Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

Introduction 9
the opening and bridging of the East–West divide and the progressing reconnection
of the European civilisation is crucial. On the Western European side, the opening
of the Eastern European space means a geopolitical as well as a cultural reconfiguration
of collective identities and redefinition of boundary constructions as
cultural bases of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union. In geopolitical
terms, it presents an opportunity to export and enlarge the Western European model
of liberal-democratic welfare capitalism and create a military, political and social
welfare zone. In cultural terms, a reconstruction of a Western ‘mission’ towards the
East from defensive anti-communism to a cautious expansion of Western values
is under way. This includes, dependent on the respective geopolitical location within
Europe, different uses of ‘the East’ in Western European discourse (Neumann 1999).
This also includes the geopolitical relocation and cultural reconstruction of national
identities, particularly of those countries at the border of the former East–West
divide and now again in-between East and West.
The Eastern enlargement changes the cultural and political baricentre of the EU
and requires the re-positioning of each nation and national state within it. Ethnic,
cultural and religious traditions that characterised the Eastern part of Europe are
now integrated into the European project. Thus, countries such as Greece, which
were deemed to represent the Eastern border of the Union in not only geopolitical
but also cultural and religious terms, may find themselves closer to the centre. In
contrast, countries such as the UK or France that represented the civic, democratic
core of European identity may be pushed towards the political periphery. Even
though nationalism theory has sought to categorise national identities in Easternethnic
and Western-civic types, in reality there are ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ elements
in all national identities. Thus, the change in the context may lead to a re-evaluation
of such elements within each national identity and a change in their relative
importance.
European integration varies among nations depending on their own cultural
traditions, history and geopolitical position. Thus, German national identity
is imbued with Europeanness, but in historically changing cultural and political
modes of self-definition between Western and Eastern Europe. United Germany
now seems to be firmly anchored in a Western European civic identity, strongly
supporting the Eastern enlargement of the European Union as a mission civilisatrice
vis-à-vis Eastern Europe (see the chapter by Spohn in this volume). Italy is also
one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the EU project even though it struggles
to define its own role within it (Triandafyllidou 2002a). The case of Greece, which
is also a border country, is different yet again because of its janus-faced, Easternand
Western-looking identity and history. Despite the fact that classical Greek
heritage, highly cherished by modern Greeks, is seen as the cradle of European
civilisation, modern Greeks often feel alienated culturally and politically from the
EU (see Triandafyllidou 2002b).
On the Eastern European side, in a mirror-inverted sense, the opening of the
Western European space also goes hand in hand with a major geopolitical and
cultural reconfiguration of collective identities. In geopolitical terms, it opens the
possibility of a ‘return to Europe’, to join Western Europe, to become part of the