The Russian Language Outside the Nation

Abstract

Ethnolinguistic vitality is a property that expresses a group’s potential to act collectively in intergroup settings. High vitality groups have positive collective self-esteem; they maintain their linguistic and ethnic identity well. Low vitality groups have low level collective activity and a tendency towards assimilation. Acculturation orientations of minorities express their beliefs and dispositions about maintaining their heritage culture and adopting the values of the host society. Acculturation orientations are directly related to ethnolinguistic vitality. The higher the vitality of a particular ethnic minority group, the more its members express a tendency towards building their own ethnic social environment, which is manifested in ethnic separation or segregation. Members of groups with medium vitality maintain their heritage culture as well as participating in the majority culture. If a group has low vitality, its members seek to assimilate to the majority culture or, if that is not possible, they are marginalized. The current paper presents the results of a large-scale quantitative study of the ethnolinguistic vitality of the Russian-speaking community in Estonia, triangulated with the results of qualitative focus-group interviews that shed light on acculturation orientations, identity construction and intergroup attitudes of Estonian Russian-speakers. The quantitative study revealed that the Russian-speaking community is not homogeneous in terms of ethnolinguistic vitality. Altogether, five clusters with different vitality profiles emerged, ranging from a low vitality cluster to a cluster which had distinctively high vitality. The socio-demographic profiles of different clusters showed that age, educational and occupational profile, citizenship and place of residence have impacts on vitality and identity construction strategies. The qualitative focus group interviews provided more substantial information of how the respondents belonging to different vitality clusters orient towards their heritage culture and Estonian society, how they forecast their ethnic identity dynamics over time and how they see interethnic relations developing in Estonia. Both qualitative and quantitative data revealed that the intensity of intergroup contact and professional advancement are the major factors that shape the acculturation orientations of the Russian-speaking community in Estonia, modifying their vitality profile.