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Z. Levin
Institute of Oriental Studies RAS
THE PROBLEM OF MULTICULTURALISM AND
CONFLICT POTENTIAL OF THE DIASPORA
People of different cultures have different views on the world. The only condition for the peaceful coexistence of different peoples with different cultures is a community of interests in the broad sense of the word, a certain connecting factor. Europe speaks about the failure of the policy of multiculturalism. D. Medvedev presents Russia of the future as a country of maximal tolerance. What choice will be made: rejection or acceptance of the principle of multi culturali sm?
It is necessary to distinguish between the processes of cultural interaction at a global level and at a local one. The objective historical process of globalization, that is, internationalization of the productive forces and need for consumption, leads to a synthesized planetary culture (infinitely distant goal). In fact, multiculturalism will exist on the planet while there are ethnic arrays. The greater the powerful potential of disintegration and the greater increase in the number of conflicts and their aggravation on the basis of financial, economic, corporate, ethno-national and religious clashes, the greater the opposition to globalization and the grater awareness of the community of interests of the international community. The reason is a sharp discrepancy between the development rate of the elements of the "triad" of society - the productive forces, and production relations and social consciousness - on a global scale. The pace of change in social relations, especially in public mind, is not commensurate with the rates of the technological revolution in the globalization era. It takes time to overcome the inertia of the existing relations and consciousness, especially in the East. Otherwise, the world will remain divided,
unequal and full of conflicts, although it is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent.
The process of cultural integration also takes place in countries with multi-ethnic population, but significantly faster, due to the territorial limitations of the state, a relatively small population compared to the global population, and awareness of the existence of common interests of the peoples in these countries. Especially in the so-called ideological states that have arisen on the basis of ideological constructs (Communist U.S.S.R., Zionist Israel, and Muslim Pakistan). Cultures of ethnic minorities are powerfully influenced by the culture of the dominant ethnic group in a multi-ethnic country, and, preserving their ethnic identity, they tend to lose elements of their ethnic specificity which complicate their existence in a multiethnic environment. Closeness of ethno-cultural groups constrains integration processes in the nation-states, giving rise to concerns in Europe in connection with the growth of the abnormal number of immigrants.
I will dare make some comments about the conflict potential of diasporas, or closed national and social formations.
My book "The Mentality of the Diaspora" was published ten years ago. I wanted to understand how people felt in emigration, on what principles The Diaspora mentality was formed. Even then it was obvious that the co-existence of the Diaspora and its host society was fraught with conflict. The Review of "International Migration: A Global Challenge" (Mentality 7) was published in Washington in 1996. There are no less than 15 million migrants in Europe today. The Diaspora has become a part of the host society, regarding itself as a natural, even necessary, element, although there are many shades in their relationships: from good-neighborly to ill-concealed antagonism. There is the division in "friend and foe". The Diaspora has its own
organization, sphere of services (doctors, lawyers, clerics, merchants), spiritual superstructure (traditions, historical memory, and culture). Although relationships between immigrants and the host society is based on mutual interest, their internal interests do not always coincide. Their goals are the same: self-preservation, but the goal of the host society is the preservation of stability and identity, and the Diaspora's goal is the matter of life and death. The potential of the conflict -complication of relations between the parties - is enclosed in a conflict of interest. Immigrants are not a problem for the recipient society, because they are few in number, represent an amorphous group of individuals, and are in a process of structuring the Diaspora, while it transforms into a social organism with the growing number of its members. At this stage, the host society forces the Diaspora to serve its interests, leaving immigrants a living space that is not occupied by original inhabitants.
