Ethnic and economic regions in Slovakia: A statistical and visual exploration of contemporary patterns

When Czechoslovakia was formed after World War I from the remains of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the national boundaries imposed at the time did not accurately portray the areal extent of some ethnic groups. This was particularly true for the Hungarian minority which was established along the southern border of Slovakia. Because of this boundary arrangement, ethnic and economic divisions have resulted within Czechoslovakia and have continued in the new state of Slovakia. This paper analyzes the contemporary regional extent of the major ethnic groups in Slovakia at the district and commune levels. It also analyzes these ethnic patterns in light of a number of economic characteristics. Methods include mapping and analysis of various statistical tests using 1991 Czechoslovak census data. A strong relationship between Hungarian communes and agricultural employment is shown as well as a connection between employment in industry and Slovak ethnic regions. These findings suggest that the Hungarian minority has experienced a substantial geopolitical shift from the group in power to a peripheral society within Slovakia that continues to exhibit higher levels of agricultural reliance than the majority of ethnic Slovakian regions.     

Developing support structures for ethnic minorities in Slovakia

Ethnic minorities are facing increasing problems of social exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe. The complex nature of the transition from socialism means that the institutional framework to support them is still being established. Whilst non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have a crucial role to play in promoting a more inclusive society, through improving access to local democratic structures for otherwise excluded groups and acting as fora for improved community participation throughout the region, their development remains fraught with problems. Examination of the experiences of one such organisation, ETNO Agentura based in northern Slovakia, provides an insight into the problems and opportunities arising as community representatives work together to provide social support for ethnic minorities. The paper outlines key issues arising from the case of ETNO Agentura, including difficulty in gaining access to supporting finance and securing long term financial viability, the lack of institutional capacity of local authorities to become receptive to their views, and implicit socio-cultural barriers to ethnic minority representation in community participation processes. Developing a fuller understanding of these problems and the measures required to overcome them is a central part of establishing a more effective role for NGOs within post socialist societies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Ethnic Enclave Reconfiguration: A ‘new’ Chinatown in the Making

Years of past research on traditional Chinatowns were based on the assumption that Chinatown is an ethnic enclave for a single ethnic minority, i.e. the Chinese. In recent years, one could observe significant changes over Chinatowns in terms of more Vietnamese presence. Yet, the transition process as an object of study is much under-represented in the literature on ethnic enclaves. Looking at ethnic business transition from Hong Kong to Vietnamese in Toronto’s Chinatown West, this paper argues strongly that ‘multiple ethnicity’ can coexist in an enclave. For this case study, the Chinatown is being reconfigured into a ‘new’ Chinatown. Drawing upon data from the authors’ Vietnamese Business Database that covers information between 1983 and 2003, we present both spatial and temporal analyses that offer insights into how the Vietnamese businesses grow through time. Our findings support the existence of a Vietnamization process in Toronto Chinatown West. However, its evolution is still in an infant stage. In some aspects, the incoming Vietnamese businesses display similarities with the remaining Hong Kong businesses. In sum, a total reconfiguration of Chinatown West in form and business nature is still unaccomplished. The conventional enclave concept which bases on the singularity of ethnic group has to be abandoned in view of rising occurrence of ethnic transition, particularly in this globalizing era.     

Whose neighbourhood is it? Ethnic diversity in urban spaces in Germany

This article focuses on the reciprocal effects that exist between the physical environment and the social interactions between ethno-cultural groups in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Biographical narrative interviews and mental map analyses were carried out with German and Turkish residents in two disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Germany to define the resident's own experience of their physical surroundings.The findings of the research verify that the changes in the environment were not only physical and structural changes: they also led to changing identities having a symbolic meaning for the established German residents. As the Turkish residents work to create a sense of identity, the established residents view these changes more as a threat than as an enrichment. They do not so much feel threatened by the cultural differences between the groups, but they sense that their own `old-time' German socio-cultural position could be affected by the establishment of Turkisch residences and institutions in `their' neighbourhood. The empirical research revealed differences in the ethno-cultural perceptions between Duisburgh-Marxloh where there is a pronounced small-scale segregation between the groups, whereas there is a small-scale mix of different ethnic groups even at the block level in the other area investigated in Wuppertal-Osterbaum. Although both areas have a high percentage of ethnic minorities the small-scale mix in Wuppertal-Ostersbaum seems to have prevented a polarisation in the population.     

