Work

“For me, Germany is here.” German “Superiority,” Migration, and the Promise of a Better Society in Transylvania, Romania

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The article engages the recent literature on whiteness and East-West ethnic hierarchies in Europe with an Eastern European perspective. We analyze how German ethnicity expresses symbolic superiority in a multicultural region of Romania by tracing how non-ethnic Germans affiliate with the local German minority and sustain German associational life. Such dynamics unfold within institutions of the German minority but are amplified by mobility to Germany, transnational ties, and significant German investments. We focus on how a notion of a “better society” derives not only from regional economic development due to German investments and local German political leadership, but especially from civic initiatives associated with ethnic German minority actors. We thus show how such hierarchies of superiority become articulated from below, as non-Germans attach worth, opportunity, and social improvement to a presumed more progressive “German societal model.”

Source: Nationalities Papers

DOI: 10.1017/nps.2026.10154

Authors: Remus Anghel, Ovidiu Oltean

Institutions: National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Romanian Institute For Research on National Minorities, Babeș-Bolyai University

Language: English

Topic: Diaspora, migration, transnational identity

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550