Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T08:01:15.138Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coherent Selves, Viable States: Eastern Europe and the “Migration/Refugee Crisis”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2017

Dace Dzenovska
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay argues that what is at stake in debates about the difference between eastern and western Europe in the context of migration and asylum politics is the definition of a politically- and ethically-acceptable threshold of “too many,” which takes on concrete contours in relation to historically-formed understandings of coherent selves and viable polities. The argument derives from placing analysis of the alleged political and ethical failures of eastern Europe alongside those limits of refugee/migrant intake that are considered politically legitimate and ethically justifiable from the mainstream liberal democratic perspective. The essay proposes that in order to understand the European political landscape in relation to migration, it is necessary to undertake relational analysis of the different configurations of the Europe-wide tension between inclusion and exclusion, as well as analysis of the modes of power that differentiate between these configurations of inclusion and exclusion on moral grounds.

Type
Critical Forum: The East European Response to the 2015 Migration Crisis
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 297 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Some of the ideas in this essay are drawn from my book: Dzenovska, Dace, School of Europeanness: Tolerance and Other Lessons in Political Liberalism in Latvia, (forthcoming, 2018)Google Scholar.

2. Ivaylo Ditchev, “Borders Are Back in Fashion,” Eurozine, February 12, 2016, at http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2016-02-12-ditchev-en.html (last accessed February 14, 2017) See also: Ivan Krastev, “Utopian Dreams Beyond the Border,” Eurozine, June 24, 2016, at http://www.eurozine.com/utopian-dreams-beyond-the-border/ (last accessed February 14, 2017).

3. Sassen, Saskia, Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Cambridge, Mass., 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Li, Tania Murray, “To Make Live or Let Die? Rural Dispossession and the Protection of” Surplus Populations,” Antipode 41 Supplement 1 (January 2010): 66–93 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. Lucht, Hans, Darkness before Daybreak: African Migrants Living on the Margins in Southern Italy Today (Berkeley, 2012)Google Scholar; Schilke, Samuli, Egypt in the Future Tense: Hope, Frustration and Ambivalence before and after 2011 (Bloomington, 2015)Google Scholar.

6. For an example of the “no borders” argument, see: Anderson, Bridget, Sharma, Nandita & Wright, Cynthia, “Editorial: Why No Borders?,” Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees 26, no. 2 (2009): 5–18 Google Scholar. For an argument that the “no borders” argument is a heuristic device, see Harald Bauder, “Open Borders: A Utopia?,” Justice Spatiale—Spatial Justice 5, (2012/2013): 2–16, at www.jssj.org/article/un-monde-sans-frontieres/ (last accessed February 15, 2017). For a recounting of Regis Debray's argument in defense of borders, see: Tom Nairn, “Frontiers: A Re-evaluation,” Open Democracy, March 12, 2013, at www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/tom-nairn/frontiers-re-evaluation (last accessed February 15, 2017). For an example of an argument in favor of limiting migration, see Collier, Paul, Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World, (Oxford, 2013)Google Scholar.

7. For an explanation of the analytical of relationality, see Goldberg, David, “Racial Comparisons, Relational Racisms: Some Thoughts on Method,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32, no. 7 (September 2009): 1271–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Massey, Doreen, For Space (London, 2005)Google ScholarPubMed.

