Ethnic Communities: To Be or Not To Be Involved

Abstract

The article is devoted to a very complicated and burning research issues of urban ethnic policy as the megapolises have the high level of ethnic problems concentration that are needed to be resolved. Thus, in this article the approach of a “local turn” in immigrant integration research were chosen rather than national level of government and the experience of ethnic policy of Saint-Petersburg from this perspective were considered. The detailed description of multiple political actors in the ethnic policy structure plays an important role in our understanding of the key problems and obstacles for ethnic communities’ involvement into the process of decision-making. The author analyzed the way of collaborating and communicating between such non-governmental organizations as institutionalized ethno-cultural communities and the governmental institutions (Committees, umbrella organizations). Policy network of these actors in Saint-Petersburg shows that there are some obstacles on the way of collaborating between governmental bodies and ethnic NGO, above them: a high degree of fragmentation of ethnic communities, initial contradictions, resources’ gambling between the ethnic elite, apartness of some ethnic organizations etc. Thus, ‘to be or not to be involved’ that is the question for ethnic communities and the mechanisms of involvement is still the question for governmental bodies. Refs 13. Таbles 3.