Mapping ethnic diversity in highland Northern Vietnam

In this paper we initially present a critical review of a range of ethnological maps produced over the last 130 years for highland northern Vietnam. In particular we illustrate the many difficulties faced when trying to represent mosaics of ethnic highland minority groups on two dimensional maps. Such historical maps included no attempts to bring topographic details into the picture, an idea that would have been virtually impossible anyway, given the cartographic technologies at the time. Yet by not including such details or not representing them clearly, a partial image of these populations has been created that, over time, has become a standardised representation. Therefore, as a more systematic approach to the analysis of these highland minority groups, we present recent attempts to create more functional maps and models for the northern Vietnam province of Lao Cai, using modern cartographic techniques and geographic information systems. Utilising tools such as digital cartography and digital elevation models a wealth of information can be gained which has the potential, amongst other possible uses, to allow for a greater understanding and sensitivity regarding ethnic minority groups in Northern Vietnam, and their use of the local environment. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nationalities of Slovenia — changing ethnic structures in Central Europe

The ethnic structure of Slovenia has in recent decades changed dramatically due to the geo-political rearrangements in Central Europe and due to the socio-economic developments in former Yugoslavia. The mixed, dark-age based ethnic pattern was at first eliminated to be replaced by a similar level of multi-ethnicity of a different origin recently. Ethnic groups of mostly Slavic (Croat, Muslim, Serb) origin have in the past couple of decades migrated to urban centers of Slovenia, thus replacing there former German and Italian minority population. Problems of attitudinal, cultural, social and linguistic nature emerge and impact the poli-structured cultural landscape of the independent nation-state.     

Policy towards the Diaspora and Ethnic (Return) Migration: An Estonian case

This article examines the Estonian diaspora-policy and ethnic (return) migration from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to Estonia in the 1990s. Ethnic migration to re-independent Estonia began in 1992, when the Estonian government evacuated 170 ethnic Estonians from areas caught up in the Georgian-Abkhazian war. Along with this was created the institutional framework for receiving ethnic migrants from crisis areas of the CIS. Later, support and facilities were also granted to ethnic Estonians migrating from elsewhere in the CIS. As a result, about 1,200 ethnic Estonians from the CIS settled in Estonia in 1992–1996. The research supports that ethnic migration is a phenomenon in which the state policy plays a decisive role both in inducing migration and in selecting those who are granted the right to relocate.     

Burning issues: Whiteness, rurality and the politics of difference

In the past decade geographers have critiqued the exclusivity of idyllic representations of rurality and sought to explore the diverse experiences of Other social groups in the countryside. This paper builds upon that small but significant strand of research which has highlighted the whiteness of representations of rurality and the consequences of this for racialised minorities. These debates have been crucially important in forwarding our understanding of racially-exclusive constructions of idyllic country living; however, it is important that academics neither assume that such ideas are forever fixed, nor that they affect all minority ethnic groups in the same ways. This paper takes both the potential power and frailty of these ideas seriously, as it examines how the concepts of race, racism and rurality are deployed by different commentators as they debate the place of one specific minority ethnic group in the English countryside. The route taken into this is a consideration of print-media reporting of events in Firle, Sussex, where, in 2003, some white rural residents symbolically purged their village of Gypsy-Travellers by burning a mock caravan complete with effigies at their annual bonfire celebrations. In conclusion, the paper challenges the relative lack of attention to these issues within the white-dominated discipline of geography, and argues that it is imperative to trace the dynamic ways in which the whiteness of idyllic understandings of the rural are reinforced and challenged through contemporary social practice.     

