Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS)
ISSN 1369-183X print / 1469-9451 online

Ulrike H. Meinhof
Migrating borders: an introduction to European identity construction in process [Abstract]

Doris Wastl-Walter, Monika M. Váradi and Friedrich Veider
Coping with marginality: to stay or to go [Abstract]

Werner Holly, Jiří Nekvapil, Ilona Scherm and Pavla Tišerová
Unequal neighbours: coping with asymmetries [Abstract]

Brigitte Hipfl, Anita Bister and Petra Strohmaier
Youth identities along the Eastern border of the European Union [Abstract]

Aleksandra Galasińska and Dariusz Galasiński
Discursive strategies for coping with sensitive topics of the Other [Abstract]

Augusto Carli, Cristina Guardiano, Majda Kaučič-Baša, Emidio Sussi, Mariselda Tessarolo and Marina Ussai
Asserting ethnic identity and power through language [Abstract]

Heidi Armbruster, Craig Rollo and Ulrike H. Meinhof
Imagining Europe: everyday narratives in European border communities [Abstract]

Abstracts

Ulrike H. Meinhof
Migrating borders: an introduction to European identity construction in process
Abstract  This introduction to the edition provides the historical, geopolitical and methodological context for a programme of collaborative research conducted between 2000 and 2003 in sets of communities on the border between the EU and its (south-)eastern ascendant nations. Our analysis is framed by interlinking comparative themes which form the cores of the different articles contained in this special issue. This opening article argues that the geopolitical dimension of the border needs to be understood both as an axis of past conflict and painful memories, and as an axis of contemporary socio-economic inequality. Only by understanding this double legacy and its effects on the communities along the border can ongoing conflicts between the people on either side of the border be fully understood.
Keywords: EU border identity; Historical conflict; Socio-economic inequality; Photographic triggers
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 781-796, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Doris Wastl-Walter, Monika M. Váradi and Friedrich Veider
Coping with marginality: to stay or to go
Abstract  By definition border areas are at the margins of the nation-states. In addition to the geographical marginality, people living there are often also marginalised politically, socially and economically. In some of the European border regions, ‘unwanted’ people, minorities (Sinti, Roma), the disabled, or expatriates have been settled there. In others, ‘confident’ citizens have been positioned and isolated along the borderline. We focus on the strategies people in the border areas deploy to cope with their marginality and the question of whether they should stay or leave. In contrast to much existing research about migrants, we investigate this issue from the viewpoint of those who have remained and how they legitimise their decision to stay. Their main arguments are: love of the country/home; moral obligation; lack of alternatives. We also explore their view on those who have left. Here, too, their reasoning can have different dimensions, such as: emigration to escape from the poverty of the periphery (economic marginalisation); refuge from political marginalisation; migration for educational or professional reasons. We differentiate between the views of different generations, genders, and the specific visions and contexts of the different communities east and west of the former Iron Curtain. Finally, we study the strategies people use when talking about their future.
Keywords: Border, Periphery, Marginality, Migration, Narratives, Identity
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 797-817, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Werner Holly, Jiří Nekvapil, Ilona Scherm and Pavla Tišerová
Unequal neighbours: coping with asymmetries
Abstract  This article deals with asymmetrical relations on borders between current and future EU member states which may be seen as axes of several asymmetries. During the times of the Iron Curtain, these asymmetries could stay latent. Now, with more and more border liberalisation, old and new inequalities are re-surfacing, which might lead to future conflict. Our results, based on excerpts from interviews in which the informants formulated these asymmetries in different ways, show that there are various domains of asymmetries. People on both sides of the borders concerned use different perspectives to look at these asymmetrical relations and have several strategies for coping with them.
Keywords: Asymmetries; Cross-border relations; Regional disparities; Work migration; Socio-economic change
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 819-834, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Brigitte Hipfl, Anita Bister and Petra Strohmaier
Youth identities along the Eastern border of the European Union
Abstract  In this paper we explore what it means to be young and live in a border region, one which demarcates the European Union from its ascendant nations/states. By analysing interviews with members of the young generation, we will focus on the ways in which these young people deal with this particular geopolitical situation. In particular, we examine the young generation’s narratives regarding their home community and the possibilities which are offered to them. We will illustrate four different constructions: being entrapped in non-stimulating homes, excursions from home, home as a place of retreat and security, the best of two homes.
Keywords: Youth, Border, Home, Identity, Work
