MYPLACE THEMATIC REPORT CITIZENSHIP
MYPLACE: Aims and Objectives The central research question addressed by the MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy & Civic Engagement) Project is: How is young people s social participation shaped by the shadows of totalitarianism and populism in Europe? Key themes addressed include: Understanding the legacy of totalitarianism and populism; Mapping youth participation and civic engagement; Exploring receptivity to new radical and populist political agendas. Thematic Reports The aim of this series of thematic reports is to present a general Europe wide thematic analysis of young people s views, attitudes and behaviour towards a range of social and political issues. This report focuses content on Citizenship, and will cover the following areas: National identity; Majority/Minority status Pride in current citizenship; Ethnic Nationalism; Civic Nationalism; Ability to speak the national language; Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities. Case study approach The MYPLACE project used a case study approach, using 30 carefully selected research locations (illustrated in Figure 1) which provided within country contrasts in terms of hypothesised receptivity to radical politics. MYPLACE work strands include: Questionnaire survey (N = 16,935, target = 600 per location) of young people aged 16-25; Follow up interviews (N = 903, target = 30 per location with a sub-sample of these young people; 44 ethnographic studies of youth activism, in 6 thematic clusters; Ethnographic observation at 18 sites of memory including expert interviews with staff (N = 73), focus groups with young people (N = 56) and inter-generational interviews (N = 180). Format Each page presents a specific theme and contains descriptive narrative, quotes from interviews and two graphs presenting questionnaire survey data. One graph presents the theme by the 30 research locations (colour coded into clusters of locations). These second graph illustrates a demographic breakdown. Quotes cited as Interviewee emanate from follow up interviews with a subset of the survey sample of young people while those cited as Activist are from young people interviewed as part of the ethnographic case studies. Statistical techniques have been used to construct derived variables (Factor Analysis) and test reliability (Cronbach Alpha or Correlations).
National Identity Figure: Citizenship of the country by location Citizenship typically describes legal political membership and activism as well as non-political involvement in a community and non-political participation based on common values. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to state whether they were a citizen of the country in question. These have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the greatest number of positive responses to the question. The overall average for all locations is 93.3 (n= 16,905, sd = 24.9), demonstrating that the majority of respondents held the citizenship of their country. This varies from Rimavska Sobota (SK) with 100.0 with the highest number of people with citizenship to Narva area (EE) with 59.7 with the lowest number of people with citizenship. I like living here, because at the end of the day this is my home country, we were destined to born here and we are Hungarian citizens. [Interviewee, Hungary] Locations in Slovakia, Georgia and Hungary have the greatest number of people with citizenship. Locations in Estonia, United Kingdom and Spain have the least number of people with citizenship.
Majority/Minority status Figure: Respondents with majority identity status by location The MYPLACE data revealed that individual localities in a country can differ in terms of their residents identity i.e. one location may have more residents identifying as minority than another. However, for some countries this balance was equal across locations. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents a series of questions that were combined to produce a unified category describing a respondent s identity in terms of belonging either to the majority (the dominant nationality and ethnic group/s in the country) or to the minority. This category was based on the following questions: Are you a citizen of your country? What is your country of birth? What is your nationality? What is your ethnic group? The responses have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest number of respondents identifying as part of the majority. The overall average for all locations is 79.6 (n=16,679, sd = 40.2), demonstrating a high number of respondents with majority identity status. This varies from Trnava (SK) with 98.92 with the highest number of people belonging to the majority to Narva area (EE), 9.4 with the lowest number. Locations in Slovakia, Georgia and Russia have the highest number of people identifying as part of the majority. Locations in Estonia, United Kingdom and Latvia have the lowest number. They are some, actually honest working foreign people in this country [ ]the bloke that was running that post office across the road were, he was doing it for 30 years, one of the most amazing blokes you d ever meet // // I couldn t imagine him getting kicked out of the country, he wouldn t deserve it // // I mean it s a lot of honest hard working Indians, and some Polish and that but there are, the ones that are taking advantage, yes, I would definitely say you abusing it [ ] [Interviewee, UK]
Figure: Level of pride in citizenship by location Pride in current citizenship Pride in one s citizenship is determined by attitude towards power structures, the state and through consideration of what constitutes an ideal place to live. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to indicate how proud they were of their current citizenship, ranging from very proud to not at all proud. These responses have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of pride. The overall average for all locations is 70.3 (n=16,349, sd = 29.0), demonstrating fairly high levels of pride amongst respondents. This varies from Kutaisi (GE) with 93.4 with the highest levels of pride to Vic (ES), 41.4 with the lowest levels of pride. Locations in Georgia, Finland and Greece have the highest levels of pride in citizenship compared with locations in Spain, Latvia and Germany (East) where pride is at the lowest.
