Paradoxes of Cultural Recognition

Perspectives from Northern Europe

Sharam Alghasi, Thomas Hylland Eriksen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754674696
• eBook ISBN: 9781317084181
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Anthropologie

Explicitly comparative in its approach, Paradoxes of Cultural Recognition discusses central issues regarding multiculturalism in today's Europe, based on studies of Norway and the Netherlands. Distinguishing clearly the four social fields of the media, education, the labour market and issues relating to gender, it presents empirical case studies, which offer valuable insights into the nature of majority/minority relationships, whilst raising theoretical questions relevant for further comparisons. With clear comparisons of integration and immigration policies in Europe and engagement with the questions surrounding the need for more culturally sensitive policies, this volume will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers alike.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Halleh Ghorashi, Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Sharam Alghasi

The contemporary transformations of European societies can be described simplistically as a movement from postwar nation-states based on industrialism and cultural homogeneity to late modern states based on informationalism, cultural heterogeneity and ideological tensions arising from the frictions engendered by the intensification of transnational connectedness. Migration, globalization, new communication technologies, international, and increasingly intercontinental tourism, work to create shared European identities and public spheres, intensify identity politics among minorities, and further the militarization of boundaries including the Mediterranean and the North-West African coast. The number of interrelated topics is almost infinite, indicating an urgent and continued need for fresh observations and analysis. Mobility is becoming a key issue in social theory (Urry 2000), complementing a century-old concern with society. People move into and out of countries on diverse grounds and in diverse ways – as tourists, refugees, students, temporary workers with or without the appropriate permits, labour migrants, family members of prior migrants, as underprivileged African boat refugees or overprivileged North European ‘climate refugees’ settling in the Mediterranean. Debates rage in European public spheres about topics ranging from headscarves (and their darker sister, niqabs) to Polish plumbers, state religion and language instruction in schools. The growth of new cultural complexity within West European societies, an issue in research and policy since the 1960s, seems to have changed gears, leading researchers like Steven Vertovec (2005) to speak about a new kind of ‘super-diversity’ – less ordered and less tangible than its late-twentieth century counterpart. In Spain alone, the number of immigrants grew from 900,000 in 2000 to an almost incredible 4.3 million in 2006.

This situation, which unfolds against the backdrop of the USA-led ‘war on terror,’ the phenomenal growth of China as a towering industrial power and the universalization of new information and communication technologies, is characterized by scholars, variously, as a condition of fluidity (Bauman 2000), a reflexive state of late modernity (Giddens 1990) and a risk society (Beck 1992). In this time of fluid or ‘second’ modernity, Bauman (2000) argues, all solids become empty and old patterns of dependency are thrown into a melting pot, leaving individuality in its extreme form, unattached and fully responsible for its actions. In such a condition of flux, turbulence and uncertainty among majorities as well as minorities, and next to the current differentiation and content of cultural diversity in the composition of the population in Western Europe, new tensions and challenges in diverse societies have for a number of years led to the rise of a number of paradoxical tendencies. For example, we see a growing claim on freedom of speech as individual right, yet the same right is explained through the collective, historical achievements of western societies. We also observe a growth in claims of justice by minority groups, in which the space for individual justice in practice becomes limited. What we shall try to argue in this book, and to show through examples from Northern Europe, is that the sense of uncertainty in late modern societies has resulted in a tension between claims of authenticity and claims of autonomy. In particular, the claim of authenticity by the majority within many western societies is described as a culturalist dominance in public discourse about migration (cf., e.g., Hedetoft and Christensen 2004, Rottenburg et al. 2006, Stolcke 1995, Werbner and Modood 1997). The assumption of the threat of Islam for Western societies, fuelled by the attack of 11 September, made the position of Islamic minorities in the West a key issue in policy and public debate. Minorities – primarily Islamic minorities – are thus marked by their alleged culture and/or religion, which are then taken to account for their relative successes or failures in adapting to their host society; culture is also often invoked in accounts of social problems such as crime, educational failures and the oppression of women. Islam and what this religion is claimed to contain have in many societies been launched as a major element in distinguishing the non-European other from the secularized European.

