Between the Home and Kin-State: Self-Identification and Attachment of Ukrainians and Romanians in the Ukrainian-Romanian Borderland of Bukovina

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the two most relevant minority groups living on the two sides of the Ukrainian–Romanian borderland of Bukovina. This research inquires from a comparative perspective how Romanians in Ukraine and Ukrainians in Romania (confined to the region of Bukovina) position themselves in relation to the state of their ethnic origin and to the current state of their residency. The paper argues that the self-identification of each ethnic minority with the present home state hinges more on the economic and political conditions existing in the respective state rather than on cultural bonding or loyalties to their kin-state.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at 10.1080/10758216.2020.1734470

Notes

1. The status of minority groups in Europe was cemented as part of the EU conditionality employed in the process of eastern enlargement in the Copenhagen criteria of 1993.

2. We have chosen the widely used spelling of “Bukovina” (which in the Slavic vocabulary means “land of the beech trees”) as a more neutral form between the Ukrainian “Bukovyna” and the Romanian “Bucovina.”

3. As a general note, our study has been limited to the Ukrainian–Romanian borderland region of Bukovina. Applying the results of this research to other Ukrainian–Romanian borderland regions should be done with caution. In order to extrapolate the outcomes outside Bukovina region farther, new field studies should be carried out.

4. The survey is a part of the research project “Bukovyna as a Contact Zone” (http://quadrivium.org.ua/bukovyna/) jointly coordinated by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe of the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), the NGO “Quadrivium” (Ukraine), and the Center for European Studies at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania). The project is a part of the “Transcultural Contact Zones in Ukraine” research initiative financially supported by the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI), the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Wolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation. For a better overview of the project please consult http://www.uaregio.org/en/about/stage-2/.

5. The authors of this paper are aware of the debate regarding the potential inclusion of an additional (fourth) node, which, according to Wolczuk (2000), Kulyk (2001), Smith (2002) and Kelley (2004), can be inserted in a revised quadratic nexus, alongside home state, kin-state, and ethnic minority. This fourth node is represented by international organizations. Taking into consideration different Euro-integration dynamics in Romania and Ukraine, the EU could be employed as a forth node in the nexus. Nevertheless, this article limits itself to the analysis of the classical triadic nexus, since the impact of the EU on both Romania and Ukraine varies significantly, while the differences between the two countries could be better captured at a national level rather than within a condensed area such as Bukovina.

6. With a certain degree of cautiousness, perceptions can be studied and measured. Scholars from fields such as psychology have a long-established approach and have analyzed individuals’ attitudes and perceptions toward any number of concepts (e.g. Deaux and Verkuyten 2014; Verkuyten and Thijs 2010).

7. Questionnaire-based surveys allow statistical testing of a hypothesis and the use of parametric data analysis. This characteristic is especially important when the goal is to acquire a general and generalizable perspective on phenomena, as is the case in this paper.

8. Due to the lack of equivalence between the historical region and the present administrative units, both in Ukraine and in Romania, it is very difficult to estimate the Romanian and Ukrainian populations and ethnic distributions in both countries strictly confined to the historical region of Bukovina.

9. A raion is an administrative subdivision of the oblast.

10. Bilingual signs are also used in the northern part of Bukovina for villages having an important Romanian population.

11. We have chosen to use, in this case, non-directional hypotheses. This type of hypothesis is particularly suitable when no direction of the effect is expected, as is the case in this paper. To our knowledge, this is the first study attempting to measure the impact of the political, economic, and cultural subfields by quantitative means, and therefore it is difficult to anticipate the direction of the effect.

12. Henceforth, to simplify, Ukraine and Romania will stand in lieu of the northern and southern part of Bukovina, respectively.