Specificity of the social identity of ethnic Germans living in different territories

Abstract

The study of the features of the social identity of Russian Germans living in different territories (N = 108) is presented. The sample consisted of three groups – Russian Germans living in the territory of the Russian Federation, in the territory of the CIS and in Germany. The study of the structure of social identity and territorial identity made it possible to identify both common features for the entire sample and the specificity of each of the three groups. The common for all Russian Germans from our sample is the greatest importance of family and home in the structure of both social and territorial identity. The lowest values in the structure of social identity for the respondents of the whole sample are the positions "representative of their religion" and "resident of their city". Ethnic identity is of great importance only for Russian Germans living in the territory of the CIS, which can be interpreted by referring to the history of this group and the characteristics of their objective social space. An analysis of the features of territorial identity makes it possible to note the limited social space of the respondents of the whole sample as a whole. For respondents of all three groups, there is a lack of diversity in the choice of places that determine the content, both of real territorial identity, and of an ideal territorial identity. At the same time, the contents of real and ideal territorial identity coincide for the majority of respondents of all three groups. Analysis of the results of the study made it possible to single out the specifics of the attitude towards the social space of Russian Germans residing in the Russian Federation, which consists in the fact that their territorial identity, both real and ideal, is not associated with the objective social space, with their places of residence in the present, but is determined by the past, childhood and adolescence. This is explained by the difficulties in the process of resocialization in the change of the country of residence.