Society is usually tolerant to immigrants until they become a cause of social tension. A growth in the number of immigrants (legal or illegal) creates difficulties for recipient countries, which are connected with the problems of social adaptation and discrimination on ethnic grounds and manifestations of racial prejudice. The demographic and confessional structure, and partly, cultural climate of the West, have been changed under the influence of the Diaspora. The Diaspora is increasingly a social and political actor in the struggle for privileges, for the right of cultural and religious identity in order to strengthen its position in the country of residence. This is unacceptable to society and exacerbates social tensions. Suffice it to recall the outrages committed by marginal North African youth in France in 2005, suffering from unemployment, and the problems that arose in the late 80s in connection with the prohibition of wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf by female students.
Conflicts associated with immigrants cause serious concern in the West. There is much talk about the threat of the Islamization of Europe, about the failure of the policy of assimilation and multiculturalism - the free development of culture in immigration.
The Diaspora is considered to be a part of the ethnic group, living outside its country of origin. These are people who leave their native country in search for a better life, or for political reasons. The Diaspora is a foreign element, a genetically alien group of people for the recipient country. Relations between them have many shades: from good neighborliness to latent antagonism.
Immigrants have made an invaluable contribution to the development of the North American economy and the restoration of the West European economy after World War II. Foreign workers accounted for about ten percent of the active population of Western Europe on the threshold of the third millennium. They have become an integral part of the host society by showing the local people to see them as a natural and necessary element. The number of legal and illegal immigrants, mainly from Asia, Africa and Latin America has been growing rapidly in the Euro-Atlantic world from the 1960s.
At the first stage of the immigrant history, certain mistrust prevailed in the host society and immigrant-outsiders could only rely on their own strength in the struggle for survival. They were under protection of a collective in a structured community-enclave, a custodian of community interests in the Diaspora.
The degree of conflict in the "immigrant-native" relationship depends both on the nature of the Diaspora, as well as on political and social climate in the host country. Generally, the harder the conditions of life for immigrants, the more important for them to have a Diaspora as a social structure that can help them, and the closer its cohesion,
sometimes approaching self-imposed isolation. An inferiority complex, a sense of alienation develops among immigrants, complicating the process of adaptation. Conversely, the more favorable is the environment, the less important is the support of the Diaspora, the closer is its communion with the native population, and the easier is integration.
Immigration policy of recipient countries is a variable quantity. The high degree of tolerance of other religions and peoples, which the West boasts, is reduced as soon as there is no urgent need for manpower and there are problems with the provision of social guarantees for immigrants. Attempts to integrate them either by assimilation or as part of the policy of multiculturalism fail in an atmosphere of xenophobia and malevolence. This applies primarily to people from Asian and African countries that make up the vast majority of immigrants in Europe, and a significant section of the disadvantaged social bottom. An immigrant is "twice alien" if he is African or Asian. According to sociological surveys, published in 1997, xenophobia is common among thirty-four percent of the population in Germany, 55 percent of the population in Belgium, 38 percent of the population in France, and 32 percent of the population in Engl and2. Territorial and cross-border movement of people has become a mass phenomenon, the global information space has been formed that promoted politicization of public consciousness in the developing world. Experience of nation-states unable to solve vital problems, a contrast between the living conditions of the "golden billion" and the peoples of Asia and Africa, the democratization of education, the expansion of Western culture -all this led to the emancipation of the consciousness of Asia and Africa. It seems that their inferiority complex has been replaced by the awareness of their worthiness. Civil, cultural, ethnic and religious
identities become a form of awareness of self-worth for them. They want to live by their own rules.
Globalization does not change the basic characteristics of life of diasporas. Coexistence of immigrants and the host society is still based on mutual interest. However, they are not actively seeking integration into the society of the country of residence in the mainstream of assimilation, and the policy of multiculturalism has not led to the gradual disappearance of the Diaspora. Immigrant youth of the second and third generations are increasingly demonstrating commitment to and interest in culture and life in their historical homeland. The Diaspora has insistently sought to participate in public and political life of the recipient country.
