Ethnic Experience and Politics of Ethnicity in a Globalized Environment

Abstract

This paper explores the question of ethnic place/identity negotiation, as well as ethnic minority experiences shaped by globalization processes in the post-1989 national and (East) European space. Using a cultural lens, this qualitative study first examines how the place and positioning of ethnic minorities are defined in the context of the national cultural space today, as reflected in the national policy on minority rights. While consistent with the European norms of ethnic minority rights protection, I argue that the meaning of these rights remains contested at the policy level today through the use of a discourse embedded in the essentialist view of culture and fixed cultural boundaries. Using the case of the Ukrainian community in Poland, this article demonstrates how Ukrainian youth make sense of their ethnic minority experiences shaped by globalization processes, and how they negotiate their personal ethnocultural space and identity in ways that contest politically manipulated cultural boundaries and blur cultural differences.