A new perspective on: reactions on the refugee crisis in Europe
Looking at Europe, there is one topic that has dominated the news for weeks: more and more refugees are fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and other countries to safer regions in Europe. Especially Germany has been the main destination because of the hospitality that they were showing but things are changing there now after a lot of critics have warned the chancellor Angela Merkel that capacities are exhausted. Right wing groups are winning more supporters. Other countries have already closed their borders. Where does this fear come from? And more important: what do the people really fear? Is it the religion? The loss of jobs and the money that is spend on refugees? The fear of being pushed out of one’s own country? All of those reasons are mentioned by critics of the open-door approach. But unknowingly, it is also a fear of the process of globalization that has been going on for the last decennia. One of the aspects of globalization is the immense increase in migration: migration of ideologies, of goods and services and migration of people. Thanks to the Schengen Agreement, people in Europe can travel through the member-states without border controls and there are thousands of flights that bring people from the one place to the other and the end of the world in just hours. Everyone in the world can order product from all around the world: we begin our morning with coffee from Papua-New Guinea, eat Italian pasta for lunch and drink South African wine in the evening. With the emergence of the internet, it has become easier than ever to share ideas and perspectives with many people around the whole globe. This process has brought many advantages for the people but it has also diminished the meaning of the nation. Borders become more invisible the more we act internationally instead of nationally. But exactly those borders have been an important part of people’s identity. Borders have always been something that people hold on to. They are fixed whereas other aspects that form identity – like religion, ethnicity or ideology – are rather elusive concepts. Refugees are challenging the perspective of fixed borders right now. They do not care where the one country ends and where the other starts because they seek the shelter they need as it is – and always should be! – their human right. But it makes people afraid that the one of the last identifiable aspects of their identity is neglected like this. The response to the refugee crisis could thus also be seen as a fearful reaction to the ongoing process of globalization and an identity crisis.
