The Politics of Transition in Central and Eastern Europe Lecture 7: Minorities and Migrants

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The Politics of Transition in Central and
Eastern EuropeLecture 7 Minorities and
Migrants

• Dr Gwendolyn Sasse
• Gwendolyn.Sasse_at_nuffield.ox.ac.uk

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Background Debate on Democracy Accommodation
of Diversity

• Position 1 Liberal democracy should be
  ethnoculturally neutral (e.g. B. Barrys
  strategy of privatisation for diversity issues)
• Position 2 Liberal pluralism or plural
  liberal democracy (e.g. W. Kymlicka)
• gtgt Notion of group rights or collective
  rights can be misleading (see Kymlickas
  critique of Barry individuals within groups
  claim rights rather than groups per se)
• Variation on Position 2 multicultural measures
  as temporary means to rectify inequality (e.g. P.
  Loobuyck)
• Position 3 Post-national membership instead of
  nation-state/citizenship as framework (Y. Soysal)
• gt relevance for simultaneity dilemma during
  transition?

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Defining Minority and Migrant

• both terms share underlying definitional
  imprecision (e.g. ethnic minorities refers to
  migrants in the UK)
• Basic definition of migrant person who has
  lived outside his/her country of
  birth/citizenship for 12 months or longer
  (estimate 160 million migrants worldwide 10
  million illegal migrants)
• national minority numerically non-dominant
  group of individuals that combine objective
  criteria, such as specific cultural
  characteristics distinct from the majority (e.g.
  ethnicity, language, religion), and subjective
  criteria, such as a collective sense of community
  (Capotorti)

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A Taxonomy of Migrants and Minorities (Sasse
Thielemann, 2005)
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Geneva Convention (1951/1967)

• Definition of a refugee as a person who
• owing to a well-founded fear of being
  persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
  nationality, membership of a particular social
  group, or political opinion, is outside the
  country of his nationality, and is unable to or,
  owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself
  of the protection of that country

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National, Political, Social Minorities

• National Minorities set of norms and soft law
  measures in the absence of clear international
  definition
• (UN Charter principle of self-determination
  ICCPR Art. 1 (self-determination as right of
  individuals) 27 in states in which ethnic,
  religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons
  belonging to such minorities shall not be denied
  the right, in community with other members of
  their group, to enjoy their own culture, to
  profess and practice their own religion, or to
  use their own language OSCE Recommendations
  Council of Europe FCNM EU membership criterion
  during eastward enlargement)
• Political Minorities presupposes organisation
  political mobilisation of minority democracy as
  balance between majorities and minorities
• Social Minorities individuals/groups
  disadvantaged on the basis of their social
  characteristics (ranging from socio-economic
  profile to sexual orientation), referred to in UN
  Agenda for Peace, 1992

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Problems with Definitions

• overlap between economic (voluntary) and forced
  (involuntary) migration
• concept of national minority disputed
• political and social minority are a different
  type of classification
• some groups straddle classifications (e.g. Roma)

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Linkages within Taxonomy

• national political minorities ---gtgtforced
  migrants (context repression/war)
• social minorities ---gtgt economic migrants
• all migrants ---gtgtethnic/religious/ linguistic
  minorities
• all migrants ---gtgt at least initially
  social/political minorities

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Approaches Research Trends National Minorities

• Definitional issues evolution of concept of
  minority rights (Jackson-Preece, Packer et al.)
• Study of ethnic conflict (focus on political
  institutions see Lijphart, Horowitz, McGarry
  OLeary et al) multiculturalism (normative
  focus see Kymlicka vs. Barry) legal analysis of
  relationship between human rights minority
  rights (Thornberry, De Witte, Toggenburg, Steiner
  Alston)
• Post-Cold War/post-communist developments new
  momentum (esp. question about transfer of
  political/legal norms see Kymlicka Opalski,
  Toggenburg, Sasse et al)
• Current political context (incl. 9/11) inclusion
  of religious minorities (esp. Muslim minorities)
  in discussions about national minorities

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Approaches Research Trends Migrants

• Categorisations of migrants (e.g. high- v.s. low
  skilled migrants), periods of migration (e.g.
  migration from former empires, labour migrants,
  family members), features of migration
  (globalisation, acceleration, differentiation,
  feminisation, politicisation)
• Effectiveness of domestic international (esp.
  EU) policies towards specific groups of migrants
• - focus on immigration control (security) (e.g.
  Weiner, Guiraudon, Joppke et al)
• - focus on integration of immigrants (rights)
  (e.g. Soysal, Bommes, Geddes, Cholewinski,
  Castles Davidson et al)
• (- in between studies spelling out anxiety
  politics and backlash of control policies on
  resident ethnic minorities, economic growth,
  international relations (Boswell, Geddes et al) )

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Minority Rights vs. Polyethnic Rights (Kymlicka)

• Minority rights self-government rights for
  national minorities
• Polyethnic rights for immigrants the right to
  express ones ethnic peculiarity without fear of
  discrimination, public funding for various
  cultural practices, exemption from certain laws
  and regulations, esp. in connection with
  religious practices
• BUT
• ---gt less clear-cut when thought through
  empirically where to draw the line?