While in the nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries, perceptions of racial difference were important criteria in classifying and categorizing people, culture has increasingly replaced it, leading some scholars (e.g. Banton 1987) to speak of a ‘new racism’ based on perceptions of cultural difference rather than race (Stolcke 1995). It is the itineraries, effects of and reactions to this culturalist discourse in different fields of action that form the focus of this book. It is sometimes claimed that the best remedy to culturalism is cultural blindness. It is assumed that when culture is ignored there is more room for individual uniqueness. Yet various contributions in this book show that cultural blindness is not an answer to culturalist assumptions and practices, but that it actually reproduces the same practices. Thus, the core of this book is to show the ways that culturalism is reproduced and challenged, both in terms of discourses and practices. Next to an analysis of public debates and media, a number of empirically based chapters show how culturalism works in practice; in schools, organizations, and neighborhoods, for example. The main aim of this book is to show the historical embeddedness of discursive and practical manifestations of culturalism, primarily in two countries, Norway and the Netherlands. By including chapters from UK and Sweden we broaden the context of the discussions made. By this comparison we tend to show on the one hand that culturalism is not a country-specific phenomenon through which discourses and practices are defined, yet on the other hand it also becomes clear that the forms of reproduction of culturalism are quite country-specific.

Norway and the Netherlands are chosen as the core countries because of their differences as much as because of their similarities: the Netherlands has a long colonial history and an even longer history as a ‘crossroads’ in Europe; Norway has been more isolated and is a relative newcomer to the European immigration experience. However, the proportion of immigrants in both countries is relatively high (in 2006, 8 per cent of the Norwegian population were immigrants, with nearly 25 per cent of the population in Oslo having a minority background) and growing, and there are interesting parallels between the public debates concerning immigration in the two countries. Both countries also share predominantly Protestant populations and have functioning welfare states. In the massive body of literature on migration and minorities within Europe, there is far too little international comparison (but see e.g. Grillo 1998, Eriksen 2002). As a result, there is a risk of overestimating both similarities and differences between European countries. Yet there is no doubt that the situation in Finland, with few non-European immigrants before the 1990s, in many ways contrasts sharply with that in the UK or France. At the same time, Finland is faced with a similar issue as in, say, Spain or Germany, in that the ‘auchtothonous’ (indigenous or ‘original’) population is ageing, with an ensuing need for labour, and with the growth in immigration (from a very modest 26,000 in 1990 to 107,000 in 2003) a growing concern with cultural differences situated as an asset or a problem. Such differences and similarities are illuminated in the chapters that follow.

Culturalization

A few more words about culturalization would be in place. In an influential article, Stolcke writes about a new form of exclusion rhetoric in the West that is based on a homogeneous, static, coherent, and rooted notion of culture. She calls this ‘cultural fundamentalism’ (1995: 4). This time it is not the race that needs to be protected but the assumed historically-rooted homogenous culture of the nation: ‘racism without race’ (Idem). In Orientalism, Said (1979) famously spoke of a historically-constructed discourse in Europe based on an imagined fundamental ontological dissimilarity between the European perception of the West and of the Orient, dissimilarity in the favor of the West. The essence of Orientalism according to Said is then a profound distinction between the Western and Oriental self in which the former is superior and the latter inferior. The recent developments and public debates in various European countries, including the Netherlands, Norway and the UK prove this point (see the chapters by Dienke Hondius, Ellie Vasta, Knut Kjeldstadli and Halleh Ghorashi). In many European countries, there is a tendency to see migrants’ culture chiefly as a source of social problems, and in recent years particularly with respect to Muslims. It is argued that the norms and values of the West and those of Muslims are different and incompatible (see e.g., Ali 2006, Bawer 2006, Storhaug 2006 for recent, influential books from the Netherlands and Norway; see Buruma 2006 for a more tempered view). This assumption has led to the construction of a state of confrontation on the face of many European communities where there is a demand for an obligatory integration of migrants into their new societies. The event of 11 September followed by events in Europe strengthened the existing cultural categorical thinking, which in turn led to an increased feeling of insecurity and fear within these societies (Gillespie 2006). This growing sense of fear of the culture of migrants and the urgent need for their assimilation has resulted in an increasing gap between migrants – even those born in the new society – and the rest of the society. This growing gap, combined with a lack of cultural recognition of migrants, is considered in the UNDP report of 2004 as one of the major challenges that new multicultural societies are facing (see also Ghorashi 2007).

