out by their ‘Westernness,’ and stood out due to their clothing, hairstyles and speaking in public:
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In Tallinn there was a black car waiting for me, and I had to go to the hotel
[straight away], despite the fact that my godmother was waiting for me at the
[railway] platform (Riina, 2.5F)
Moving around was really weird, and you stood out like a sore thumb
everywhere. People are suspicious of you, they don’t want to touch you or
communicate with you or smile or exchange eye contact or anything, in case
someone could construe that as communicating with someone from the West…
So there was kind of a frustration as well as this elation and joy and immediate
home recognition, and stuff like that (Priit, 1.5F)
Visiting Estonian-Australians thus became inscribed as väliseestlased (‘foreign
Estonians’), or even välismaalased (‘foreigners’), often embraced by relatives but subject to social isolation when in public.
Respondents also feared getting in trouble with authorities, of placing relatives in danger, and of being followed, watched and listened to. Microphones were, apparently, placed in hotel rooms, and there was a fear of talking to relatives about politics or the circumstances of initially leaving Estonia, even when in private spaces:
We knew that the [hotel] rooms were bugged, we knew that we couldn’t speak…
You actually handed over your passport and got it back when you left… We
knew that we could only talk out on the street, because [our] driver was a spy.
On every floor of the hotel there was somebody at the desk who said very
politely ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ and of course noted what time you went and
what time you came back, [and] if you had any visitors. [My husband] actually
found the microphone in the room and stood on the bed and made horrible
noises into it (Anu, 1.5F)
There were also particular political processes in operation in the Estonian-
Australian community regarding those who visited Estonia during the Soviet
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occupation. Several respondents believed that visiting Estonia led to some others in the diaspora perceiving them to be supporting the Soviet regime, and thus there was a small degree of alienation of those who visited, particularly in the earlier years. 41 At times they were derisively labelled as communists and stigmatised, although these perceptions were apparently limited to particular individuals in
Estonian-Australian community organisations. Such hostilities may have functioned as political strategies for reinforcing power relations and particular narratives about Estonia in the diaspora, whilst maintaining the appearance of community solidarity ( cf Smith and Jackson 1999).
41 See also Skrbiš’s (1999:99) discussion of Croatian-Australians visiting Croatia when it was part of Yugoslavia.
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