Page - 74 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 74 their common descent because of similarities of physical type or customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration; this belief must be important for the propagation of group formation; conversely, it does not matter whether or not an objective blood relationship exists. Ethnic membership (Gemeinsamkeit) differs from the kinship group precisely by being a presumed identity, not a group with concrete social action, like the latter.” (Weber 1978, 389) 2.2 Subjective Perception and Reality Perceiving oneself as belonging to a group does not necessarily correspond to objective circumstances. Reasons for differentiating the group from others are of secondary import and can be based on tradition or on “disposition”. As one example, Weber mentions language communities, which can produce ethnic communities for a variety of reasons – e.g., due to specific economic or political conditions. Ethnicity provides an opportunity for socialisation and collectivisation (Ornig 2006, 34). For semi-autonomous groups this is an ambiguous situation, because, on the one hand, the individual has to decide if he or she wants to belong to an ethnic group, and, on the other, there is the issue of what kind of values and concepts the ethnic group is perceived as representing. This applies to the situation of both semi-autonomous and fully assimilated minorities. Ethnic identities are created by communication within one’s own group and in distinction to others. “For ethnicity to come about, the groups must have a minimum of contact with each other, and they have to entertain ideas of each other as being culturally different from themselves. If these conditions are not fulfilled, there is no ethnicity, for ethnicity is essentially an aspect of a relationship, not a property of a group” (Eriksen 1993, 11-12). Ethnic identities are integrated into power relations which are characterized by asymmetrical communicative relations. Since 1945, this has also been evident in Austrian history (Weiss 2000, 25). The official politics in the road sign controversy provide an example, as it was not until 2000 that bilingual road signs for Croats and Hungarians were installed in Burgenland, despite the fact that the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 explicitly included an obligation to set up such signs.