The European Migration Crisis

Introduction

Since 2015, Europe has experienced a dramatic influx of migrants moving towards European borders in search of better lives, a phenomenon popularly known as ‘the migration crisis’ (Dunes et al, 2018). Statistical reports from various international bodies such as the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees (UNHCR), European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) International Organization for Migration (IOM) and indicate that the immigration crisis was at its highest in 2015/2016 a phenomenon unparalleled in post-war Europe (Cianciara, 2015). Since then, the migration crisis has become one of the most debated issues in Europe from political, social and economic perspectives.

More importantly, the immigration crisis has come along with reports of tragic losses of life happening in the Mediterranean that has sparked emotions and condemnation from both the public and humanitarian organizations. For instance, According to Fargues (2017), the IOM recently published statistics indicating that not less than 1000 people drown and die yearly as they cross the Mediterranean Sea, with 3317, 3416 and 5096 people dying in the year 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

The visualization and dissemination of information such as images of drowned children (. Alan Kurdi 2nd September 2015) (Bozdag, 2017) have sparked a change in Europeans’ social attitude towards the policy of admitting migrants into Europe as well as debates about multiculturalism.

The main aim of this essay is to evaluate how the migrant crisis has contributed to debates about multiculturalism in Europe. The essay takes Germany and Poland as case studies of European countries that have had notable multiculturalism debate, characterised by one side opposing multiculturalism and the other side for it; amidst the migrant crisis. Also within the essay, I try to establish the fundamental concepts of assimilation and integration in a bid to understand the multiculturalism debate better.

The issue of multiculturalism in Europe does not only present in the dimension of the migrant crisis but also concerns the issues of Muslim integration, xenophobia, anti-immigrant uprisings and right-wing extremism (Taşpınar, 2019). In fact, in some European countries such as Holland, the debate on multiculturalism is has not only taken toll of the parliament but also the general political class and political parties’ manifestos (Hall et al, 2015).

The debate about multiculturalism is not just about refugees but also economic migrants. Even when jobs are genuinely scarce in Europe, especially during recessions, immigrants have always become a scapegoat. This adds to the already depressing issue of 15 to 20 million Muslim migrants in Europe with several other cultures finding their ways into specific European countries such as the Pakistanis in the United Kingdom, the Turks residing in Germany and the Arabs residing in France (Taşpınar, 2019). When these groups are blamed for lack of jobs in the respective countries they reside, they feel discriminated and marginalized. For example, Baldwin-Edwards et al (2018) observe that Muslims in most European countries feel targeted as Islamist extremists.

One of the most common solutions proposed for this problem is integration. However, an argument emerges that integration might not be possible without multiculturalism. In this context, there has been a long-term debate about multiculturalism in Europe, some even concluding that multiculturalism no longer exists in Europe (Taşpınar, 2019). Particularly, some authors have argued against the existence of multiculturalism within Europe with reference to specific occurrences such as the emergence of home grown Jihadist in Europe. For instance, (Khader 2015) observes that the terrorist attacks by tiny jihadist groups and Islam fanatics have contributed to increased anti-Muslim movements in Europe so much so that unless there is a concerted effort by European societies to integrate and have an open door policy to Islam immigrants, the tensions might rise to worrisome levels. Nonetheless, based on the observations made by Taşpınar (2019), Europeans seems to embrace assimilation more than integration; bearing in mind that assimilation and integration are two different concepts.

While integration allows for some sense of multiculturalism, assimilation requires the immigrants to relinquish some elements of their culture or religion to fully adapt to the culture and religion of the host society (Czymara et al 2017). Thus, assimilation assumes that migrants are guests, and as the guests; it is their duty to fully adapt to European norms. The host society will not change for the migrants; migrants must change for the host country.

Conversely, integration demands less from immigrants. Believers in integration argue that both the host society and the migrants have a role to play. Therefore, migrants can integrate without being fully assimilated and because host European countries are gradually changing with rapid immigration, they are becoming more cosmopolitan (Dunes et al, 2018).

Believers in integration are more open to multiculturalism because they are of the idea that immigrants should have nothing more than learning their language and constitutional principles (Khader, 2015). Therefore, as opposed to assimilation, integration is not much focused on values. Besides, migrants who move to European countries in support of integration are not necessarily supposed to adopt the values and culture of the host country. According to Fotaki & Marianna (2019), this explains why assimilation, compared to integration, is less flexible and accommodative.

