Others, the Nation, and its (Dis)integration in ‘European’ Lithuania

Abstract

As in other member states of the European Union, in post-socialist Lithuania lofty ideals of pan-continental ‘integration’ are countered by local understandings of what constitutes belonging and togetherness. Rather than unquestioningly embracing the idea of the European supranation, many Lithuanians reassert their national selves and adopt an increasingly critical stance towards grand projects intended to create continental oneness. What politicians in Vilnius and bureaucrats in Brussels prescribe as integration many see as a threat to the integrity of the nation. In daily social life, for many this perceived threat is embodied by various ethnic ‘others’ who have recently settled in Lithuania as mostly economic migrants from so-called third countries. Using interviews and materials from print and electronic media collected in 2008–2009, this article examines popular perceptions of such ‘others’. It is proposed that heightened awareness of, and defensive (or offensive) dispositions toward, persons conceptualized as ‘other’ should be investigated at the intersection with the EU's agendas of supranational integration. The article further suggests that in ‘European’ Lithuania predominantly negative stances vis-à-vis people thought of as alien to the nation can be viewed as a response to broader processes of unsettling change brought about by EU expansionism and its policies promoting pan-continental unity.