Social Network Approach to Understand the Ethnic Economy: A Theoretical Discourse<Superscript>1</Superscript>

In this paper we suggest how social network analysis, in contrast to looking at physical space, can be used to trace the social and economic location of ethnic enclaves. Taking skilled workers immigrating to Canada from China as an example, we analyze critically how split labor market theories describe materialist and structural factors that determine immigrants’ limited options. Cultural theories play up immigrants’ interest in using their cultural resources to pull themselves ahead. We propose that social network analysis as a single framework can bring together elements from materialist–structural and cultural theories. The position of people and firms in these networks gives us a view of the kinds of jobs immigrants get and the businesses they set up. To understand the ethnic economy, we discuss how networks of social and economic relations intersect each other. By seeing the ethnic economy embedded in social networks, we can provide a more general explanation of the social space of the ethnic economy in contrast to its physical location. We use three cases of ethnic entrepreneurs to illustrate how the social and economic relations locate their businesses in the enclave and how they are also linked to the mainstream economy. ¹This paper has benefitted from the critical clarifications of Chiu Luk and an anonymous reviewer, and the talented editing of Allen Sutterfield. Lynn Xu Liping helped on an earlier draft.     

Voting and borderland minorities: Recent Italian elections and the Slovene minority in eastern Fiuli-Venezia Giulia

This article seeks to link electoral behavior and borderland ethnic minority patterns. Results of the November 1993 mayoral election in Trieste, and the March 1994 and April 1996 national elections in Italy are studied in reference to the distribution of the Slovene minority in Northeastern Italy, specifically in the eastern part of the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia adjoining the boundary with Slovenia. The history of this borderland is rampant with conflict and territorial sovereignty changes. Recent events – the end of the Cold War, the breakup of Yugoslavia and independence of Slovenia, and the collapse of the Italian political party system – have served both to ease traditional tensions but also to exacerbate ethnic relations between Italians and the Slovene minority. The impact of Italian electoral reform and political party reformulation on the region is examined. Specifically, Mayor Illy's election in the city of Trieste in 1993 and voting patterns in the borderland Goriziano district of the Italian Senate for both the 1994 and 1996 elections are studied in some detail. The article concludes that while electoral campaigns and election results are marked with ethnic confrontation and contrasts, evidence suggests that, despite continuing nationalist tendencies, greater understanding and cooperation between Italians and Slovenes are emerging.     

Shifting frames for local people and forests in a global heritage: the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in the context of Thailand’s globalization and modernization

Focusing on the case of the World Heritage Site and Wildlife Sanctuary Thung Yai Naresuan, the paper sketches the interdependences of international and national forest and conservation policies in Thailand since the middle of the 19th century. In the context of Thailand’s globalization and modernization, these policies resulted in a coercing conservationism which focuses increasingly on the so-called ‘hill tribe’ ethnic minority groups. The shifting cultural and political framings of the area that became a national wildlife sanctuary and a ‘global heritage’ reflect external economic, political, and ideological interests. The people of the Karen ethnic minority group who live in the sanctuary are conceived of as a disruptive factor and never have had a chance to participate in these framings. After the designation of the area as a World Heritage Site, the remaining villages face increasing pressure from the Royal Forest Department which is trying to remove them with the help of the Military. Drawing on the different vested interests and the relativity of cultural conceptualizations, the paper questions the external framing, pointing to three major problems that are raised with regard to Thung Yai, but are symptomatic of modern conservationism at large: inconsistencies between normative claims and political practice; distortions of scale between conceptions designed at different levels of social space from the local to the global, and; the problem to reconcile conflicting cultural patterns and conceptualizations. The paper argues for a reframing of the conflict to conceive the Karen in Thung Yai as an integral part of the ‘global heritage’.     

