European Self Definition and How its Changed (Essay Sample)

After the year 1945 Europe had seen a change in immigration. Europeans’ self-definition requires you to be a citizen of that nation, but in order to be a citizen you must have the same “blood”. The massive immigration to Europe created many problems for these European nations. One example that the book “Merriman” gives us states, “the number of foreigners living in Western Europe tripled in thirty years” (Merriman 1243). Another source of immigration came when communism fell in Eastern Europe allowing more immigrants to travel into Western European nations. As we start to move further past the year 1945, we see the changes that take place within these European nations and how the self-definition changes as well.

During World War II many Europeans were immigrating out of their nations but, “after the destruction of World War II instead of Europeans moving out foreigners moved in” (Chin 2). Since the immigration rates in Western Europe were so high, people started to take action, political leaders that were against immigration started to win elections. Citizens of these nations were fed up with the fact that immigrants were taking their jobs along with citizens thinking that they didn’t belong there. In Great Britain a new policy was established “preventing the entrée of West Indian and other “undesirable” New Commonwealth migrants” (Chin 85). This wasn’t the only policy or country that restricted immigrations, others followed making it harder for people to immigrate into Western Europe. Following Great Britain another example from Peter Griffiths; and he states, “It must be recognized that the presence in this country of nearly one million immigrants from the Commonwealth with different social and cultural backgrounds raises a number of problems and creates various social tensions in those areas where they have concentrated” (Chin 89). After political leaders started speaking out both opposing parties agreed with one another to prioritize immigration restrictions but, work on combating discrimination as well. We can see the self-definition of these Western Europeans creates the unwillingness to accept these people with different social as well as cultural backgrounds not only do they want them out of their country they are discriminating anyone who is not a citizen of Western Europe.

As the immigration into Western Europe continues, we see some changes happening within between these nations and how they are going to deal with this influx of immigrants coming from other countries. Leaders took action trying to make Western Europe more connected and diverse, combating these social issues brought upon these immigrants, in “West Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker created the post of “commissioner for foreigner affairs” to spearhead a city-based effort to incorporate guest workers and their families into German society” (Chin 254). Richard von Weizsäcker wasn’t the only political leader that was stepping up, the “Green-Party had been pushing hard for the creation of an Office of Multicultural Affairs” (Chin 257). Reform is what these Western European nations needed, resources to help immigrants adapt to social and cultural changes along with supplying jobs and labor work withing these areas of concentrated immigrant communities. Another problem in Wester Europe was citizenship. Citizenship in these nations was originally impossible to obtain due to the fact that you had to be the same “blood” or have ancestors that were from these nations. Laws started being passed in Germany in 1999 a law was passed allowing “birthright citizenship” meaning if you were born in Germany, you would be allowed to choose your nationality at the age of eighteen and have until twenty-three to make your decision. This law “marked a crucial milestone in German efforts to come to terms with its postwar heterogeneity. Only by offering Turks and other guest workers a legal path to national belonging did Germans finally create the conditions that would allow for a serious conversation about multiculturalism as a model for social organization” (Chin 260).

In Germany, everyone during this time was seeing the major changes happening in their country. Now there was a bigger problem to fix, and that was discrimination. With all of the monumental laws being passed Skvanandan says, “racism was no longer understood as a “matter of racial oppression and exploitation, of race and class, but of cultural differences and their acceptability” (Chin 267). It was people like Haider that made this transition and acceptability so difficult he says, “multicultural society has never worked anywhere in practice” (Haider 435). Haider also goes into depth on how a society that does not have shared values or social and cultural similarities will lead to “chaos and the breakup of law and order” (Haider 435). 

Overall, we see the hostility and unfairness whether its with racist political leaders in Peter Griffiths or Great Britain putting restrictions on immigration into their country. On the flip side of that we see the reform and change that occurred starting with Richard von Weizsäcker along with the Green-Party trying to create hope for immigrants, and then in Germany with the law being passed to create an opportunity to become a citizen of their country. This idea of self-definition has increasingly changed from restricting immigration all the way to making laws that will help these immigrants succeed in the Western European nations. There is reform that still need to take place not only in Western Europe but across the globe as well.