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 835-848, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Aleksandra Galasińska and Dariusz Galasiński
Discursive strategies for coping with sensitive topics of the Other
Abstract  This paper explores border residents’ strategies for coping with topics which they perceive as difficult or sensitive in their discourses about people living in such European border locations. Thus we are concerned with the way in which people negotiate accounts of implicit or explicit ethnic conflict, prejudice or negative stereotyping of ‘the Other’. We indicate two types of such strategies. First, the strategy of mitigation, in which informants attempt to soften or licence their stereotypical views. Second, we shall discuss a strategy in which mitigation is replaced by the practice of ‘oracular reasoning’ in our informants’ constructions of the ethnic Other; this occurs in those instances when a basic premise is confronted with contradictory evidence, but the evidence is ignored or rejected. The data for our analysis come from 12 border communities in which informants talk about the Other from either across the border, or, in the case of multi-ethnic communities, from within the community itself. We focus upon constructions that purport to give a universal answer to questions of ‘what they are like’. Specifically, we explore those constructions where informants have to deal with conflictual voices (either explicit or implicit in the informants' discourse) which question their accounts or contradict the claims they make. Finally, we see the strategies for coping with conflictual accounts of the Other as indicative of the tension between the discursively postulated social/ethnic separation of the border communities and the constructed threat from the Other on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the new and changing public discourse of the Other and the politics underpinning it which goes counter to those more private discourses.
Keywords: Other; Oracular reasoning; Disclaimers; Identity
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 849-863, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Augusto Carli, Cristina Guardiano, Majda Kaučič-Baša, Emidio Sussi, Mariselda Tessarolo and Marina Ussai
Asserting ethnic identity and power through language
Abstract  This paper examines excerpts from interviews in which informants from six European border communities formulate explicit or implicit reflections on the ‘linguistic universe’ – including language use, linguistic diversity and language variation. Our results show that not only is linguistic diversity considered a fundamental element of ethnic and cultural identity, but that the very concept of diversity is used to assert, confirm or defend power interests. Evaluation of the individual languages is legitimated through apparently rational arguments incorporating marks of prestige or stigma which emerge from language attitudes based on linguistic prejudice and stereotyping. The linguistic ideology at work here is founded both on the concept of the ‘mother tongue’ (informants on both the east and west sides of the border claim that the unique ‘character’ or ‘mentality’ of each ‘people’ is created by their mother tongue), as well as on the ‘one nation, one language’ principle. This linguistic ideology gives rise to three key issues of linguistic ecology: the restriction of societal bilingualism to minority groups; the risk of minority language endangerment or obsolescence; and the close ties between the prestige or stigma of the language and resulting social power. In general, communities on the western side of the border are not interested in learning the language of their eastern neighbours. Eastern communities, on the other hand, are strongly motivated to learn western languages. The importance attributed to English as the ‘language of globalisation’ is common to both sides.
Keywords: Language attitudes, linguistic prejudice, Societal bilingualism, Language Ecology, Ethnic identity
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 865-883, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)
 

Heidi Armbruster, Craig Rollo and Ulrike H. Meinhof
Imagining Europe: everyday narratives in European border communities
Abstract  This article examines the role of 'Europe' in our border narratives. One of the most striking parallels across our entire data set was the absence of Europe or 'Europeanness' as a self-chosen category of identification. In contrast to other categories, European references only appeared in response to direct questions by the interviewers. This article shows how people conceptualised Europe and the EU, once invited to do so by the interviewer. Both, Westerners (all citizens of EU member-states) and Easterners (all citizens of ascendant EU member-states) anchored their views in distinctly local contexts. At the same time there were many narrative and discursive overlaps on either side: Westerners often construed a congruence between Europe and the EU and used this thematic field to define their own national and socio-economic identity. For many Easterners the links between Europe and the EU were much less clear and the topic provided a discursive field within which people articulated a sense of economic and political disempowerment. In both cases Europe generated the clearest sense of belonging only when it came into play as an out-grouping device against immigrants who are deemed non-Europeans.
Keywords: Europe, European Union, EU Enlargement, East–West Identities
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 5: 885-899, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)