National identity of European countries constantly changes
24 Dec 2007
Two Leiden historians specializing in migration, Pieter Emmer and Leo Lucassen, have laid the foundation for the standard edition of a new migration encyclopaedia. It covers 400 years of European migratory history and integration. Migration and its associated difficulties appear to be issues of all time.
What is the most important lesson that this survey of 400 years of migration can teach us? Lucassen: “The fact that geographical mobility, both nationally and internationally, has always been the rule rather than the exception. The idea that ethnic, homogeneous, national populations existed is therefore a myth. Ideas on religious and ethnic differences and the territorial identities linked to them have continually been subjects of dispute and negotiations. This does not mean that such a thing as national identity does not exist, although it is difficult to define it. What is certain, however, is that it is continually changing, not least as a result of non-stop migrations.”
Piet Emmer: “The idea behind our encyclopedia is that current migratory and integration processes and the different ways in which they were dealt with in European countries can only be understood when placed in a historical context. Migration is not a new phenomenon. From as early as the Middle Ages, people have left hearth and home for different reasons. The receiving societies, whether they were cities, particular regions or countries, were continually confronted with newcomers and they developed policies to either accept them or to exclude them.”
The standard German edition with 1150 pages (the English translation will follow in a year’s time) shows that in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe experienced massive flows of migrants. Catholics, Muslims (from Spain and the Balkans) Jews and Protestants were forced to leave their original home countries and to settle in the countries where their religions dominated or were at least tolerated. There were also millions of migrant workers and colonists who have radically changed the composition of the population of East, South and Western Europe. In the course of the nineteenth century they were joined by large numbers of migrants who settled in the industrialized towns. They became the subject of an intense public debate on uprooting, criminality and the formation of an underclass. This discussion showed many parallels with the debate on immigration today.
Finally, the twentieth century was characterized by immigration from the (former) colonies to countries such as Portugal, France, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands and to Germany in a certain sense (the millions of Aussiedler, the East Europeans of German descent). In this book a great deal of attention is paid to the recruitment of immigrant workers, many of whom settled definitely in Europe and who were later reunited with their families. Many people are very worried at present especially about the integration of predominantly Islamic migrants from such countries as Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. “Although there are certainly differences between Muslim migrants and prior newcomers, the similarities are all too easily overlooked. It is this comparative dimension in particular which renders it such a unique European encyclopaedia,” Lucassen asserts.
Klaus J. Bade, Pieter C. Emmer, Leo Lucassen & Jochen Oltmer (red.), Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh & Wilhelm Fink 2007. 1156 pp. ISBN 978-3-506-75632-9. Introductory price (until 31-12-2007): € 58; thereafter € 78.