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Perspectives FINAL.Pdf minorities_kansi.indd 1 04/05/18 14:11 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 2 07/05/18 15:04 PERSPECTIVES on MINORITIES in the baltic sea area Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 1 07/05/18 15:04 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 2 07/05/18 15:04 PERSPECTIVES on MINORITIES in the baltic sea area Ed. Nils Erik Forsgård & Lia Markelin Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 3 07/05/18 15:04 ISBN: 978-952-5864-84-7 Ombrytning: Oy Nord Print Ab Pärmens layout: Sebastian Dahlström Tryck: Oy Nord Print Ab Helsingfors 2018 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 4 07/05/18 15:04 Preface his volume is based on a Ralf Dahrendorf–Roundtable that was held in Helsinki in May 2018. It was organized Tin co-operation with the European Liberal Forum. It was supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The topic of the roundtable was “Minorities and Democracy in Northern Europe”. Many Europeans belong to a minority. The numbers are, how- ever, notoriously unreliable. According to a calculation made in the beginning of the 2000s there are 337 different ethnic and national minorities living in Europe. These minorities comprise over 100 million people. In this book we have chosen to focus on ethnic or national mi- norities living in some of the Baltic Sea countries. These countries are Finland, Sweden, (Norway), Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The selection follows no particular idea or ideology - other than perhaps a deep curiosity and a willingness to learn more. Many, if not most, of the minorities in Europe have some or several of the following characteristics in common. They long for recognition. They long for improved societal visibility. They want their rights to be guaranteed through legislative means. They want to preserve their own cultures and their own languages and dialects. They want to get health care and elderly care and police services in their own languages. Some want representation in the national parliaments and autonomy over their own affairs. A wish list is nothing but a wish list, however. Many minorities living in Europe today feel unequally treated or even persecuted. ––––– 5 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 5 07/05/18 15:04 This is particularly true in the eastern parts of Europe where the un- derstanding of democratic rules and practices can differ quite a lot from the practices and perceptions in the western parts of Europe. The issue of the Roma people is, however, a common problem that concerns both western and eastern Europe equally. The Baltic Sea Region is a kind of border region in Europe. It is also a multi-faceted part of Europe. Countries currently leading different global welfare and happiness indexes share borders with countries still battling grave societal inequalities and socioeconomic challenges. The divides in the area are narrowing, but the border between Finland and Russia still marks one of the deepest socio- economic divides in the world. The close proximity to Russia has its own role to play in the his- tory of minorities in the Baltic Sea area. Russia doesn’t really fit the mold of the other relatively small countries in the region. Russia is a Great Power and a country with an imperial tradition. Its claims as a nation do not stop at its geographical borders. This has consequenc- es for minority politics and policies in many of the Baltic Sea States. Helsinki, 25.4.2018 Nils Erik Forsgård, Director, Think tank Magma ––––– 6 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 6 07/05/18 15:04 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Nils Erik Forsgård: Preface 9 Kjetil Duvold: Minorities in Europe. Politics and Definitions. 21 Lia Markelin: Some Current Issues Facing the Indigenous Sámi in the Nordic States. 45 Jarmo Lainio: The Five National Minorities in Sweden and their Languages. The State of the Art and Ongoing Trends. ––––– 7 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 7 07/05/18 15:04 77 Ewa Chylinski: Russian Minorities in the Baltic Sea Area. Between Inclusion and Integration in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 109 Tomasz Wicherkiewicz: National, Ethnic and Linguistic Minorities in Poland. Recent Developments. Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 8 07/05/18 15:04 Turning states into nations and nations into states Kjetil Duvold ’We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians’ Massimo D’Azeglio ith the rise of the nation-state, Europe has witnessed a massive change in cultural identities and political Wloyalties over the last two centuries. Contrary to the romantic vision held by many nationalists, the world is not divided into a fixed set of nations. Distinct groups have obviously been mix- ing, merging, migrating and splitting throughout history. In Europe alone, hundreds of ethnic groups – many of them potential na- tion-builders – have been conquered and submerged by other, more powerful groups. Indeed, there are far more examples of European proto-nations than existing nations. Some of them have vanished entirely, while others have retained some