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Abstract
Identity has been treated in relevant literature predominantly as a dynamic, fluid, multidimensional, and ongoing process. Currently, identity is viewed as a process, as something achieved, and as a product of social relations. Scholars have acknowledged that members of minorities and diasporas can have very complex multiple identities, which are both dependent on social context and changeable over time. This article explores the national and ethnic identifications of Slovaks living in Serbia. Its main objective is to examine how the members of the Slovak diaspora identify themselves and what kind of national and ethnic awareness and pride they hold. As well, this paper explores their opinions and attitudes on language and cultural identity. This study used a web-based survey and basic statistics. The results of the explorative study indicate that members of the Slovak diaspora living in Serbia have multiple identities that coexist, do not conflict, and vary in their importance for respondents. Distinct national and ethnic identifications are perceived in different ways and have divergent emotional intensities. This study proposes further research on the importance of civic and ethnic values and on different perceptions of identity, citizenship, length of residency, and minority rights for collective identifications of minorities and/or diasporas.
Notes
1. Encyclopedia of Political Theory, 376–377.
2. The dominant religion in Serbia is Orthodox Christianity (84.6%), followed by Catholicism (5%), Islam (3%), Protestantism (1%), and other religions. “Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova 2011. u Republici Srbiji. Stanovništvo. Veroispovest, maternji jezik i nacionalna pripadnost. Podaci po opštinama i gradovima.”
3. The official and most widely used language is Serbian; about 88% of people have it as their mother tongue. The official script is Cyrillic. Other recognized and traditionally used minority languages and scripts in Serbia are Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Bunjevac, Vlach, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Romani, Romanian, Ruthenian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Croatian, and Czech. In APV (Vojvodina) six languages are in official use: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Croatian, Romanian, and Ruthenian.
4. The largest ethnic group is Serbian, constituting 83.3% of the population. Of the ethnic minorities, the largest is Hungarian (3.5%), followed by the Roma (2.1%) and Bosniak communities (2%). Other ethnicities constitute less than 1% of the population.
5. Republički zavod za statistiku. “Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova 2011. u Republici Srbiji.” Republički zavod za statistiku.
6. Designation as Kosovo is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
7. Republički zavod za statistiku. “Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova 2011. u Republici Srbiji. Stanovništvo. Nacionalna pripadnost. Podaci po opštinama i gradovima.” Republički zavod za statistiku.
8. Of 31 ethnic groups in Serbia only seven have grown: Goranci, Russians, Yugoslavs, Bosniaks, Albanians, Muslims, and Roma. Djurić et al. 2014.
9. There are 21 national councils of national minorities registered in Serbia. These national minorities established their councils in the following chronological order: Hungarian, Croatian, Ruthenian, Slovak, Romanian, Ukrainian, Roma, Bunjevci, Bosniak, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian, Egyptian, Vlach, German, Slovenian, Czech, Albanian, Askhali, Jewish, and Montenegrin. Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave. “Izvod iz registra nacionalnih saveta nacionalnih manjina.” Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave.
10. I use the term “place” here rather than countries or states, because migration started long before the establishment of modern states and the Westphalian nation-state system.
11. In her definition of ethnic identity, Chandra (Citation2012) uses only membership rule, namely descent-based attributes or attributes believed to be associated with descent that determine eligibility for membership.
12. Oxford Dictionaries.
13. Slovak diaspora defined as a category in this study includes ethnic Slovaks living in Serbia, whether citizens of Serbia or elsewhere (Slovakia, among other possibilities).
14. The number of voters listed in a special electoral register of the Slovak national minority for elections for Slovak minority council was 31,196 and the actual number who voted in the minority elections was 9682, or 31% of those registered. Izveštaj o ukupnim rezultatima izbora za članove Nacionalnog saveta Slovačke nacionalne manjine. There are no available data on the structure of the registered individuals in these special minority electoral register.
15. In all of the censuses from 1948 to 2011 particular attention was paid to the ethnic features of the population in former Yugoslavia and Serbia. The respondents could declare their ethnic belonging freely and based on self-identification. Information was obtained from Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (February 25, 2016) by email.
16. Ustav republike Srbije, Službeni glasnik RS, broj 98/2006.
17. Basic statistics means that each answer choice is assigned a numeric value. The lowest and highest value (answer choice) selected by at least one respondent are marked as the minimum and maximum. The average of all responses is labeled as the mean. The midpoint at which all responses are evenly divided above or below is called the median. The amount of spread or distance from the mean is called the standard deviation.
18. Respondents according to demographic location: Nový Sad- Kysáč, Báčsky Petrovec, Kovačica, Hložany, Kulpín, Stará Pazova, Erdevík, Šíd, Silbaš, Báčska Palanka, Pančevo, Vojlovica, Selenča, Laliť, Aradáč, Beočín, Padina, Belehrad, Jánošík, Pivnica, Čelárevo.