Ethnic Self-Identification of Children in Interethnic Families (On the Example of the Orenburg Region)

Abstract

The Orenburg region is a multi-ethnic region with a large proportion of inter-ethnic marriages. The authors conducted the sociological survey in order to determine the specifics of national identity of children from interethnic families in Orenburg region and identify trends in the formation of national identity. The survey allowed to make conclusions: ethnic self-determination in such families is developing in the form of refusal to associate a person with a certain ethnic group. At the same time, this form of ethnic self-determination is observed not only in inter-ethnic families, where it prevails, but also in single-ethnic families. According to the authors, we are witnessing a process of transition from a traditional society with mandatory registration of ethnicity by birth to a modern civil nation, with a freer attitude to ethnic self-identification, which was launched by the abolition of mandatory indication of nationality in the passport during the Soviet period.