5.3: Identity and Migration in Europe

Learning Objectives

1. Describe Europe's major migration flows.
2. Distinguish between centripetal and centrifugal forces.
3. Evaluation how nationalism influences Europe's geopolitics.

 

European Migration

The Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions shaped both migration patterns within Europe and immigration to the region. Migration refers to a move from one place to another intended to be permanent. When considering migration, geographers look at both intraregional migration, movement within a particular region, and interregional migration, such as migration from Europe to North America. Geographers who study migration also investigate push and pull factors that influence people to move. Push factors are those that compel you to move from your current location. A lack of job opportunities, environmental dangers, or political turmoil would all be considered push factors. Pull factors, on the other hand, are those that entice you to move to a new place, and might include ample jobs, freedom from political or religious persecution, or simply the availability of desirable amenities. Historically, most intraregional migration in Europe was rural to urban, as people moved from farms to cities to find work. Cities grew rapidly in the region as centers of trade and industry.

Before the industrial revolution, migration to the region was usually in the form of invasions, such as with the Roman Empire, the Islamic Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. One notable, historical migration that did not represent an invading empire was the Jewish diaspora following the conquest of Judea, the region now known as Israel and Palestine, by a number of groups including the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans. A diaspora refers to a group of people living outside of their ancestral homeland and many Jewish people moved to Europe to escape violence and persecution, particularly after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Jews migrating to Europe were often met with anti-Semitism, however. During the Middle Ages, European Jews were routinely attacked and were expelled from several countries including England and France. Jewish communities were destroyed during the mid-14th century as the Black Death swept across Europe and thousands of Jews were murdered, accused of poisoning the water and orchestrating the epidemic. In actuality, the disease was likely spread by rats, and worsened by the superstitious killing of cats in the same time period.

European Jews were often forced to live in distinct neighborhoods, also known as ghettos. In fact, this requirement to live in specific areas was required in Italy under areas ruled by the Pope until 1870. These distinctive communities were often met with suspicion by European Christians, many of whom continued to foster the same anti-Semitic sentiment that had been prevalent during the Middle Ages.

This anti-Semitic fervor and persecution of Jews reached its height at the time of the Nazi Party’s rule in Germany. Prior to World War II, close to 9 million Jews lived in Europe; 6 million of them were killed in the Holocaust, the European genocide that targeted Jews, Poles, Soviets, communists, homosexuals, the disabled, and numerous other groups viewed as undesirable by the Nazi regime. Following the war, many surviving Jews emigrated back to the newly created state of Israel. Around 2.4 million Jews live in Europe today.

There was another shift in population after the signing of the Schengen Agreement in 1995, with large numbers of immigrants from Eastern Europe migrated to the western European countries in the core. Citizens of European Union countries are permitted to live and work in any country in the EU, and countries like the United Kingdom and Spain contain large numbers of Eastern European immigrants. Around half of all European migrants are from other countries within Europe.

Economic and political inequalities have driven much of the interregional migration to Europe since the 1980s. Immigrants from North Africa and Southwest Asia, for example, driven by limited employment opportunities and political conflict, have migrated to Europe in large numbers and now represent approximately 12 percent of all European migrants. In 2020, the three sending countries whose citizens received a first residence permit in the European Union and Norway were Ukraine (27% of all permits), Morocco (6%), and India (4%).

 

Shifting National Identities

What does it mean to be European? Perhaps simply it means someone who’s from Europe. But what does it mean to be French or German or Spanish or British? These countries have long been comprised of a number of different ethnic and linguistic groups (Figure 5.3.1). Spain, for example, not only contains groups speaking Spanish, the language of the historic Castilian people of the region, but also the Basque-speaking region in the north, the Catalan-speaking region centered around Barcelona, and numerous other distinct language groups. The United Kingdom, while comprised primarily of people who identify as “English,” also includes the areas of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, each with a distinct linguistic and cultural identity. The Welsh are actually believed to be the oldest ethnic group within the United Kingdom, so perhaps they could argue that they represent the original national identity.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Main European languages simplified by following national borders in many cases. The map does not reflect the fact that many regions are bilingual, officially and/or in practice. (public domain; Andrei nacu via Wikimedia Commons).

