Ethnicity as a cause of migration in Eastern Europe

Migration within and from Eastern Europe has recently risen as a topic of significance on the European political agenda. One aspect of this complex migration matrix relates to ethnic unrest. This paper examines the scale and spatial ramifications of this movement on a part of the continent recently freed from communist rule.An attempt is made to divide the ethnic quilt of Eastern Europe into those countries with few such problems and those with many. It is possible then to define areas of active migration (hot spots) from those of potential migration (inflammable spots) based on predictions from the current situation.Active ethnic migration results from the present political/military instability in the western Balkans, where refugees have left for other parts of Europe to escape the present Croat-Serb-Muslim conflict. War escalation could encourage potential ethnic migration from Kosovo, the Sandzak and Vojvodina regions,and Macedonia within the former Yugoslavia. Future disquiet elsewhere could stimulate ethnic groups such as the Turks in Bulgaria,and the Hungarian minorities in Slovakia and Romania to join this migration movement scenario.