Ethnic nationalism Figure: Level of ethnic nationalism by location The probability of ethnic nationalism is increased amongst those who identify as being part of the majority i.e. have citizenship and belong to the dominant ethnicity. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to rate the importance of four ideas that may relate to citizenship. Of these ideas, two in particular were defined as indicators of an ethnic interpretation of national identity: To have been born in [COUNTRY] and To have at least one [COUNTRY] parent. The ratings for these two ideas were combined to indicate an overall attitude to ethnic nationalism, which is represented on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of ethnic nationalism. The overall average for all locations is 60.9 (n=16,770, sd = 29.2), demonstrating fairly high levels of ethnic nationalism. This varies from Vyborg (RU), with 80.4, with the highest levels of ethnic nationalism to Bremen (DE-W), 36.5 with the lowest levels. Locations in Russia, Slovakia and Greece have the highest levels of ethnic nationalism. Germany (East and West) and Denmark have the lowest levels.
Figure: Level of civic nationalism by location. Civic nationalism In the past, it has been typical to view Western countries in terms of their civic interpretation of nationalism. Continuing the discussion of the four ideas relating to citizenship, the MYPLACE survey asked respondents to rate the following idea in terms of importance for citizenship: To respect [COUNTRY] political institutions and laws. This idea represents a civic interpretation of nationalism. The responses have been used to create a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest level of civic nationalism. The overall average for all locations is 79.3 (n=16,803, sd = 24.3), demonstrating high levels of civic nationalism. This varies from Odense Center (DK), 91.8 with the highest levels of civic nationalism to Forstate and Jaunbuve (LV), 64.6 with the lowest levels. Locations in Denmark, Greece and Germany (West) have the highest levels of civic nationalism. Locations in Latvia, Spain and Croatia have the lowest levels.
Ability to speak the national language Figure: Belief in the importance of being able to speak the national language by location In terms of ethnic versus civic nationalism, ability to speak a national language falls in between the two as a language can be learnt regardless of a person s origin. It is therefore interesting to examine the importance young people place on having knowledge of a national language. The final idea relating to citizenship presented in the MYPLACE survey concerned evaluating the importance of citizens being able to speak the national language of the country in question: To be able to speak [THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE]. The responses have been plotted on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the strongest belief that this is an important aspect of citizenship. The overall average for all locations is 80.8 (n=16 875, sd = 22.9), demonstrating high levels of belief in the importance of speaking the national language. This varies from Tartu (EE), 91.5, with the highest levels of belief in this aspect of citizenship to Forstate and Jaunbuve (LV), 56.2 with the lowest levels. Locations in Estonia (the first location) Germany (West) and Greece have the greatest belief that being able to speak the national language is an important aspect of citizenship. Locations in Latvia, Estonia (the second location) and Spain believe this the least.
Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities (Part A) Figure: Agreement that the import of foreign products should be limited in order to protect the national economy by location Researchers have discussed the devaluation of sovereignty that takes place as a result of globalisation. MYPLACE generated interesting data by exploring young people s attitudes to various issues of national sovereignty and external influences, resources and so on. The MYPLACE survey presented five statements relating to national sovereignty and externalities and asked respondents to consider to what extent they agreed or disagreed with these statements. The first statement was [COUNTRY] should limit the import of foreign products in order to protect its national economy. The responses have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of agreement with this statement. The overall average for all locations is 55.6 (n=16,394, sd = 29.2), demonstrating a moderate level of agreement with the statement. This varies from Argyroupouli (GR), 79.6 with the highest level of agreement to Jena (DE-E), 30.2 with the lowest level of agreement. Locations in Greece, Slovakia and Croatia agree the most that the national economy should be protected by limiting the import of foreign products compared with locations in Germany (East and West) and Finland who believe this the least.
Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities (Part B) Figure: Agreement that the availability of foreign films, music and books greatly contributes to the country s national culture by location With regard to embracing different cultural resources from other countries, young people in post-soviet countries are clearly most sceptical of what benefits this brings to their national culture. The MYPLACE survey presented the second statement relating to national sovereignty and externalities and asked respondents whether they agree or disagree that The availability of foreign films, music, and books greatly contributes to (COUNTRY S) national culture. The responses have been plotted on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 indicating the highest level of agreement with this statement. The overall average for all locations is 63.3 (n=16,517, sd = 25.5), demonstrating relatively high levels of belief that foreign films, music and books greatly contributes to the national culture. This varies from Barreiro (PT) with 74.4 with the highest level of agreement with this statement to Vyborg (RU), 52.9 with the lowest level. Locations in Portugal, United Kingdom and Germany (West) agree the most that foreign films, music and books contribute to national culture. Locations in Russia, Estonia and Slovakia believe this the least.
Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities (Part C) Figure: Agreement that the country should follow its own interests, even if this leads to conflicts with other nations by location The concept of citizenship is often viewed in its most basic terms as us and them. When following one s own interests can lead to conflicts with other countries, how do young people view this relationship with the other? The third statement concerning national sovereignty and externalities that was presented by the MYPLACE survey addressed issues of a country s own interests and conflict with others: [COUNTRY] should follow its own interests, even if this leads to conflicts with other nations. Responses to this statement have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 indicating the highest level of agreement with this statement. The overall average for all locations is 56.1 (n=16,473, sd = 28.3), demonstrating moderate levels of agreement that a country should follow its own interests even if this leads to conflicts with others. This varies from New Philadelphia (GR) with 79.2 with the highest level of agreement to Narva area (EE), 36.9 with the lowest level of agreement. Locations in Greece, Georgia and Hungary have the highest level of belief that a country should follow its own interests even if this leads to conflicts. Locations in Estonia, Spain and Germany (West) agree with this the least.
Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities (Part D) Figure: Agreement that foreigners should not be allowed to buy land by location The definition of us and them raises questions surrounding what rights are afforded to particular groups of the population. The fourth statement presented in the MYPLACE survey in order to explore attitudes to national sovereignty and externalities was: Foreigners should not be allowed to buy land in [COUNTRY]. Again, respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with this statement from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The responses have been plotted on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of agreement with this statement. The overall average for all locations is 43.5 (n=16,396, sd = 30.9). This varies from Ozd (HU), 70.8 with the highest level of agreement with this statement to Jena (DE-E), 12.4 with the lowest level of agreement. Locations in Hungary, Finland and Russia have the highest levels of agreement that foreigners should not be able to buy land compared with Germany (East and West) and Denmark, which have the lowest levels.
Attitudes towards national sovereignty and externalities (Part E) Figure: Agreement that membership of the European Union greatly benefits the country by location A model based on the MYPLACE data shows that an increase in life satisfaction leads to an increase in support for a country being part of the EU. The final statement relating to national sovereignty and externalities that was presented in the MYPLACE survey concerned membership of the European Union. As several of the participating countries are not currently part of the EU, the following statement was only presented to respondents living in current EU member states: Membership of the European Union greatly benefits this country. The responses have been plotted on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 indicating the highest level of discrimination or insecurity. The overall average for all locations is 58.8 (n=14, 031, sd = 25.6), demonstrating moderate levels of belief that EU membership is of great benefit to the country. This varies from Jena (DE-E) with 71.1 with the highest level of agreement with the statement to New Philadelphia (GR), 44.8 with the lowest level of agreement. Locations in Germany (East and West), and Spain have the highest level of agreement with the statement that EU membership greatly benefits the country. Locations in Greece, Hungary and Croatia have the lowest levels of agreement.
MYPLACE Partners General Acknowledgement We would like to thank the young people across Europe who participated in this study, all the fieldworkers and the various public, private and voluntary organisations who supported the fieldwork. We hope to have done justice to the collective efforts of so many people in our analyses. Without funding under the EU s Framework 7 programme none of this work would have been possible.