More Than Just Ethnic:Negotiation of Ethnicity through Language among Russian German Re-Settlers and Jewish Refugees from the Former Soviet Union in Germany.

Ethnic Identity;Immigrants;Germany;Russian Germans;Russian Jewish;Humanities;Social Sciences;Linguistics & Germanic Languages & Literatures

Irwin, Vera V.Thomason, Sarah G. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Ethnic Identity;    Immigrants;    Germany;    Russian Germans;    Russian Jewish;    Humanities;    Social Sciences;    Linguistics & Germanic Languages & Literatures;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/62426/veremeev_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation examines processes of ethnic identity negotiation between two Russianspeakingmigrant communities that have a common linguistic background but differ intheir understanding of their ethnicity. By analyzing reports of language use and languageattitudes, this ethnographically-based research investigates how ethnic identity can benegotiated in the absence of a designated ;;ethnic;; language.The analysis is based on sociolinguistic interviews with 38 Russian-German resettlers(Spätaussiedler, SA) and 40 Jewish contingent refugees from the former SovietUnion (Kontingentflüchtlinge, KF) and is supplemented by a quantitative survey. Thestudy demonstrates that in the absence of a distinct in-group code, the negotiation ofethnic positioning in a migrant environment is achieved in part by routinely utilizingcontrasting ideologies about shared linguistic resources.This dissertation adds to an existing body of research on ethnic identity inmigration (Bailey 2000; Giampapa 2001; Lo 1999; Zentella 1997) by uncovering richdynamics of such negotiations not only with respect to the local majority, but even moreso between migrant groups. The SA community is shown to negotiate its positioningtowards the host majority, which becomes especially noteworthy due to this group’shistorically German ethnic background. Simultaneously, as a minority within a minority,the KF community strives to situate itself not only in relation to the host community, butmore so in relation to the ;;other;; Russian-speaking migrant group. Through this process,KF migrants demonstrate an understanding of ethnicity that is tied to characteristics thatare not traditionally seen as ethnic (such as social and educational status), but gain ethnicmeaning in this community. In the process of identity negotiation, the KF minorityapplies this understanding of ethnicity to interpret observed and assumed linguisticbehaviors and language attitudes of the SA group, particularly with respect to issues oflanguage shift, language maintenance and code-mixing practices.By uncovering ideologies that link beliefs about language to locally salient ethniccategorization, this dissertation demonstrates how ethnic distinctiveness is establishedthrough the use of subtle and arbitrary mechanisms, which are not universally tied toethnicity, but acquire their ;;ethnic;; meaning in local negotiations of social positioning.