Citizenship as a cornerstone of civic national identity in Ukraine

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nation-building has been an important and often complicated process in countries like Ukraine, which emerged from ethno-federal communist systems. In Ukraine, a civic approach to national identity has gained support since 2013, but it exists alongside a more ethnic Ukrainian–focused view of national identity. This article focuses on a central element of civic national identity in Ukraine: citizenship. Survey data from both closed-ended and open-ended questions are used to gauge the appeal of a citizenship-based identity and the reasons that respondents view citizenship as an important part of who they are. The results point to a strong connection to citizenship as an identity, and to patterns about which groups of people claim citizenship as an important part of their identity and why. The findings indicate that, if and when a more civic-oriented identity becomes the predominant approach to nation-building in Ukraine, citizenship will be a central part of the process.