Estonia caught between East and West: EU conditionality, Russia's activism and minority integration

Abstract

This article takes a subjective approach to studying norm compliance in order to determine how EU conditionality and Russia's activism have affected elite attitudes toward minority policies, majority–minority relations, and language use in Estonian society in the post-accession period. The results of a Q method study and semi-structured interviews with integration elites in spring 2008 reveal four distinct viewpoints. The study casts doubt upon the success of EU conditionality in Estonia by demonstrating that European minority rights norms remain contested and have not been internalized by a substantial portion of elites. In addition, the study points to an important role for Russia's activism in the development of a more inclusive society. Russia's activism actually works against minority integration by reinforcing pre-existing domestic norms that are not compatible with European minority rights standards and by aggravating tensions over history and language, which frustrate integration efforts. This article ultimately contributes to studies on the effects of international pressure on minority integration by pointing to the need for greater attention to the ways in which multiple actors at both the international and domestic levels structure the influence of EU conditionality.

Keywords:

• EU conditionality
• kin-state
• minority-rights norms
• minority integration
• Estonia
• Q methodology

Acknowledgements

Research for this article has in part been made possible by a generous EU Marie Curie Grant in conjunction with “The Integration of the European Second Generation” (TIES) project. The author would like to thank James Goldgeier, Henry Hale, and Zsuzsa Csergo for comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

Estonia was part of the Russian Empire until 1917; independent during the interwar period; and then incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940.

In the 1930s was almost 90% ethnically homogeneous; by 1989 ethnic Estonians comprised only 61.5% of the population, with the largest ethnic minority – the Russian minority – comprising 30.3% of the population. According to the data of the Board for Citizenship and Migration Affairs, 1 January 2006: ethnic Russians comprise 26% of population followed by Ukrainians (2%) and Belarusians (1%). According to the 2000 population census: 57% of Ukrainians in Estonia indicate that Russian is their mother tongue; 41% indicate that Ukrainian is their mother tongue; 70% of Belarusians in Estonia indicate that Russian is their mother tongue; 29% indicate Belarusian as their mother tongue.

For debates on how to label the minority see Barrington; Galbreath; Laitin; Melvin, Russians beyond Russia.

Board for Citizenship and Migration Affairs: as of 31 August 2009, 106,521 persons remain stateless.

For discussion of the nationalizing approach to state building see Brubaker; King and Melvin, Nations Abroad. For discussion of minority integration see Bosswick and Heckmann; Isijaw.

For definition of a norm see Finnemore and Sikkink (891); Katzenstein (6).

For discussion of the problems of IMF and World Bank conditionality see Baehr; Gilbert et al.; Woods.

For discussions of conditionality and its mechanisms see also Kelley; Schimmelfennig; Vachudova.

For discussions on the thinness of European minority rights norms and vague wording see Brosig; Rechel; Sasse; Thiele.

Three quarters of all funding in the 2000–2007 integration program was allocated to language programs and education.

Responsibility for coordinating integration policy has fallen to the Ministry of Culture. This may lead to prioritizing areas that are most closely related with the Ministry's area of responsibility (e.g. culture and media) with less attention to other areas that have growing importance, such as citizenship and participation and the labor market. Interview with Respondent 25 (see Table 1).

Baltic statehood is based on the doctrine of legal continuity and the re-emergence from 50 years of illegal Soviet occupation. Russia maintains that these states joined the Soviet Union voluntarily.

“Press Briefing”; the Estonian embassy in Washington estimates that by 1 July 1994 over 42,000 individuals in Estonia had registered as citizens of Russia. In 2008, the Russian embassy in Washington estimated the number of Russian citizens in Estonia at approximately 114,000.

“Estonia Moves Soviet War Monument”; “Claims of Russia's Part in Clashes.”

For discussion of Q methodology see S. Brown, Political; Stephenson.

The study was originally conducted as a comparative study of Estonia and Latvia using the same Q sample. Statements from the Latvian media were also included. Statements were chosen so as to be applicable across both cases. Aalto's (2003) database was used to gather statements, and additional statements were added to his dataset in order to reflect more recent viewpoints.

The Q statements and sorting were pilot tested in each case to make sure that the statements were clear, the translations accurate, and that no major viewpoints were missing. The reliability of the Q sample was further tested by asking the respondents to comment on it.

The computation of factor scores is based on those Q sorts that are significantly loaded on a given factor. Because some Q sorts are more closely associated with a given factor than others, factor weights are computed for each respondent and normalized scores are computed for each statement. These z-scores are then turned back into whole numbers to facilitate the comparison of factor arrays (the two highest positive z-scores receiving a score of +5, the next highest receiving a score of +4 and so on according to the distribution shown in Figure 2).

Commission of the European Communities (5–11).

“Estonia Moves Soviet War Monument”; “Claims of Russia's Part”; “Russian Attacks.”

Respondent 10 is ethnically Estonian; however, the individual has spent a great deal of time working within the Russian community and has many personal connections with Russians.

While this fourth factor is not dominant in the sample, largely because this viewpoint is underrepresented among elites, the factor was not dismissed as insignificant. It represents a coherent, if often unheard, viewpoint on integration. This factor is interesting because it contrasts sharply with the EID and because the people defining the DR have close relationships with the larger Russian community in Estonia and serve as important representatives of that community.