Theorizing Postcolonial Ukrainian Nationalisms: The Perspective of Gendered Global Ethnography

• In Event: 3507 - Nations/Nationalisms II

Abstract

A key question in migration studies regards the effects of globalization and transnational migration on the relationship between nations and states. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has become a significant migrant-sending country. Studies of migrant-sending states argue that, in the current era of globalization, sending states deploy national discourses to both manage its population abroad and strengthen the relationship between the nation and the state. Sending states foster long-distance nationalism by celebrating emigrants as “national heroes” and emphasize the obligations and privileges of citizenship. This encourages emigrants to invest in the economic development of their home country through remittances and creates a “transnational nation-state.” Ukraine is an exception to this trend. Instead, the Ukrainian state denounces its emigrants as betrayers of the nation. I explain this finding by developing the concept of a “disarticulated nation-state.” I note that Ukraine is a newly independent country where construction of nation, the formation of state institutions, and even its territorial integrity are contested and influx. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data I collected from Ukrainian migrants and their families in three countries—Ukraine, Italy, and the United States—I show that mass emigration poses a particular set of challenges to Ukraine as a disarticulated nation-state, which, given Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, have new urgency. Analyzing the relations between nations and state in this post-Soviet context will advance theories regarding the gendered intersection of migration and transnational nation-state building as well as theories of postcoloniality.

Author

• Cinzia D Solari, University of Massachusetts Boston