A special feature of immigration in Europe is predominance of immigrants from Muslim countries - up to 10 percent. Western Europe is the natural center of attraction for immigrants from its former colonies in the Middle East, Africa, India, as well as Southeast Asia for Chinese and the United States for Latinos. The integration process is associated with considerable difficulties, since emigration faces hardly compatible socio-cultural traditions of the West and the East. Egyptians adapt to the cultural environment of any Arab country and enter into its society quite easily, as compared with representatives of another culture. All necessary mechanisms exist in the mentality of an Egyptian, which are capable to respond adequately to the changes in living conditions. And vice versa: the greater the distance, the harder it is to adapt to the new conditions of life. This is especially true of Muslims.
Adherence to Islam has become the main feature of the overwhelming majority of migrants from Muslim countries for the local population. They are all Muslims first of all, and only then Turks, Arabs, Pakistanis or Afghans. Islam has become a way of life for
believers, religious community is above any community for them. This is the uniqueness of Islam. Muslims regard any insult as an attack on their faith, and insulting their sanctities is considered a challenge to the entire Muslim community.
Insofar as Islam represents and legitimates socially accepted concepts of good and evil, this religion has always been a powerful factor in the manipulation of public consciousness. Islam offers a model to overcome socio-economic and spiritual crises, defining social and political behavior of believers. Immigrants painfully react to the Western political diktat in their country of origin and to the hegemony of the financial, economic and cultural media, and that steps up the processes of Islamization and re-Islamization of public life in Muslim countries.
The influence of Islamists is growing among the Muslim diaspora in the West. Islamism is a global theocentric project chosen by Muslims for the idea of salvation of mankind from secularism, nationalism and globalization. Islamists believe that all troubles come as a consequence of non-compliance with the commandments of the Koran, the expansion of Western consumer and materialistic civilization that threatens Muslim spiritual values, the advancement of materialistic ideologies and Western morality, the Western principle of separating politics from religion, and pro-Western orientation of the rulers of certain Muslim countries.
Simple and accessible formulation of the essence of Islam contributes to the successful promotion of ordinary Muslims. Its essence is that the Sharia is God-established law of social life; everything that does not comply with the Sharia, is the deviation from the true path, is evil that must be destroyed in the name of goodness and justice on earth. Islamist rhetoric meets with understanding on the part of the protesting Muslim population.
The more people lose faith in the possibility to achieve justice, as they understand it, the more conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims, the greater the influence of radical Islamists.
Islamism generated by the crisis situation in the Middle East in the latter half of the twentieth century and a combination of economic and political factors with the specifics of Islam, is consonant with protest sentiments of both educated and uneducated Muslims, townspeople and villagers, intellectuals and lower social strata, people of the right and left, anti-Westerners and moderate people acting only against western expansionism, and also religious extremists.
The great danger of radical Islamism waging a holy war for the revival of the Islamic Caliphate and world domination of the Sharia law, consists precisely of the fact, that a one-sixth of humanity professes Islam. Islamists try to raise the protest level of Muslims to the contradiction between Muslim and Christian civilizations.
Islamist activities led to a sharp increase in anti-Islamic sentiment in connection with the growing influence of Muslims in the Euro-Atlantic world. Public opinion in the Western countries, for the most part, believes that extremism and terrorism are inherent in Islam. The West is worried that European culture can be absorbed by the culture of Muslims. Tolerance of Europeans seems to be waning.
Nationalists of all sorts call for the protection of Europe from Islamization, and their appeals find positive response on the part of the broad public.
Thus, coexistence and mutual understanding between the Diaspora and the host society is the norm today. However, the growing immigrant communities increasingly demand that Western society consider more seriously and pay greater attention to the specifics
of their world perception and cultural features, all that creates conflicts and intractable problems.
Notes
1 Voprosy istorii [Questions of History] 1998, № 9. p. 72
2 Novaia Gazeta 29.09.2010
"Strany Vostika: Sotsialno-politicheskie, sotsialno-ekonomicheskie, etnokonfessionalnye i Sotsiokulturnyie problemy v kontekste globalizatsii", Moscow, 2012, pp. 163-170.