 

Before the creation of states as we understand them today, Europe, as with the rest of the world, was divided largely by ethnicity or tribe. Empires often took control of multiple ethnic areas. Familial allegiances were of fundamental importance. That’s not to say that geography or territory didn’t matter, but simply that who you were mattered more than where you were.

The creation of sovereign political states changed this notion. Multiple ethnicities were often lumped together under single political entities, sometimes due to peaceful alliances and sometimes due to armed conquest. In cases where a state was dominated by a single, homogeneous ethnic and linguistic cultural identity, we would refer to it as a nation-state, from the term state, meaning a sovereign political area, and nation, meaning a group with a distinct ethnic and cultural identity. Several European countries today are considered nation-states, including Poland, where 93 percent of the population is ethnically Polish, and Iceland, which is 92 percent Icelandic. Historically, countries like France and Germany were also considered nation-states, though immigration has changed their cultural landscape.

The concept of nation-state is distinct from the idea of nationalism, which refers the feeling of political unity within a territory. National flags, anthems, symbols, and pledges all inspire a sense of belonging amongst people within a geographic area that is distinct from their ethnic identity.

What happens when feelings of nationalism and national identity are linked with a particular ethnic group? In cases where a particular ethnic group represents the majority, nationalist ideals might be representative of that group’s language or religion. But what if there are other, minority ethnic groups that are excluded from what people think it means to be part of a particular state’s nationalist identity?

Migration has continually changed the cultural landscape of Europe and as immigrant groups have challenged or been challenged by ideas of nationalism. In 1290 CE, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, essentially establishing Christianity as being at the core of English national identity. This expulsion lasted until 1657 CE. In France after the French Revolution, ideas of nationalism included “liberty, equality, and fraternity,” and extended into areas they conquered. In Germany, what it meant to be “German” under the Nazi Party excluded those who were considered to be “undesirable” and “enemies of the state,” such as Jews, Roma (sometimes referred to as Gypsies), persons labeled as “homosexuals,” communists, and others. Under Benito Mussolini, Italian nationalism excluded Slavs, Jews, and non-white groups.

Nationalism, taken to this extreme, is known as fascism. Fascists believe that national unity, to include a strong, authoritarian leader and a one-party state, provides a state with the most effective military and economy. Fascist governments might thus blame economic difficulty or military losses on groups that threaten national unity, even if those groups include their own citizens.

Within every country, ideas of nationalism grow, weaken, and change over time. Centrifugal forces are those that threaten national unity by dividing a state. These might include differing religious beliefs, linguistic differences, or even physical barriers within a state. In contrast, centripetal forces tend to unify people within a country. A charismatic leader, a common religion or language, and a strong national infrastructure can all work as centripetal forces. Governments could also promote centripetal forces by unifying citizens against a common enemy, such as during the Cold War. Although the countries of Europe always had a significant amount of ethnic and linguistic variety, they typically maintained a strong sense of national identity. Religion in particular often worked as a centripetal force, uniting varying cultural groups under a common theological banner.

Religious adherence in Europe is shifting, however. In Sweden, for example, over 80 percent of the population belonged to the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran denomination, in 2000. By 2014, only 64.6 percent claimed membership in the church and just 18 percent of the population stated that they believed in a personal God (Figure 5.3.2). This is indicative of a broad shift in Europe from traditional, organized religion toward humanism or secularism. Humanism is a philosophy emphasizing the value of human beings and the use of reason in solving problems. Modern humanism was founded during the French Revolution, though early forms of humanism were integrated with religious beliefs. Secular humanism, a form of humanism that rejects religious beliefs, developed later. Secularism refers broadly to the exclusion of religious ideologies from government or public activities.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Importance of Religion in Europe. Percentage who say religion is very important in their lives based on Pew Research surveys conducted in 2015-2017 in 34 countries. The highest responses are from Greece (55%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (54%), and Romania (50%). The lowest responses are from Estonia (6%), the Czech Republic (7%), and Denmark (8%) (used by permission; Landgeist).

