Xenophobia

How Swedish politics has gradually shifted to the right and what happens next.

The EUI professor examines Europe’s ongoing struggle over social values in times of rising Islamophobia and growing nostalgia for a Christian Europe.

Since the crash of Polish President Lech Kaczyński’s plane in 2010, a period of renewed nationalism centred around Catholicism, conservatism, and an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality has taken hold in Poland. This wave of populism has led to an increase in division and violence.

The Green Observatory provides a round-up of perspectives on a current political issue from the Green European Journal’s partners around Europe. This edition focuses its lens on the so-called ‘refugee crisis’: how is this crisis perceived and does the perception at all correlate to facts? Are the new EU proposals responding to the situation and are EU member states willing to shoulder each other?

Η ιστορία είναι παλιά. Πριν από εκατό και ένα χρόνια, το 1914, στη Λέσβο ζούμε το πρώτο προσφυγικό κύμα από τα μικρασιατικά παράλια. Στην απαρχή του Α’ Παγκόσμιου Πολέμου, περισσότεροι από 50 χιλιάδες Μικρασιάτες, περνούν στο νησί. Η τοπική κοινωνία σοκάρεται, γίνεται προσπάθεια για την ένταξη των προσφύγων στην κοινωνία αλλά τα προβλήματα είναι πολλά. Γύρω στο ‘19 και ’20 πολλοί από τους πρόσφυγες επιστρέφουν στα σπίτια τους αλλά η Μικρασιατική καταστροφή του ‘22 ξυπνά και πάλι μνήμες του παρελθόντος με τη δεύτερη προσφυγιά. Εάν στην πρώτη προσφυγιά οι ντόπιοι ήταν κάπως ανεκτικοί στο ζήτημα, τη δεύτερη δεν μπορούν να τη διαχειριστούν.

There is nothing new about refugees fleeing from war. In the first years of World War I, more than 50,000 people arrived in Lesbos from the nearby shores of what is now Turkey. At the end of the war many of these refugees returned to Asia Minor (the Anatolian peninsula). But not much later the Greco-Turkish War and the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 sent more than a million refugees to Greece.

Greens are now in government in Sweden for the first time in the party’s 33-year-long history, yet the electoral result was regarded as disappointing. In light of the rise of xenophobic populists and a difficult political climate, it remains to be seen how Greens will fare in the new coalition.

Once again, the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and his far-right party, the PVV (Freedom Party), found themselves in the headlines. At an election meeting Wilders made racist remarks and stood by them. It is a distasteful development that will have consequences beyond the Netherlands.

Both multicultural and assimilationist models of integration have difficulties, but the intercultural approach could offer a way to move beyond concepts of majority and minority, host society and newcomers, and become a new model for Europe.

The European Union has always been a project that marries differing perspectives – the pursuit of peace and borders open to people, goods and ideas. However the steady evolution of this project has been disrupted by the economic crisis, which has led to a rise of xenophobic, nationalist thoughts. For Jean Lambert, Europe must now confront the idea of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ that exists and work towards creating a truly hospitable EU.