Europeanisation and the 'Regionalisation' of National Minority Identity

In my dissertational project, I looked at the impact of Europeanization processes on minority communities in 'old' and 'new' EU member states, and defined Europeanization as a 'two-way' process, encompassing both 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' developments. A comparative analysis of the investigated case studies and present Europeanization mechanisms detected processes of 'regionalization', e.g. alignment and identity-shaping processes around the center – periphery cleavage rather than along the ethnicity cleavage, which is typically the strongest framework of identification for national minorities. Processes of 'regionalization' occurred if the minority had already achieved a certain standard of protection and legal recognition. Interestingly, this development happens across the 'old' and 'new' member states' divide; the same process appears to be at work in South Tyrol (Italy), Silesia (Poland), and Istria (Croatia). A rise of regional alignment was measurable through census data, where regional affiliation can be declared, as well as through the data gathered in structured interviews with minority activists. The present paper will thus look at how minority identities are shaped and changed through Europeanization processes, and how Europeanization and 'regionalization' developments are triggered or fostered by each other. I will analyze one 'old' member-state (the case of South Tyrol in Italy), and two 'new' states (one that joined in 2004 – Poland and Silesia, and the EU's most recent member – Croatia and Istria), in order to also analize different developments along the time axis.