Minority Building in the German Diaspora: The Hungarian-Germans

Abstract

Issues concerning the statusand rights of ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe have become significant in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A focus on co-nations in neighboring states, “others” in so-called nation-states, and questions of immigration dominate the media in many areas in Europe. Even though ethnic minorities and ethnic identity are part of modern conversation, the subject of ethnic minorities needs to receive serious scholarly attention to demonstrate its nuanced sense of meaning. Like nations, ethnic minorities are not static entities; they are not primordial. They are constructed or imagined in the same way nations are, even though there has been little scholarly attention devoted to minority building. In order to understand the complex meaning of an ethnic minority, one needs to view the creation of a minority—minority building—on different levels, and understand it as members of the minority understand it and as others perceive it.