Migration, Networks, and Identity Change in Conflict

• In Event: Identity and Attitudes in Times of Political Upheaval

Abstract

Does having friends and family abroad harden, or render more fluid an individual's national or ethnic identity at home? One approach might expect identity to harden, as diasporas abroad cling to romantic visions of the homeland and discourage change. An alternative view posits that regular contact with emigrant family or friends may actually change one’s values, political preferences, and predispositions as the emigrants serve as channels through which the “foreign” dispositions diffuse to the home state. Building on previous work supporting the latter hypothesis, we posit that individuals with friends and family abroad will not only be more likely to match the identity patterns of emigre populations but also will be more likely to have fluid identities. More specifically, we hypothesize that individuals with friends and family who have emigrated will be more susceptible than others to domestic forces that influence self-presentation of one’s own ethno-linguistic identity. To test this hypothesis, we make use of an original purpose-designed survey commissioned by the authors in Ukraine in early 2020. We exploit an experimental design of the execution of our survey whereby a randomly selected set of respondents are primed to have Ukraine’s ongoing conflict in mind when asked what it means to be Ukrainian. We would expect the effects of this treatment to be stronger among those individuals with friends or family abroad than among others, and that this pattern will strengthen with the degree of regularly of ties with emigrant friends and kin. The findings will speak to larger issues regarding the sources of identity stability and change in the face of political turmoil, as well as to literatures on how large-scale migration impacts patterns of political behavior in the home state.

Authors

• Henry E. Hale, George Washington University

• Volodymyr Kulyk, Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

• Olga Onuch, University of Manchester