Does Europe belong only to Europeans?
According to United Nations statistics, the issues of migration and refugees represent two of the most challenging crises of the new global landscape. As almost two thirds of international migrants currently live in Europe, the possibility of meeting foreigners every day has become an entire plausible theory. However, individuals continue to show distrust and hostility when such an interaction takes place. The animosity expressed by Europeans when it comes to refugees from Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan has sparked a lot of controversy over the past few months.
Academic discussion around the concept of xenophobia is mostly based on speculative statements and not elaborated theories. Comparative-historical sociology professor Prisecaru Ioana argues that xenophobia is defined differently across cultures and this makes it much harder to determine the causes that lead to its formation and the impact it has on a certain community: “It is very difficult to measure levels of xenophobia across different communities, firstly because we can identify multiple cultures within a state. So do the people within a culture identify themselves first as members of that specific culture, or as part of the state?
What exactly makes them develop a certain view on xenophobia? These are questions that only extensive research can answer. Regionalism as a concept is still disputed in international relations.” Alina Luchian, online marketing researcher, reveals that xenophobia can also be found online: “Some of our clients, especially those from Austria, Sweden or Germany, often specify that they do not want to interact with specific nationalities from outside of Europe.”
Damian R. Murray and Mark Schaller have explored in a recently published article the influence that the behavioural immune system has on social interaction and revealed that individuals tend to respond harshly to those who do not comply with the norms imposed by society. Psychology professor Anca Colotila agrees with the findings of the two scholars: “We are usually drawn towards things that are familiar to us. Everything else tends to receive an unwelcoming response. Conforming to the social norms already imposed inherently implies that we worry less about how our behaviour is going to be perceived as it is already accepted that we are going to fit in if we follow those rules.”
Academics from the department of psychology from the University of Oslo conducted a survey in 2013 that analysed the main category of factors that have an influence on the development of fear-related xenophobia. The results showed that levels of animosity are higher if no interaction between people belonging to a certain community and foreigners has previously taken place as individuals tend to form an opinion based on the information gained through a spectrum of different indirect agents, primarily the mass media.
Edith Rus, from the Romanian British Embassy, argues that not having the right information is one of the main reasons that leads to ignorance in a community: “Not everyone has details on the international struggles, so they fear for the space within which they live. This is exactly why people in positions of power should pay a lot of attention to their discourse. Mass media has an enormous influence on the perspective that people form regarding certain issues, especially when they encounter uncertainty, therefore we must pay attention to the used rhetoric.”
The European stance on the refugee crisis has been altered by the sexual assaults and thefts organised in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve. The attacks sparked an outpouring of anger after it was revealed that many of the perpetrators were Arab and North African refugees. The country’s welcoming attitude has slowly started to change as a YouGov survey conducted five days after the attacks revealed that 62% of Germans believe that the number of asylum seekers is too high, up 9% compared to the results from the November 2015 survey.
Anca Colotila explains that individuals can develop numerous fears, both rational and irrational, based either on sensible construction of beliefs or on simple preconceptions about the consequences that the interaction with foreigners implies. We are anxious of the cultural changes that the integration of Syrian refugees in our community, for example, might bring. The challenges surrounding this issue are extremely complex: not having a social and an economical system prepared to ensure an efficient level of integration might have severe repercussions on a bigger scale for a certain state.
When it comes to analysing differences in racial tolerance in Eastern versus Western Europe, the majority of studies reveal confusing results. A survey conducted by ORB International in 2015 based on representative samples from 14 countries throughout Europe revealed that 91% of the Bulgarians interviewed believed that economic migrants represent another burden for their country by taking their jobs, while only 21% of people from Iceland agreed with that statement. Furthermore, when asked if they would be willing to offer a room in their house for a refugee until their paperwork would be finalised, 86% of Bulgarians chose the “no” answer, while 46% of Icelanders chose the “yes” option.
Alexandra Virlan, political research assistant, highlights the growing support that right-wing nationalist parties have been gaining throughout the past few months across Europe: “Representatives from the far-right Front National Party in France have been directing all of their efforts towards becoming more and more visible before the 2017 presidential election and xenophobic messages are an important component of their campaign strategy. It remains to be seen whether they actually have an impact on voters.”
An Ipsos poll conducted in 2014 revealed that French people are becoming increasingly wary of interacting with people that identify themselves as belonging to a different culture: 66% of the people interviewed believed there were too many foreigners in France and a further 59% thought that immigrants do not make enough effort to integrate in their society. The survey also revealed that the levels of hostility have been growing steady each year.
Edith Rus argues that xenophobia is not a new issue in Europe, be it Western or Eastern: “I believe that there were tendencies towards these racist ideas long before the refugee crisis and a simple survey of European history after the Cold War could confirm this. It is sad, however, how the awareness of these problems are now only seen as an opportunity to spread xenophobic ideas on how we should handle the situation.”
As nationalist movements have been appealing to a growing sentiment of hostility towards immigrants across the European continent, in America one of the Republican Party’s presidential nominees, Donald Trump, has been receiving enthusiastic support after he vowed to deport undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America in case he gets elected.
Surveys based on a content analysis of media coverage have revealed that there is a gap between perception and reality when it comes to an individual’s understanding of any type of crisis. The discourse of global communications has created a sense of global moral solidarity that influences the way the mass media portrays a certain news story as simplification leads to a distorted understanding of a certain issue. The United Nations High Commision for Refugees defines a refugee as an individual that is forced to leave his or her home country due to severe persecution or armed conflict. The framing of a news story plays an important role here: the media keeps referring to refugees as “migrants” and this consequently intensifies the growing belief that they come to Europe for benefits, but the majority of refugees seeking asylum here come from war-zones such as Iraq, contradicting this popular opinion.
The political system and the media have to work in symbiosis to minimize the impact that the thriving sentiment of hostility towards foreigners in general could potentially have nowadays. Cultural diversity can play an important role in the social, political and economic development of a state and closing our barriers towards discovering more about the new global landscape is not an appropriate answer.
