Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others. Intra-Group Tensions After the Fall of Communism: Causes, Consequences, and Contexts

Présentation

A huge variety of cases involving the interaction of different ethnic/racial groups (in recent history up to the present day) and resulting in tension, conflict, disillusionment, discrimination, etc., have been the subject of extensive social research worldwide. Thus, thousands of scholarly works have been written about the intricacies of the acceptance and integration of immigrants who are racial, ethnic and/or confessional ‘others’ in relation to host populations. Alongside this, there are many examples of co-ethnics’ interaction which are also, overtly or latently, accompanied by intra-group conflict, tension and misunderstanding. Academic coverage of co-ethnics’ encounters is far less ‘mature’ in terms of conceptualization, and literature devoted to these issues is far less abundant.

The pattern of peoples’ interaction being studied is usually a result of various kinds of population movement provoked by the serious socio-political cataclysms in the 20thand 21stcenturies: 1) post-colonial situations of return to respective "homelands"; 2) collapse of multi-national states, followed by massive reconfiguration of borders and nationalizing policies of successor post-Soviet/post-socialist states; 3) intensification of labor migration, both internal (rural-urban) and international, resulting from post-socialist economic transformation.

The seminar devoted to intra-ethnic conflicts and tensions after the fall of Communism, brings together international scholars with a strong commitment to micro-level qualitative research who will present results of their latest field-work. We expect inspiring additions to a number of enduring aspects related to the overall theme, including contested perceptions of who are "true" representatives of an ethnic group; experiences of exclusion and cultural "otherness"; socio-cultural and socio-economic roots of stereotyping and scapegoating on both sides; impact of home immigration policies and state-imposed parameters of belonging on mutual expectations and relationships between the co-ethnics, and other.

Alongside with this, presentations are expected to bring to the fore some largely unexplored topics and/or previously neglected (in terms of academic attention to "co-ethnic encounters") geographical areas within the post-Soviet/post-socialist world. In terms of "fresh" topics and approaches, these include taking on board confessional identity and religious factors, in general, in the process of co-ethnics' interaction; emphasis on generational differences within co-ethnic populations returning to their motherland and, e.g., analysis of divisions within co-ethnic migrant communities. In terms of new "geographical" case-studies, these include, e.g., Albania, Armenia and various countries of Central Asia.

Programme

9.30-9.50 Welcoming Address of Gretty Mirdal (IEA Director) and Natalya Kosmarskaya

Session I. Thinking Theoretically and Comparatively About Co-Ethnics' Interaction (9.50-11.00)

Chair – Natalya Kosmarskaya

• Jasna Čapo Žmegač (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia) : Some Conceptual Issues: Comparisons Derived from Several Sub-Fields of Migration Studies (9.50-10.30)
• Ekaterina Protassova (Dpt. of Modern Languages, University of Helsinki, Finland) : Russian Germans and Russian Finns in their Homelands: Comparing Levels of Integration (10.30-11.10

Coffee-break (11.10-11.30)

Session II. Exploring Divisions within Co-Ethnic Migrant Communities (11.30-12.50) :

Chair – Jasna Čapo Žmegač

• Sergiu Gherghina (Dpt. of Political Science, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany) : Strangers amongst Us: Attitudes within Romanian Migrant Groups in Western Europe (11.30-12.10)
• Oxana Morgunova (International Migration and Gender Research Institute, Brussels, Belgium) : From Brotherhood to Competitive Advantage: Intra-Group Tensions among Russian-Speaking Migrants in Britain (12.10-12.50

Lunch (12.50-14.00)

Session III. Co-Ethnics in their "Homelands": Dilemmas of (Ethnic) Belonging and Experiences of Otherness under Different Social and Political Settings (14.00-16.40)

Chairs  – Moya Flynn and Jasna Čapo Žmegač

• Nona Shakhnazaryan (Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, Russia) : The Integration of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (14.00-14.40)
• Aida Aaly Alymbaeva (Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany) : Between Minority and Majority: Sart-Kalmaks in Kyrgyzstan (14.40-15.20)
• Zana Vathi (Dpt. of Social Sciences, Edge Hill University, UK) : Double Racism: Experiences of Otherness and Exclusion among Albanian Migrants and their Children Upon Return to Albania (15.20-16.00)
• Aleksandra Djurić-Milovanović (Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia) : "Converted" Co-Ethnics: Romanian Migrants in the Northern Serbian Province of Vojvodina (16.00-16.40

Coffee-break (16.40-17.00)

Session IV. Intra-Ethnic Tensions under Conditions of Labour Migration: A Case-Study of Central Asia (17.00-18.20)

Chair – Natalya Kosmarskaya

• Moya Flynn (Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK) : Constructing the "Other" in Post-Soviet Bishkek: Perspectives of Long-term Residents and Migrants (17.00-17.40)
• Igor Savin (Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) : Kazakhstani Uzbeks' Perceptions of Co-Ethnic Migrants from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (17.40-18.20

Concluding Remarks (18.20-18.50)