The Elephant, the Donkey, and Ukraine: The Partisanship of the Ukrainian Diaspora in America

Abstract

The Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. is a growing group whose American partisanship has scarcely been examined outside of diaspora-related media. This study makes use of interviews with Ukrainians in the Seattle metropolitan area to uncover how Ukrainians in the U.S. make and explain their partisan choices at the individual level. Core factors influencing Ukrainians’ party preference include generation and education, religion and values, and views on the role of government. An additional section investigates how Ukrainians across the political spectrum responded to the Trump administration’s controversial actions in regard to Russia and Ukraine as well as immigration. The findings suggest Ukrainian identity and concern for Ukraine are seldom the driving factors shaping partisanship or vote choice. However, Ukrainian identity does mediate and inform partisanship. Across generations, members of the Ukrainian diaspora rely on and reference experiences associated with Ukrainian identity to formulate and justify their political views. Thus, Ukrainians’ partisanship is often shaped by factors that affect the party preferences of many people in the U.S., but Ukrainians often employ narratives based on Ukrainian identity to explain why such factors matter to them. This study contributes to three bodies of literature: diaspora studies, as it looks at how the Ukrainian diaspora negotiates homeland and host country identities and interests; post-Soviet studies, as it examines how Ukrainians in the U.S. are responding to Soviet and post-Soviet legacies through their politics; and U.S. partisanship studies, as it sheds light on the political views of an understudied diaspora.