Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversitiesCultural policy and cultural diversityCultural policies are largely the responsibilities of the communities, and there isno body at the federal level responsible for co-ordinating the cultural policies ofthe communities or for ensuring consistency between them. In the Ministry of theFrench Community, these responsibilities are largely discharged by the GeneralDirectorate of Culture which deals with the performing, heritage and plastic arts,books and literature, and youth and continuing education. Federal legislationpassed in 1973 requires both the communes and the regions to take account of thebeliefs and traditions of Belgium’s distinctive cultural groups in framing andadministering cultural policy. Cultural policies addressing the European Unionand non-European Union immigrant communities within the French communityhave assumed a greater importance in the wake of the recommendations flowingout of the Royal Commission on Immigrant Policy established in the late 1980s.These policies, echoing the influence of French concepts of multiculturalism (theterm “cultural diversity” has little official recognition in Belgium), place a strongemphasis on social integration. Their stress has thus fallen on the provision ofopportunities for immigrants – officially described as foreigners – to acquire thelanguage and cultural skills that will enable them to be more effectively integratedinto Belgian culture and society. This orientation is now to some extent counterbalancedby the development of more positive approaches to the recognition of thedistinctive cultures of Muslim immigrants. These are raising new issues for therelationship between cultural diversity and broader issues concerning the civicrights and status of Belgium’s non-European Union immigrant communities.BulgariaMapping diversityIn ethnic and cultural terms, the population is mainly Bulgarian, accounting for85.7% of the population at the 1992 census. Bulgarian Turks constitute the largestethnic minority at 9.4% of the population, with especially heavy concentrations inspecific regions of the country. The Roma/Gypsies count for 3.7% of the population.The remaining 1.2% of the population comprises a large number of relativelysmall ethnic groups, mainly from eastern and central Europe. Historically,Bulgaria has and continues to be a society of emigration – mainly to Turkey –rather than immigration. The cultural division between Bulgarians and BulgarianTurks – which is also, in good measure, a religious division between OrthodoxChristians and Muslims, although Bulgaria also has a large atheist population –has been a major source of social and political tension in the post-war period, particularlyin the 1980s. The position of the Roma/Gypsies in Bulgarian society hasalways been precarious: they experience serious discrimination in the labour andhousing markets, and in health and educational provision.Governmental and constitutional provision for diversityThe Constitution of 1991 provides equal rights and freedoms for all ethnic groupsand protects their identities. It prohibits the establishment of political parties on36