8. It should be noted that the nature of the crisis has been highly contested. Some argue that it is a humanitarian crisis, others that it is a crisis of Europe. It is also politically consequential whether one uses the term “migrants” or “refugees,” for the European governments’ openness to accepting people crucially depends on a strict separation of deserving refugees from undeserving migrants. For interventions that emphasize eastern Europe's moral and political failures in the midst of crisis, see Rick Lyman, “Eastern Bloc's Resistance to Refugees Highlights Europe's Cultural and Political Divisions,” The New York Times. September 12, 2015, at www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/world/europe/eastern-europe-migrant-refugee-crisis.html (last accessed February 15, 2015); Jan Т. Gross, “Eastern Europe's Crisis of Shame,” Project Syndicate, September 13, 2015, at www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eastern-europe-refugee-crisis-xenophobia-by-jan-gross-2015–09?barrier=true (last accessed February 16, 2017); Michal Simecka & Benjamin Tallis, “Fighting the Wrong Battle: A Crisis of Liberal Democracy, Not Migration,” Open Democracy, September 4, 2015, at www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/michal-simecka-benjamin-tallis/fighting-wrong-battle-central-europe%E2%80%99s-crisis-is-o (last accessed February 16, 2017); Jacques Rupnik, “The Other Europe,” Eurozine. September 11, 2015, at www.eurozine.com/articles/2015–09–11-rupnik-en.html (last accessed February 16, 2017); Ivan Krastev, “Eastern Europe's Compassion Deficit,” The New York Times, September 8, 2015, at www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/opinion/eastern-europes-compassion-deficit-refugees-migrants.html?_r=1 (last accessed February 16, 2017); Rayyan Sabet-parry and Karl Ritter, “Scant Sympathy for Refugees in Europe's Ex-communist East,” The Business Insider, September 11, 2015, at www.businessinsider.com/ap-scant-sympathy-for-refugees-in-europes-ex-communist-east-2015-9?IR=T (last accessed February 16, 2017); Paul Hockenos, “The Stunning Hypocrisy of Mitteleuropa,” Foreign Policy, September 12, 2015, at http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/10/the-stunning-hypocrisy-of-mitteleuropa-refugees-poland-hungary-czech-republic/ (last accessed February 16, 2017); Gustav Gressel, “Understanding Eastern European Attitudes on Refugees,” European Council on Foreign Relations, September 11, 2015; at www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_understanding_eastern_european_attitudes_on_refugees4019 (last accessed February 16, 2017); Gérard Roland, “Why the Rift between Eastern and Western Europe on the Refugee Crisis?,” The Berkeley Blog, September 9, 2015, http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/09/09/why-the-rift-between-eastern-and-western-europe-on-the-refugee-crisis-2/ (last accessed February 15, 2016).

9. For analysis of Enlightenment perceptions about eastern Europe, see Wolff, Larry, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of Enlightenment (Stanford: 1994)Google Scholar. See also Zarycki, Tomasz, Ideologies of Eastness in Central and Eastern Europe (London, 2014)Google Scholar.

10. For examples from Latvia, see: Nikolā Ozano, “Ārzemju skatītāja vēstule slavenam režisoram,” Satori, December 16, 2015, at http://www.satori.lv/raksts/10483/Arzemju_skatitaja_vestule_slavenam_rezisora (last accessed February 16, 2017); Dmitrijs Golubevs, “Bēgļu jautājums: Satversmes preambula un Latvijas vērtības,” Ir, August 21, 2015, at http://www.irlv.lv/blogi/politika/beglu-jautajums-satversmes-preambula-un-latvijas-vertibas (last accessed February 16, 2017); Ilmārs Šlāpins, “Man arī bēgļi nepatīk,” Satori, September 21, 2015, www.satori.lv/raksts/9983/Ilmars_Slapins/Man_ari_begli_nepatik (last accessed February 16, 2017); Andris Saulītis, “Savējie bēgļi,” Satori, September 7, 2015, www.satori.lv/raksts/9889/Andris_Saulitis/Savejie_begli (last accessed February 16, 2017); Andris Šuvajevs, “Pieraksti par bēgļiem,” Delfi, August 5, 2015, www.delfi.lv/news/comment/comment/andris-suvajevs-pieraksti-par-begliem-2.d?id=46298381 (last accessed February 16, 2017).

11. For an extended analysis, see: Dzenovska, School of Europeanness.

12. Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe; Zarycki, Ideologies of Eastness; Todorova, Maria, Imagining the Balkans (Oxford, 1997)Google Scholar.

13. Boundary-thinking may not be universal, as argued by Fredrik Barth, but it is a feature of European understandings of self and modes of organizing collective life, which Barth links to the institution of private property. See Barth, Fredrik “Boundaries and Connections,” in Cohen, Anthony, ed., Signifying Identities: Anthropological Perspectives on Boundaries and Contested Values, (London, 2000), 17–36 Google Scholar; see also Anderson, Bridget, Us and Them?: The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Control (Oxford, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Cowan, Jane, “The Supervised State,” Identities 14, no. 5 (October-December, 2007): 545–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York, 1951)Google Scholar; Dzenovska, School of Europeanness.

