National Assimilation 2025 vs 1925

A hundred years ago, my father, already a veteran of World War I, was studying for his doctorate in political science at the University of Vienna.

To obtain his degree, he had to write a thesis. He chose – we can only surmise why – to explore the topic of national assimilation, with the aim of working towards a theory of this phenomenon. His thesis (which I have translated into English but which there are no plans to publish or post here) naturally had to delve into definitions: what is a nation? what is national? what is assimilation? what forms of integration, partial or otherwise, resemble assimilation? My father did not arrive at a theory, although he amassed a heap of ideas and of statistical information, the latter nearly all relating to parts of central and eastern Europe that now belong to Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and so on.

Sociologist colleagues of mine have observed that nationality, assimilation, integration and related questions are still very much debated today. So I was encouraged to write an article using the thesis as a starting point. My article is thoroughly researched and referenced but makes no attempt at theory, rather offers a comparison of the concepts in the thesis with the ways in which they are understood – or not understood – today. Not only do we nowadays have ideas about what constitutes nationality and full assimilation but we also have such concepts as identity politics, dissimilation and self-segregation. In other words, the theme has expanded as the pebble thrown into the pond caused ripples stretching in many directions. In a sense, assimilation, in 2025, is everybody’s business.

I hope readers will enjoy going down all the various avenues explored in the article and maybe learn something.

Here’s the article:

1925_2025 national assimilation

Copyright in the article is mine, but I would be very happy for anyone to engage with me about it or to approach me for permission to quote from it.