Ethnicity and integration in the historical context: Serbs in Timisoara

Abstract

The relationship between an ethnicity and different phases of integration (adaptation, acculturation, assimilation) of the Serbian ethnic community in Timisoara is being discussed in various historical periods (the Turkish, Austro-Hungarian and Romanian periods), with an emphasis on an administrative division, space segregation and social mobility of the Serbian population. The analysis shows that the Serbs in Timisoara have been exposed to various kinds of acculturation and assimilation which have sometimes been aggressive, resulting in decrease of the Serbian population. In spite of these facts, the Serbs are nevertheless solidly integrated in the socio-economic life of the city, preserving at the same time, specific cultural characteristics and maintaining a network of institutions of various kinds that affect social life of the community, at the level of the city and the state.

Keywords

• ethnic identity
• acculturation
• assimilation
• multiculturalism
• inter-culturalism