ANCESTRY AND NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION IN ROMANIA
ANCESTRY AND NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION IN ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the relation between the ethnic origin and the strength of national identification, as emotional attachment to Romania. Despite there are many nationalism studies, not enough are exploring empirical data while questioning ethno-nationalist conceptions in and about Romania. Considering the primordialist perspectives, the roots of the nation are of ethnic origin, therefore a stronger relation should be expected between those of Romanian ethnic background and their national identifications, as compared to national identifications of people that ascribe a different or mixed ethnic origin. By running a multivariate analysis on the Romanian ESS9 wave, the article finds clues of equal degrees of identification with Romania among all these categories of people. Results do not deny connections between ancestry and national identification. The findings rather point out that in terms of emotional attachment, Romanians, Hungarians, Roma, and other citizens declaring a different common ancestry for all ancestors or a mixed ancestry, have similar levels of identification with the country.

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