CLAIMING ETHNICITY IN OVERLAPPING DIASPORIC CONDITIONS: ESTONIAN AMERICANS AND ACADEMIC MOBILITY DURING THE COLD WAR

Abstract

Estonian history is saturated with episodes of both voluntary and forced migration that have brought about the emergence of a rather substantial global diaspora with diverse levels of attachment to the present day Estonia. When observing their mentality and its representations, the plurality of remembrance becomes evident on a number of levels – the expatriate communities’ directedness towards Estonia-proper on the one hand and Estonia’s openness to its expatriate communities on the other. A slightly more evasive subject matter is the relationship between various memory cultures within the diaspora communities. Investigating educational aspects of Estonian refugee diaspora culture opens up a rare vista onto the lived reality of crossing these political and mental borderlines. From the emergence of supplemental schools in America to the creation of the study-in-Finland grant by the Estonian Students Fund in the US, this article explores implications of academic mobility (or in some cases academic nomadism) with regard to ethnicity. It provides insight into the very real tensions that emerged from the overlapping of diasporic conditions during students’ short-term migration.