Environmental inequalities in New Zealand: A national study of air pollution and environmental justice

Research has established that many socially deprived, low income and ethnic minority communities are exposed to disproportionately high levels of outdoor air pollution. Whilst there is a burgeoning literature documenting these environmental disparities, most previous studies have taken place in North America and few researchers have examined local scale variations across an entire country. Further, there has been little work systematically evaluating disparities in the local exposure to air pollution from different sources. In this New Zealand research we use mean annual estimates of outdoor particulate air pollution for different sources for neighbourhoods across urban New Zealand to evaluate whether air pollution varies between local areas of differing socioeconomic circumstances. We find that outdoor pollution levels are higher in socially deprived areas (using a neighbourhood measure of disadvantage) and neighbourhoods with a high proportion of low income households. However, although ethnicity was also related to mean total pollution, levels were elevated in areas where the proportion European was higher and other ethnic groups (including Māori) were lower. We also find that the disparities in pollution levels are specific to the pollution source. The results are discussed in the context of the policy framework in New Zealand, including the tensions fashioned by the Resource Management Act 1991, which have effectively ‘desocialised’ environmental concerns. We argue that the regulatory framework is fixated on ‘environmental bottom lines’ rather than social concerns that are integral to the environmental justice framework. Some priorities for future research into environmental justice in New Zealand are also considered.     

Using spatial statistics to identify and characterise ethnoburbs: establishing a methodology using the example of Auckland,New Zealand

Recent studies in the United States and other Pacific Rim countries have identified a new form of ethnic minority group clustering within the residential mosaic—ethnoburbs. These are suburban in location, occupied by relatively high-income, predominantly Asian, immigrants, and low density in their nature: many migrants move directly to those suburbs rather than the inter-generational outward migration from central city clusters typical of other migrant streams. Although ethnoburb residents tend to cluster in particular segments of the built-up area they do not to form large percentages of the population there. As yet, no methodology has been developed to identify these clusters, as a prelude to identifying their characteristics. This paper offers such a procedure, based on local statistical analysis. It is applied to six Asian groups in Auckland, New Zealand.     

At what price rice? Food security,livelihood vulnerability,and state interventions in upland northern Vietnam

In the northern uplands of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the state is taking dramatic steps to (re)configure agricultural production through the introduction and subsidisation of hybrid rice and maize seeds. These require yearly cash investments and access to state supplied inputs, a far cry from earlier upland ethnic minority livelihood strategies. In this paper we develop a conceptual framework that brings together an actor-oriented livelihoods approach with concepts from everyday politics and resistance, to examine the relations now at play as ethnic minorities, namely Hmong and Yao households in Lào Cai province, react to the introduction of these hybrid seeds, negotiate with the state over their use, and contest and subtly resist the wholesale adoption of this programme. Our framework takes us beyond an investigation into financial benefits and yields, to focus upon the social, cultural and political aspects inherent in upland farmer decision-making regarding state interventions. Our findings reveal that such agricultural programmes have resulted in new food insecurities and vulnerabilities overlaying more established concerns. Yet in turn, ethnic minority households evaluate these innovations according to their own terms, and have responded by negotiating, accommodating, and also contesting the state’s initiatives using creative and innovative everyday politics and livelihood strategies. In so doing, they have worked to maintain autonomy over choices and decision-making vis-à-vis the economic, social and cultural reproduction of their household units; a delicate balancing act in a socialist state.     

