EUROPE'S MIGRATION CRISIS: A CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY (original) (raw)
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Democracy presupposes the existence of a political body – the demos – which is the legitimate holder of the sovereign rights. The identity of the State, as well as the possibility of the existence of a democratic political regime, is founded upon the cohesion of this political body. In 19th and 20th centuries Europe, this cohesion was expressed through a certain idea of the 'nation', a constructed notion of cohesiveness of a territorial community. But what is becoming of this political body at a time when porousness of State borders allows for the massive intrusion of populations perceived as being fundamentally extraneous, therefore threatening (Girard 1982)? Which is the place of the immigrant in the Western democracies? And which are the means through which the State reacts when confronted to this type of identity threat? Our contribution will try to map the main interrogations that cross the relation between democracy, migrations and sovereignty in the 21st century. We will argue that, while the political body of the nation-State is fragilized by immigration, new ways of re-institute the cohesiveness of its political community are set up by the State in order to enhance its identity through difference with respect to others. These include the consolidation of external borders (a policy trend in the EU), but also enhancing the symbolic internal boundaries between “us” and “the others”. The recent discourse of the European leaders about the failure of the multiculturalism is an example of this attempt to re-institute difference.
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