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Old vs. New Minorities

• old minorities described as historical,
  traditional, autochthonous ---gt suggests
  clear dividing line based on period of settlement
  (How long does a recently arrived immigrant have
  to reside in a polity to be considered old?
  Sub-divisions of newness? Long-term residents
  gravitate towards old, while old minorities
  can become migrants.)
• Assumption that minority cultures (old or
  new) are something fixed irrespective of grey
  area in between resulting from successive waves
  of migration
• Distinction implies clearly demarcated needs and
  creates hierarchy of status (recent immigrants
  not entitled to same rights as long-established
  groups) esp. problematic in context of
  disintegration of socialist federations
• Despite imprecision international law and policy
  refer to distinction (e.g. Recommendation 1201 of
  the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
  Europe, European Charter for Regional and
  Minority Languages, FCNM)

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Linkages between old and new

• Temporal (minority can be result from earlier
  migration processes)
• Spatial (national minorities and recent immigrant
  communities tend to be geographically
  concentrated)
• Policy (shared concern security, conflict
  potential, inclusion/exclusion,
  non-discrimination, fundamental rights etc.)
• ---gt political stability, social cohesion
  welfare, multi-level governance
• ---gt institutional examples of increasing policy
  interlock OSCE, EU

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Political Stability

• Position of minorities and migrants as an
  important marker of political stability
  (perceived or real position of minorities
  migrants can drive political mobilisation,
  potentially destabilising, citizenship as a
  marker of insider/outsider and the main gateway
  to political rights)

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Social Cohesion Welfare

• Minorities migrants have significant
  implications for social cohesion welfare (at
  level of nation-state and EU) recent immigrants
  concentrated in low-paid jobs, socially
  disadvantaged positions over time either
  socially upwardly mobile or part of ethnic/social
  networks facilitating cohesion national
  minorities can be underdog or privileged)
• Migration commonly seen as challenge for welfare
  state (if narrowly conceptualised as
  nation-state)
• BUT
• Social and economic rights residency criteria
  tackle welfare issues of migrants
• Little evidence for multiculturalism undermining
  welfare states

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Multi-level Governance

• Policy concerns with migrants and minorities cut
  across levels of governance has a sub-national,
  national, international impact
• Migration brings change to sending and receiving
  countries shapes relationship between both
  countries.
• Minority issues can cut across borders and
  involve kin states.
• Position mobilisation of national minorities
  often tied up with local/regional politics.

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Security-Rights-Nexus (Sasse, 2005)

• Research and policy debates on minorities and
  migrants tend to be framed either in terms of
  security or in terms of rights.
• More fruitful reconceptualisation as
  security-rights-nexus (both minorities and
  migrants are tied to security concerns, but they
  can be addressed through rights-based policies
  see OSCE, EU in Eastern Europe).

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Patterns of Migration in CEE/FSU

• Out-migration (e.g. brain-drain)
• Migration within the region or within a country
  (e.g. labour migration, environmental causes,
  IDPs)
• Return migration (e.g. back-migration of
  Soviet-era migrants deported peoples, refugees
  from conflict zones)
• Immigration (e.g. into Poland (see
  http//www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/displ
  ay.cfm?ID302 http//www.focus-migration.de/Polan
  d.1232.0.html?L1 Czech Republic
  (http//www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/cze
  ch_republic.cfm ), Hungary( http//www.migrationin
  formation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID181 )
• Human Trafficking (http//www.migrationinformation
  .org/Feature/display.cfm?ID66 )
• gt temporary vs. permanent migration?
• gt transition context provides incentives for
  (e)migration what are the economic and political
  consequences of voting with ones feet in
  transition context?
• gt at what stage of the transition/consolidation
  process does migration policy become a priority?
• Further reading UNDP newsletter Development
  and Transition, see the archived issues on
  Migration and Gender (http//www.developmentan
  dtransition.net/ )

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Patterns of Politicisation

• Kin-State Activism (e.g. Hungary)
• Political Mobilisation (e.g. by migrants or
  mainstream parties against minorities/migrants)
• Homeland politics (e.g. Poles in the UK)

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Some statistics (Home office May 2004-June 2006)

• 427,000 workers from eight EU accession states
  successfully applied for work in UK
• Over half (62) are Polish
• 82 are aged 18-34
• 56 work in factories
• Anglia region has highest proportion of workers
  (15)

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Policy Patterns inside the EU

• Fear that EU enlargement would lead to race to
  the bottom induced by welfare migration
• gtgt restrictive access to labour markets and
  adjustments of social benefits
• gtgt evidence the least restrictive in terms of
  access to labour market are most active in terms
  of adjusting social policies (e.g. Kvist)
• Paradox why start restricting access to labour
  market and social policy for fellow EU citizens?