Indigenous Finnic population of NW Russia

In the Middle Ages, before the colonization of eastern Slaves, the area between the Upper Volga and the White Sea was settled bv Finno-Ugric population. In the northern belt lived Sami (Lapp), in the southern Vepsian, Karelian and other Baltic-Finnic tribes. Those peoples were baptized by the Russian orthodox church and incorporated into the Russian state. As a result of Russian-Swedish wars Karelia was divided and split up and Karelians were dispersed. At the beginning of the Soviet period national territorial divisions were organized for the largest groups of Karelians in Eastern and Tver Karelia. Certain territorial divisions were also established for the Vepsians and the Kola Sami. Nowadays, after half a century (about 1937–1987) of Russification and social oppression, all these minority groups are rebuilding their ethnic identity and cultural institutions. Due to earlier repressions and the assimilation policy of Soviet power, the viability of these ethnic minorities is still smaller than it was before World War II. While the numbers of Karelians and Vepsians in the 1930s were 250,000 and 35,000 respectively, but in 1989, the numbers were only 124,900 and 12,100. The total number of the Russian Sami (approximately 1,800) has not changed but the role of the Sami in the Kola Lapland is now insignificant.     

内陆河流域城镇发展的历史过程与机制——以黑河流域为例

城市的起源与形成是一个极其复杂而漫长的过程,是诸文明要素积累凝聚、从量变到质变的过程.黑河流域的城市大致经历了五个发展阶段:秦汉以前的城市萌芽,两汉时期的奠基期,十六国时期、隋唐时期的第二高峰期,宋以后的衰落期,直到明清以后城市再度复苏.在这一变化过程中,移民屯垦、兴修水利、农牧业的消长与进退、人口迁移与聚集、地缘政治和自然环境的变化是城镇发育与成长的主要驱动力.其中,又蕴含了两个相互交错的正负效应:汉民族的西扩—统一的国家—稳定的地缘政治关系—移民屯垦—兴修水利—农业繁荣—气候暖湿—城镇发展;少数民族东进—地方割据—复杂动荡的地缘政治环境—牧业扩张—气候干冷—沙漠化扩大—城镇衰退.其实质是在特定的地理环境和民族分布格局下,对优势生存空间的争夺.     

Ethnic and political identities and territorialities in the post-Soviet space

The author examines some specific features and the post-Soviet changes of ethnic and political identities. He stresses the existence of supranational, mixed, blurred and `hierarchical' identities and of the complicated overlapping of national (political) and ethnic identities. Factors influencing their evolution in the context of nation- and state-building in the Russian Federation and in the other former Soviet republics are analyzed: language policy, creation of the national informational space, invention of national myths and stereotypes, and economic leverages used by ethnic political elites.     

Multi-national iconographies in Macedonia

The authority of Marshall Tito and his newly crafted iconography of `brotherhood and unity' temporarily marginalized the ethnic deographies of the peoples in the Yugoslav Federation. In the 1990s this Yugoslavia was run over by time. The Republic of Macedonia was among the newly emerging states. In Macedonia the multi-ethnic mosaic was complicated by the confusion of old and new iconographic impulses. In 2001 the Macedonian crisis developed as a result of the spread of the new regional Albanian identity spread by the domino effect to the areas with mixed population in the Balkans after the events in Kosovo. Differences between Macedonians and Albanians are analyzed in terms of family structure, religion and ethnic and national affiliation. The politics based on these cleavages and their ensuing, contested iconographies are set out.     

National minorities in the Republic of Croatia

As of 1991, in the Republic of Croatia 16 percent of the total population was made up of national minorities. A large part of this figure consists of minrity nations who are the descendants of settlers from the era of Ottoman conquest during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Austrian colonization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and partially due to inter-republic migrations during the existence of the Yugoslav state.The most numerous national minority in 1991 were the Serbs (582,000, or 12.16% of the total population). The Serbian national minority is scattered throughout the Croatian state, so that in Croatia there is no integral Serbian ethnic territory. The other national minorities in Croatia are much smaller in number (Bosnian Muslims, 43,000; Slovenes, 22,000; Hungarians, 22,000; Italians, 21,000; Czechs, 13,000; Albanians, 12,000; etc.).The conflicts provoked by Greater Serbian politics and the wartime aggression against Croatia resulted in migrations, the consequence of which is the reduction in the number of the Serbian national minority in the Republic of Croatia.