Worryingly, as evidenced by the recent backlash against it, Europe’s door is closing on multiculturalism. For instance, recent German polls reveal that a majority of Germans are in support of the propositions made by Thilo Sarrazin. Sarrazin, a prominent German politician belonging to the Social Democratic Party who argued out that German was becoming more stupid for welcoming more immigrants from Muslim countries (Taşpınar, 2019). Despite receiving opposition from other politicians such as Jurgen Habermas (Taşpınar, 2019), Sarrazan’s opposition to further Muslim immigration is a typical example of a growing European political class who are against multiculturalism.

Another European country where multiculturalism has received a huge debate following the migration crisis is Poland. With an increased coverage of the migration crisis in the media, Polish people have expressed mixed reactions towards multiculturalism and the migration crisis. Interestingly though, the migration crisis, even at its peak, came at a surprise to Poland (Hodor & Anna, 2016). Nonetheless, according to Laciak & Frelak (2018), the Poles attitude towards multiculturalism has been negative despite not having much experience with refugees.

In an attempt to understand the Poles negative attitude towards immigrants and multiculturalism, Jaskulowski (2019) asserted that much of it emanates from the negative portrayal of migrants in the media. Furthermore, Hodor & Anna (2016) argue that there has never been any neutral portrayal of the migrant crisis, and because the Poles have experienced various economic and political crises, they seem unwilling to accept another crisis. All these are against the backdrop that the more economically and politically successful neighbours such as Germany have expressed the migrant crisis as a security concern; the more Poles have grown confused and sceptical about immigration and multiculturalism (Stecker & Debus, 2019). Consequently, according to Sadeghi (2019), there has been an increased sense of marginality, prejudice and anti-immigrant racism in Poland.

There occurred a coincidence between the increase in European migration and Polish parliamentary election, and this increased the society’s interest in the crisis, sparking debates over the state’s migration policy that catalysed anti-multiculturalism in Poland (Bachman, 2016). According to Bockowski (2015), two factions emerged during the 2015 Poles’ parliamentary election, one supporting and the other opposing an open-door policy to migrants. The two-way dimension taken by Polish politician on this issue depicted the divided opinion of Poles on the issue whereby some sections came out as multicultural and multi-ethnic while others came out as national with little support for national diversity.

The varied opinion of Poles society towards multiculturalism and the migrant crisis has been confirmed by a variety of empirical studies conducted by international bodies. For instance, a survey by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) indicated that the Polish population had polarized opinion towards multiculturalism. More interestingly, research has revealed a consistently increasing number of respondents having no opinion over this matter, contributing to the proportion of population opposing the acceptance of refugees in Poland (CBOS, 2017). Particularly, the CBOS (2017) received the ‘difficult to say’ answer from 14% of the respondents, compared to 7% and 5% in 2016 and 2015 respectively. Furthermore, while 53% of the study participants in 2015 opposed accepting refugees, 33% of them supported it. Yet, in 2017, 74% opposed refugees while only 22% supported the acceptance of refugees into Poland (Bachman 2016, CBOS 2017).

Interestingly though, there is a sharp contrast between German and Polish stance on immigration and multiculturalism in general. Since the Polish right wing party (PiS) took power in (2015), there has been an aggressive anti-immigrant campaign that is speculated to have even contributed to hate crime. The Polish aggressiveness against immigrants landed them in a feud with Germany when it proposed the relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy across European Union (Pronczuk, 2019).

In conclusion, the migrant crisis has yielded a debate on multiculturalism among various European countries. Alongside this debate, there has been a lack of consensus over the assimilation and integration policies – supporters of multiculturalism embracing integration while those against multiculturalism embracing assimilation. Particularly, proponents of assimilation claim that migrants should try hard to learn and adopt the values of host countries while proponents of integration hold a more flexible position whereby both migrants and the host society have a role to play in accommodating each other. It is also clear that Europe is gradually closing the door for multiculturalism. The essay has revealed how two major European countries at the centre of the migrant crisis are developing a negative attitude towards multiculturalism, thanks to their politicians who are seeking nothing but populist votes.

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