The ideology of Europeanism and Europe’s migrant other (original) (raw)
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2015
« Europe » has never been as present in the media and in political discourse as it is today. The 2009 Eurozone crisis has sparked heated debates between partisans and opponents of austerity and the recent « negotiations » opposing the Greek Syriza-led government to European leaders and institutions have made the headlines for months. Yet, until recently, deeper questions regarding the nature of the European project, and the ideologies animating its trajectory and setting its goals, hardly ever seemed to be raised. The negative outcome of the Syriza-led government's attempt at negotiating anti-austerity policies within the framework of the EU has started changing this. As it became clear that the EU would not allow the implementation of a programme challenging the prerogatives of neoliberal capitalism (including privatisation, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending), a narrative presenting « Europe » as a capitalist, class project started to gain visibility. Migration is also more than ever at the heart of debates around the future of the European project. In particular a er more than 1,200 people died trying to reach its shores in the Spring 2015, the idea that Europe was experiencing a « migration crisis » gained currency in the media and political discourses. The notion of a crisis has produced representations of the recent movement of people towards Europe, and of deaths at the Union's borders, as « exceptional events » 2. Yet border casualties have steadily increased over the last twenty years, in causal relationship with the reinforcement of the external borders of the European Union a er the establishment of the Schengen Area. This situation has led migrants and their supporters to denounce and oppose violence in which « Europe » is involved at its borders. In this article, I examine the relation to Europe and to narratives of European belonging of migration solidarity movements in the European Union. I start with an overview of the relevance of narra-1 D Cédric, « Introduction » in D Cédric (dir.), En finir avec l'Europe, Paris, La Fabrique, 2013, 160 p. 2 R Prem Kumar, « Beyond crisis : Rethinking the population movements at Europe's border ».
Journal of Language and Politics
To date, the concept of 'European identity' remains quite vague and obscure. Who is European and who is not? What values do Europeans share, and who is included in or excluded from the European community? This paper deals with the renegotiation of European identity/ies and the simultaneous increase of discourses about national security and nationalism in Europe, especially during the financial crisis since 2008. We first discuss a range of theoretical approaches to European identity from an interdisciplinary perspective. In a second step, after summarising the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and especially the concept of topos, we illustrate the link between discursive constructions of European identities and cultural 'Others' via some recent examples of European and national debates on migration and economic issues. More specifically, we first analyse a speech by Geert Wilders on immigration and multiculturalism after the clashes in Tunisia in 2011 and the subsequent arrival of many refugees in Italy; secondly, we focus on a speech about British relations to the European Union in the 21st century by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. It becomes apparent that debates about European identities -especially since the financial crisis of 2008 -have increasingly been accompanied by debates about both more traditional racialised cultural concerns and more recently, about economic security, leading to new distinctions between 'Us' , the 'real Europeans' , and 'Them' , the 'Others' . In this way, the socio-political unification of Europe is challenged -once again.
Europe To No Good: Collective Security, the Migration Crisis, and European Identity
The migrant crisis has been a sobering test for Europe as both its solidarity and humanitarianism have been called into question. But what about its identity? This paper proposes a framework on ‘European identity’ that departs from the conventional assumptions about how European identity is constructed through interactions, transactions, and community generations by the density of EU institutions and practices. This framework aligns with the expectations and predictions of social psychology and social identity theory, which predicts that group identification is as much—if not more—driven by these external processes of boundary creations as by any inter-group dynamics. The paper then asks under what conditions migrants from outside Europe become the cultural ‘other’ defining or deepening European citizens’ identification with Europe by their very exclusion? Using empirical data from the British and Maltese press, I look for the degree to which there is evidence for a coherent European identity, based on the sociological construct of collective identity developed in opposition to an ‘other,’ in the rhetoric and framing of migration. With this data, I found that ‘Europeans’ are more likely to identify as such when faced with a non-European ‘other.’ This group membership appears to be creating an impetus for security cooperation because it has recently become more salient in Europeans’ self-identity.
Construction of European identity by the Pro-European Parties
Uluslararası İlişkiler, 2022
The political scene of the European Union (EU) presents a discursive field where identity construction becomes a vital tool for political parties to claim political credit and legitimize themselves. While pro-European parties utilize the narratives of an in-group of European identity, Eurosceptic parties problematize the gap between 'us' and 'them' by employing narratives of intergroup differentiation as an instrument to re/shape the political reality. The scholarly literature mostly focuses on Eurosceptic populist discourse and right-wing rhetoric relying on discursive socio-political exclusion to form in-group identification of national identities. By adopting a different stance, this article seeks to address the discursive strategies of the pro-European parties employed and mobilized during the 2019 European Parliament election campaigns through the discourse historical approach. It argues that it is of critical importance to reveal the pro-European discourse to reflect the pro-European stance over the debates on the existing identity cleavage within the turbulent European political scene.
European Integration, Nationalism and European Identityj cms_2230 106..123
Early theorists of European integration speculated that economic integration would lead to political integration and a European identity. A European identity has not displaced national identities in the EU, but, for a significant share of EU citizens, a European identity exists alongside a national identity. At the same time, political parties asserting more traditional nationalist identities and policies have directed their dissatisfaction against immigrants, foreigners and, sometimes , the EU. Those who participate in 'Europe' are more likely to develop a European identity, while those whose economic and social horizons are essentially local are more likely to assert nationalist identities. It is argued in this article that the issue of European and national identity plays a heightened role in European politics, particularly in the economic crisis of 2007–2011. The resolution of that crisis, which may result in increased European political cooperation , will have to take into account highly salient national identities that have so far resisted such cooperation .
European Integration, Nationalism and European Identityj cms_2230 106..122
Early theorists of European integration speculated that economic integration would lead to political integration and a European identity. A European identity has not displaced national identities in the EU, but, for a significant share of EU citizens, a European identity exists alongside a national identity. At the same time, political parties asserting more traditional nationalist identities and policies have directed their dissatisfaction against immigrants, foreigners and, sometimes , the EU. Those who participate in 'Europe' are more likely to develop a European identity, while those whose economic and social horizons are essentially local are more likely to assert nationalist identities. It is argued in this article that the issue of European and national identity plays a heightened role in European politics, particularly in the economic crisis of 2007–11. The resolution of that crisis, which may result in increased European political cooperation , will have to take into account highly salient national identities that have so far resisted such cooperation .
Identity‐politics in the European Union
Journal of European Integration, 2001
The purpose of this article is to explore the question of European identity. The EU consists of Member States whose national identities are well entrenched. The question of a European identity must therefore be seen in relation to entrenched national identities. Does a European identity have to supplant the national ones? Can it supplement or transform these? How much of a transformation is necessary? Will a European identity be a novel, post-national type of identity? The article explores the question of a European identity by drawing on the analytical categories associated with the politics of recognition and by applying these to different conceptions of the EU qua polity. Four different options are explored and the conclusion is that -although the picture is complex -the EU appears to be in the process of developing a post-national type of identity.