15. Post-World War I statecraft in eastern Europe was, of course, also shaped by nationalist and nation-building efforts that began in the 19th century. But, as in the case of Latvia, not all nation-builders embraced aspirations for political self-determination. In retrospect, however, the birth of the nation-state after World War I is seen as realization of the will of the people rather than a historical contingency. In this brief essay, my aim is to point to the effects of international statecraft on political imaginary in eastern Europe.

16. Skultāns, Vieda, “Looking for a Subject: Latvian Memory and Narrative,” in Skultāns, Vieda, Empathy and Healing: Essays in Medical and Narrative Anthropology, (Oxford, 2007), 175–89Google Scholar.

17. Gilbert, Andrew & Mujanovic, Jasmin, “Dayton at Twenty: Towards New Politics in Bosnia-Hercegovina,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 15, no. 4 (December 2015): 605–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Feldman, Gregory, “Estranged States: Diplomacy and the Containment of National Minorities in Europe,” Anthropological Theory 5, no. 3 (September 2005): 219–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dzenovska, School of Europeanness.

18. Patrick Kingsley, “Sweden Calls on Army to Help Manage the Refugee Crisis,” The Guardian, November 10, 2015, at www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/10/sweden-calls-on-army-to-help-manage-refugee-crisis (last accessed February 16, 2017).

19. “Migrant crisis: Sweden border checks come into force,” BBC, January 4, 2016, accessed February 10, 2016, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35218921 (last accessed February 16, 2017).

20. Heather Saul, “Refugee Crisis: Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister Asa Romson Cries as She Announces Asylum Policy U-turn,” The Independent, November 26, 2015, at www.independent.co.uk/news/people/refugee-crisis-sweden-deputy-prime-minister-cries-as-she-announces-u-turn-on-asylum-policy-a6749531.html (last accessed February 16, 2017).

21. Pred, Allan, Even in Sweden: Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and Popular Geographical Imagination (Berkeley, 2000)Google Scholar.

22. M'charek, Amade, Schramm, Katharina & Skinner, David, “Topologies of Race: Doing Territory, Population and Identity in Europe,” Science, Technology and Human Values 39, no. 4 (July 2013): 468–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Douglas Carswell, “Farage's ‘Breaking Point’ Posters Were Indefensible—but I'm Glad We Voted Leave,” The Guardian, June 27, 2016, at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/27/britain-eu-vote-leave-ukip (last accessed February 16, 2017).

24. Following European Union enlargement in 2004, many citizens of the new member states moved to live and work in older member states, especially those, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden, that did not institute a seven-year transitional ban on freedom of movement. Many UK citizens consider that the migration flow was too large.

25. Dzenovska, School of Europeanness.

26. In 2005, the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons about Muhammad under the title of “The Face of Muhammad.” This triggered protests among Denmark's Muslims, who considered the cartoons a blasphemy. The protests became international in 2006. The editor of the paper justified the decision to publish these cartoons by invoking the right to free speech, which, he thought, was becoming endangered. For analysis of the Danish cartoon scandal, see: Mahmood, Saba, “Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide?,” Critical Inquiry 35, no. 4 (Summer 2009): 836–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Keane, Webb, “Freedom and Blasphemy: On Indonesian Press Bans and Danish Cartoons,” Public Culture 21, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 47–76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For criticism of migrant conduct on the Balkan route, see: “The Refugees Telling other Refugees to Stop Dropping Rubbish,” BBC, September 9, 2015, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34199602 (last accessed February 16, 2017). For a report on the cologne attacks, see: “Cologne Sex Attacks: Women Describe “Terrible” Assaults,” BBC, January 7, 2016, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35250903 (last accessed February 16, 2017).

27. For example, see: Laila Lalami, “Who is to blame for the Cologne sex attacks?,” The Nation, March 10, 2016, www.thenation.com/article/who-is-to-blame-for-the-cologne-sex-attacks/ (last accessed February 16, 2017); see also Žižek, Slavoj, Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with Neighbours (London, 2016)Google Scholar for an argument that these are ritualistic acts of violence by the dispossessed.

28. Popper, Karl, The Open Society and Its Enemies (Princeton, 2013)Google Scholar.

29. Böröcz, József, “Goodness is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48, no.1 (January 2006): 110–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Dzenovska, School of Europeanness.