 

Geographers can examine how secularization has occurred in Europe; that is, how Europe has been transformed from countries with strong religious values to a more nonreligious society. In general, areas within the core of Europe tend to be more secular and thus some researchers link secularization with rising economic prosperity. Most Western European countries have strong social welfare programs, where citizens pay a higher percentage of taxes to support universal healthcare, higher education, child care, and retirement programs. These social welfare programs often serve as centripetal forces, unifying a country by providing government support and preventing citizens from falling into extreme poverty.

 

Current Migration Patterns

The increasing secularization of Western Europe has magnified the conflict over immigration to the region. Whereas Western Europeans have become less religious over time, immigrants to the region are generally more religious. Increasing numbers of Muslim immigrants from North Africa and Southwest Asia have settled in Europe, lured by the hope of economic prosperity and political freedom. In 2010, around 6 percent of Europe identified as Muslim. That number is expected to grow to 10 percent by 2050. Muslims have the highest fertility rate among the major religious groups, so coupled with increasing immigration, this population is growing. In contrast, just under three-quarters of Europeans identified as Christian in 2010. This is expected to drop to 65 percent in 2050.

Europeans are divided about how open the region should be to immigrants, and how asylum seekers, refugees seeking sanctuary from oppression, should be treated. Even before the 2015 wave of Syrian migrants to Europe, a 2012-2014 survey showed that most Europeans (52 percent) wanted immigration levels to decrease. Opinions vary within the region, however. In the United Kingdom, 69 percent of people support decreased immigration. In Greece, a gateway country for migrants attempting to enter Europe, 84 percent of people desire decreased immigration. A majority of adults in Northern European countries, however, want immigration to stay the same or increase.

In 2014 and 2015, migration to Europe intensified as a result of an ongoing civil war in Syria. There were more refugees in 2014 than in any other year since World War II. 2015 shattered that record, however, as 65.3 million people were displaced. Germany has received the most applications for people seeking refugee status.

The journey for migrants is difficult and dangerous. Many attempt to cross by sea into Greece. Boats are often overcrowded and capsizing is common. Around 34 percent of refugees are children, many of them unaccompanied. Although the entire influx of refugees represents around 0.5 percent of Europe’s population, it is not necessarily the sheer number of refugees that poses a problem, but rather, the idea of how immigrant populations might change the identity of a nation-state.

Many small towns in Europe have experienced shifting demographics as people move away to work in cities and immigrants move in to work in the available jobs. As Western Europe moved through industrialization, it has increasingly shifted away from heavy manufacturing and increased employment in service and high-tech industries, a process known as deindustrialization. The higher-skilled and higher-educated workers from small towns moved to the cities to find work, while lower-skilled immigrants worked the often dangerous or labor intensive jobs that remained. In the United Kingdom in particular, many of the people who oppose immigration and supported Britain leaving the EU are located in these small towns where immigration has quite visibly changed the cultural landscape that had already shifted as a result of deindustrialization.

For some, the debate over immigration and asylum are less questions of national identity and more issues of social justice. Do countries that have political freedom and economic prosperity have a moral obligation to assist those in need? Historically, the answer has often been “no.” In 1938, on the brink of World War II, representatives from Western European countries voted not to accept Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Numerous countries in Europe have similarly voted not to accept Syrian migrants. Countries like Germany, which has accepted a relatively large number of asylum seekers, have been critical of other countries that have not been as welcoming. Sweden has specifically argued that if every country in Europe accepted a proportional amount of refugees, they would easily be able to accommodate the influx. Refugee populations typically have lower unemployment rates than native-born populations and though they require social services like housing and employment, can provide a long-term economic boost by increasing the labor force, especially in countries with otherwise declining populations.

Europe’s population will continue to shift in terms of demographics and cultural identity. Recent economic changes and migration patterns have highlighted deep divides about ideas of national identity and the role of the region in global affairs. Europe continues to be an influential and economically important region and will likely continue to attract migrants from surrounding areas.

 

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Attributions

"Connecting Europe's Past to the Present" is adapted from World Regional Geography by Caitlin Finlayson (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).