The dominant discourse in most European countries with regard to new migrants has become increasingly culturalist, in which a migrant’s culture is considered to deviate from the European norm. This is founded on a static and essentialist approach to culture, in which cultural content is considered the determining factor for all actions of individuals. Such an approach leaves little space for variation within ‘groups’. Recent changes and developments, particularly in the time after 11 September 2001, have led to an increase in the impact of religion in perceptions of the culture of others. This is obviously more visible in the case of Islamic countries, and not least Muslim members of various European communities. Yet this culturalist approach has been shaped in different ways based on diverse historical developments within various European countries. In the Netherlands, for example, the root of culturalism is located within the history of pillarization. The construction of pillars – ‘own worlds’ – along lines of religious denomination and political ideology after the Second World War has been the dominant framework for thinking about differences in the Netherlands, initially based on the tension between Protestants and Catholics. The dichotomy between us and them, with its emphasis on group boundaries, has, partly due to this established cultural and institutional template, latently shaped the ways in which new migrants have been approached in the Netherlands. The consequences of this history of pillarization for migrants are most evident for those from Islamic countries: they have been mentally fitted into a new pillar: the Islamic pillar (Ghorashi 2006, Koopmans 2003).

This has caused new migrants from Islamic countries to find themselves in a confusing area of tension. The historical habit of thinking in terms of pillars was translated into the migrants’ conditions and left – even encouraged – space for these migrants to preserve their cultures. Paradoxically, this happened in an increasingly de-pillarized Netherlands – which started in the 1960s – in which individual autonomy was seen as prevailing and protected. Thinking in terms of pillars has had a much wider effect than on Islamic migrants alone. To a certain extent, it has demarcated thinking about cultural differences and ethnic boundaries. This has led to the creation of cultural contrasts that make it virtually impossible to consider the individual migrant as separate from his or her cultural or ethnic category.

The case of Norway, on the other hand, indicates a different process regarding the formation of the culturalist approach in recent years. Expanding and preserving the welfare system has historically, roughly since the First World War, been a central political concern. Accordingly, the institutionalized desire is to provide some socioeconomic likeness for all citizens regardless of ethnic and religious background (Brochmann 2003, Eriksen 2006, Gullestad 2001). At the same time, it has also been argued that Norwegian minorities have emerged as a new underclass (Wikan 1995). Minorities, on average, have less access to socio-material goods as well as enjoy a more limited, or less successful, participation in various sectors in the society, than average Norwegians. This state is often explained by minorities’ lack of ability or desire to be integrated into Norwegian society. A hegemonic discourse in today’s Norwegian society describes the multicultural Norwegian society as a society where the cultural quality of the migrant stands as explanatory factor for any conflicts involving relationships between immigrants and the host population (Alghasi 1999, Eriksen 2006, Gullestad 2002). This brief contrast between Norway and the Netherlands – other countries might have served as well – indicates that similar issues are likely to be dealt with somewhat differently in the two countries because of the significant historical differences.

Welfare State, Immigration and Immigrants

The phenomenon of immigration is not new, but the notion, as it is understood in today’s Europe, is a rather recent concept. In a historical process the idea of who an immigrant is and where they are positioned in relation to the European self has been subject to major transformations (Glick Schiller 2003, Friedman 2004). One hundred and fifty years back in time, one could emigrate from one place to another and be considered a fully recognized member of the new society. However, with the developments of nation-states based on nationalist ideology, new perceptions on the identities and positions of the ‘newcomers’ have emerged; the status of citizenship, or how one becomes a member of the society has been linked to the idea of a sovereign territory the citizens were once a part of, accompanied later with being part of a nation with common past, culture, and values.

