Review article
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v22i1.1213
Legal and Social Exclusion in New Europe: A Comparison of Baltic States, Slovenia and Croatia
Jelena Zlatković
; Institut za migracije i narodnosti
Abstract
The collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia has produced twenty two national states; they regulated relationship between citizens and community via rights to citizenship. By the same token, hundreds of thousands were left aside without this right, therefore without basic legal protection. This paper examines who belongs and who is excluded, how and why − from the political community of the new states. The author is trying to find the answers to these questions in theory and via comparative case analyses of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Croatia after 1990. The author traces the emergence and change in citizenship and minority laws and policies and their harmonization with the standards of EU. Initially awarded citizenship in all the observed countries gave priority to ethnic identity and thus formed the category of »excluded«. Changes are being »extorted« by the EU, while new member states react with similar policies of inclusion − both of immigrants and minorities - with variants that do not threaten core standards of the EU. However, the author concludes that, despite the expectations, being the EU member state did not significantly affect policies towards »others« within new EU member states. This conclusion is endorsed with the examples of »open questions« for each observed state.
Keywords
social exclusion; citizenship; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Slovenia; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
137089
URI
Publication date:
27.3.2015.
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