Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

Migration and cultural diversification 107
Poland and other newly ‘opened’ societies of the region, where migratory inflows
augment the spread of new, foreign religious movements and sects. In Polish society,
thus far predominantly Catholic, these movements find their adherents, proving
that importation of new ideas by the ‘addicted’ newcomers effectively diversifies
life-styles and beliefs in the country. Another prominent example is provided by
converts to Islam in some Western European societies. Research on Dutch female
converts to Islam reveals that in the Netherlands, in as early as 1993, the number
of these women was estimated at between 3000 and 4000 (Nieuwkerk 2000: 2).
While most of these women were first married to Muslim partners and then
eventually converted to Islam, others ‘found their way to Islam and afterwards
married Muslims’ (ibid.), and similar cases had been reported from Norway and
France. This conversion is very symptomatic. It occurs in the receiving states
which contain substantial Muslim communities, proving that the neighbourhood,
personal contacts, created interpersonal ties, and daily observed patterns of
behaviour may effectively influence beliefs and change religious identity of some
members of the host society.
The two examples given show that new ideas imported by the newcomers both
add to the existing cultural mosaic of ideas and values, diversifying the sphere of
religion, and find their adherents among the indigenous society. The latter instance
reveals a crucial fact, namely that ‘the symbolic importation’ may effectively
compete with a set, traditional creed, and win over a number of its former followers.
On the other hand, numerous conversions to Islam may prompt and augment the
social discussion on the national creed and the uniqueness of European civilization,
and compel individuals to rethink and reconsider their national and cultural identity
vis-à-vis distant cultures. In other words, they may prompt the re-examination
of both the collective and personal identity in the recipient society.
As mentioned above, mass international inflows may well help the revival
of forgotten or muted ideas, a good example here is racism. Intolerance towards
the ‘other’ has a long tradition in Europe; nevertheless, it has been muted, and
disappeared from public life for decades after the Second World War. In recent
decades, however, the negative image of the newcomers portrayed as ‘the alien
dangerous invaders’ has seemed to increase significantly. Racism in contemporary
Europe is taking on forms of ideologies, movements, and every-day practices,
attitudes, and prejudice based on phenotypical, or cultural characteristics seen as
fixed, naturalised and inherently different (Rath 1993: 231). Contacts between
immigrants and the host society members enter into negative effect when attitudes
and practices directed towards the newcomers are based on their phenotypical
characteristics or cultural identity imposed upon them and then utilised as a
marker of their inherent difference. The latter case, when the ‘immigrant-other’
is considered as an inherently different and inferior ‘cultural being’, equates to
‘cultural racism’ symptomatic of the ‘new’ or contemporary racism. The revival of
these attitudes constitutes a disturbing and potentially explosive aspect of the
ongoing cultural change in Western recipient countries (Romaniszyn 2001). The
intensification of anti-foreign sentiments, intolerance, and xenophobia, which began
in the 1980s and forms a part of cultural change seems to be an immediate