Dzenovska, D

Dzenovska, Dace

Oxford University Research Archive

Independence is not always what it seems Dace Dzenovska, University of Oxford  In Green, Sarah (ed). 2016. “Brexit referendum: first reactions from anthropology”, Social Anthropology 24(4): 478-502.  It was a joyful moment when Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. No more directives from Moscow, the future was clear: a national state integrated into the European Union and NATO. Today, less than two decades after independence, hit by massive financial crisis and exhausted by austerity measures, many of Latvia’s residents have sought livelihoods abroad. Nothing that the national(ist) state did to “take back the country” in the form of restrictive citizenship and language policies could put bread on the table and prevent people from leaving.  I am writing this from a small town in northeast England, where being a Latvian citizen can be unpleasant at times. This town voted overwhelmingly for leaving the European Union. Many use only one word to explain it: immigration. Indeed, this agricultural and food processing area has experienced significant labour migration from Eastern Europe. The rest is almost textbook material: farm managers say that migrants work hard, while local inhabitants say that migrants take away their jobs, that they cannot get a doctor’s appointment, that the town has changed beyond recognition, and that the locals are accused of being racists when they try to make their voices heard. The employers who profit from migrant labour and the property owners who drive up housing prices are elusive and invisible. Reports about urgent social policy issues disappear in bureaucratic corridors. Long history of labour exploitation is slipping from memory. “People compare themselves to others, they don’t think historically,” says a local historian. Making a place feel English will not address the grievances that people in this town have. Nationalism certainly did not address the grievances of those Latvians who, despite their love for the nation, are working in English fields and factories. “Taking back control” might seem like an attractive illusion, but inhabitants of this town are convinced: “we’ve done it before, we can do it again”. It is not yet clear to me how local inhabitants understand their place in the world. It is difficult, at times, to get beyond the soundbites that various entrepreneurs of voice have used to amplify local grievances to the point of rupture. But it is the task of anthropology to understand how people form their understandings of the world and of themselves in it. For that, it is crucial to bracket anthropology’s desire to connect local understandings with familiar critiques of power and political ideologies.    

Brexit referendum: first reactions from anthropology: Independence is not always what it seems

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