Patterns of Exclusion and Inclusion: Resilient or Reactive National Identity in EU?

While ever closer union has remained the political goal in EU, member states and their citizens struggle with meaningfully filling the term „European identity”, on the expense of “national identity”. For EU-15, the gradual and phased integration builds on different logic than for the new member states. Controversy between previous inclusive „imperial” identity and exclusive ethno-national identity is a challenge for the development of common European identity in countries with post-soviet past. How does this experience shape the understanding of national identities?

To answer this question, the paper is based on empirical material from cross-sectional cross-national quantitative survey on national identity, carried out in 1995, 2003 and 2013 within the International Social Survey Programme. We will conduct comparative analysis across countries and over time, focusing on two pairs of countries: post-soviet EU member states Estonia and Latvia, and social democratic EU member states Finland and Sweden. While acknowledging differences in those societal and national settings, we assume cultural, historic, geographical, and other similarities. Therefore, the question of impact of EU membership on the structure and strength of national identity becomes relevant. Finland and Sweden joined EU in 1995 and had by 2003 been in the EU 8 years - about the same time as Estonia and Latvia, who joined EU in 2004, by 2013, thus allowing fruitful comparisons.

Respondents' answers to the questions about „being truly” country’s national are explored, contributing to the discussions of the resilience or reactivity of closure in national identities in EU (Northern) member states.