of their distinctive features and currently enjoy status as ethnic or national minorities. According to received wisdom, ethno-cultural nationhood plays a more prominent role in Central and Eastern Europe than in the Western parts of the continent. It basically boils down to the following distinction: national identity in Western Europe has predominantly been tied to the territory and institutions of the po- litical community, while the ‘Eastern’ notion of national identity ––––– 9 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 9 07/05/18 15:04 has always had a strong emphasis on cultural uniqueness, kinship and organic community – often without the support of institutions and clearly defined territorial borders. The communist regimes sup- posedly suppressed nationalism and even brought a solution to the ‘nationalities problem’ of Central and Eastern Europe. However, this is clearly a myth. Indeed, communism thrived on nationalism – and nationalism survived under communism. Minority politics in Europe, therefore, is not always a two-way process. It may also include a third partner. I have in mind the rela- tionship between ethnic homelands, co-nationals in neighbouring states, and the countries of residence. Such triangular relationships, referred to here as kin-state relations, tend to be complex and often fraught with instability.1 A kin minority can also be referred to as a diaspora group. ‘Diaspora’ most commonly refers to Jewish communities in the period between the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Other well-known diaspora groups include the scattered Roman communities and for example Armenian, Greek and Italian communities beyond their respective ‘homeland’. It could be defined as ethnic groups lacking territo- rial base within a given polity – groups not possessing an ethnic ‘homeland’ or residing outside their ‘homeland’. In the latter case, it involves a triadic relationship: the group itself, their country of residence and their country of origin. A diaspora community may have emigrated or faced expulsion. But it may not have moved at all: many Russians, Hungarians, Serbs or Albanians have ended up beyond their ethnic ‘homeland’ due to border changes rather than migration. To illustrate this variation we can make a simple distinction between border change and group stability (see Figure 1). Have the borders remained stable or have they changed? Does the minority group in question have a long history of settlement in the region or are they comparatively recent settlers? ––––– 10 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 10 07/05/18 15:04 Figure 1: Groups and borders Border changes No Yes Nation-states Kin-minorities (i.e. Swedes in Sweden) (i.e. Hungarians in Romania) No Regional minorities Transnational minorities (i.e. Welsh in the UK) (i.e. Roma in Bulgaria) Group mobility Group Immigrants Émigrés Yes (i.e. Turks in Germany) (i.e. Armenians in France) Source: Duvold, 2010. The upper-left category comprises various kinds of indigenous peo- ple: groups possessing a state or a region within a state. It includes eponymous nationalities, like Norwegians in Norway or Germans in Germany, and regional minorities, like Bretons in France or Frisians in the Netherlands. The bottom-left category contains immigrant groups: people who have moved as labour migrants or been forced to move to an- other country in modern times. They may or may not feel strong attachment to the territory they inhabit, but they are unlikely to consider it as their ‘homeland’. The bottom-right category includes émigré communities: groups that do not possess an ethnic ‘homeland’ anywhere or cannot live there for political reasons. The Jewish population between the ex- pulsion (from the 8th Century BC to the 1st Century AC) and the establishment of Israel in 1948 is a classic example. ––––– 11 Sisus138x216mm_nya_noottikorjaukset.indd 11 07/05/18 15:04 Finally, the top-right category comprises kin-minorities: geo- graphically stable groups who find themselves in a ‘foreign’ country after secession, state fragmentation, border revisions or peace set- tlements. As an example, Hungarians in Transylvania found them- selves living in Romania after the border revisions instigated by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. They are likely to feel strongly attached to the territory they inhabit, but also greater loyalty to their ‘kinsmen’ across the border than to the state they currently belong in. The model goes a long way in explaining the variations of eth- nic and national groups in Europe. But it nevertheless contains a few ambiguities, which makes it hard to classify certain cases. Let us first consider the Russian population in Latvia, which has existed since the Baltic region became a fully-fledged part of the Russian Empire in the late 18th Century. By 1935 the Russian share of the Latvian population stood at around nine per cent. By 1959 there were more than 26 per cent Russians in the Latvian SSR. But not only did the Russian share of the total population triple in just over two decades: only a small fraction of these Russians had actually lived in the interwar republic of Latvia.
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