According to Glick Schiller (2003), the project of nation-state reached a new level of development with the emergence of welfare states in which the state had the task of integrating individuals in a society within a sovereign territory around a common past, shared culture, and mutual solidarity towards the society. In a welfare state, the citizenship is mirrored in the national legal system, the sovereign in the political system, the nation in the cultural system, and the solidarity group in the social system. These systems are involved in reproduction of a hegemonic view in which individuals or groups are aimed to become integrated into the societies. The process of nation-building is then suggested to be the state’s attempts to create an isomorphism between individuals and the nation-state.

Immigrants seem to challenge this isomorphism within a number of arenas in today’s nation-states. In the field of politics, the increasing number of migrants may stand as a threat to states’ sovereignty, and has been an important issue in political debates. This possible threat is also felt in terms of the cultural positioning of the European self towards the newcomer, a positioning in which the European self is differentiated from the newcomer’s culture and way of being. As a possible threat in the socio-cultural and political context, the newcomers and their participation in various arenas within these societies are particularly under attention and focus; in education, in media representation, in the labour market, in relation to state bureaucracy and so on, there is a overwhelming tendency to regulate and form the coexistence of those originally who belong to here, and those who have battled their ways into the Western world. These arenas are given particular attention in this book.

The Scope of this Book

The first challenge of this book is to show the contextual and situated aspect of culturalist practices in various places and countries, with a special focus on Norway and the Netherlands. Such a comparison is an invitation for rethinking culture, and by that, for challenging the culturalist approach. An Norwegian-Iranian for instance, despite similarities with a Dutch-Iranian, possesses different qualities as well, because this individual is situated in a dialectical relationship to the societies and other members of of the societies of which he or she is a part. This relational quality in understanding how culture in fact functions enables us to move beyond a categorical thinking in which ‘minorities’ are perceived, placed and treated as ‘the others’, while a ‘we’ is represented as the normal, the natural, and the rational who has the right to tame the wild horse of culture. In taking a relational stand and opposing this culturalist thinking, then, we consider the very diverse quality of the migrant, seen in relation to the societies and fields of which they are a part. This takes us further to a notion of resistance that is reflected not only by the migrant’s positioning and strategies within a given society, but also by the positioning and strategies of the native. One major positioning is the trans-national position which enables migrants to stand against hegemonic categorizations in search of new identities that are self-defined, and that are inspired by individual experiences in relation to structural forces. This strategy acknowledges that today’s multicultural Europe is in great need of shaping a democratic culture where the search for the new is the obvious right of all members of the society. Thus, this book attempts to move beyond borders and brings the trans-national into the centre of focus. Furthermore, by comparing experiences and insights we hope to bring a transnational dimension to the challenge of understanding diversity. A trans-national perspective can help us to reflect upon practices that are both taken for granted and allow us to peer inward with regard to diversity and the migrant’s condition. We believe that such a comparison can inform us of the contextual differences with regard to the ways that these practices are shaped and reshaped.

Beyond Categorical Thinking

The main criticism of the culturalist approach does not concern the idea of categorization, in and of itself. It is impossible to conceive of life without categories, including social classifications. The criticism concerns cultural categories being reified and turned into absolute contrasts. Within the social sciences, this type of conception of culture has been criticized since the late 1960s, when Barth (1969) argued that ethnic boundaries were not created and preserved because of differences in cultural content, but that these boundaries were constructed in order to pursue a political or otherwise instrumental goal. To be sure, cultural characteristics are thrown into sharp re...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• Part 1 Uneasy Categories
• Part 2 Cultural Categories in Practice
• Part 3 The Migrant's Positioning and the Public Space
• Index