European identity: Views from Europeans abroad
Is European identity fragmented? Photo credit: Hanna Hauck
Every year hundreds of thousands of Europeans go to work, travel, or study in another EU member country. In September 2009, over 300,000 EU citizens were given a National Insurance number in the UK. With no visa requirements, a European citizen only needs a valid ID card or passport to enter the UK. Still, only few people seem to identify themselves with the European Union.
In 2008 Neil Fligstein, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley claimed that only about 13 per cent of Western Europeans regard themselves as Europeans first.
German businesswoman Iris Becker is one of the many people who left her home country to work in another EU member state. In the late 1990s she lived in London for three years and has also worked in Africa and India.
“I feel German in terms of my roots. But I feel just as home in India as in Germany. I feel European when I’m in Spain, Italy or Greece. But in England, I felt very far away from Europe. I was surprised how different England is even though it isn’t far from Germany,” she said.
Travelling in Europe and getting to know people in other EU member states has helped Ms Becker feel closer to her European neighbours.
A new generation of European migrants
Chantal Mairesse works for the Genshagen Foundation, an institution supporting the friendship between France, Germany and Poland, as well as European integration. With the ‘European Dialogue’ project, the foundation wants to counteract shrinking identification with Europe. Ms Mairesse believes that growing migration has an impact on the sense of belonging to the EU amongst its citizens.
“Especially concerning students, one thing is clear,” she said. “A generation is growing up who regards it as natural to spend a part of their studies abroad. It’s even mandatory in some cases. It’s expected of them that they learn about other countries and cultures. This will affect their attitudes towards Europe.”
Tuan Ly and Claudia Lage belong to this generation of students. Both decided to attend university in the UK. Claudia Lage came from Portugal to London and Tuan Ly from Germany – one of the top sending countries in terms of EU student numbers in UK universities according to the UK Council for International Student Affairs. They have since graduated and are now working in the British capital.
But do they feel European?
Still, they wouldn’t necessarily first describe themselves as Europeans. Tuan Ly, who is of East-Asian origin, says he is from Germany but feels neither German, nor Vietnamese or Chinese.
“To me the idea of being European is a very vague one. I wouldn’t know how to clearly define the terms of being European. But if you are a European national, should you be considered European? In that case, I would be”, he said.
A new generation of Europeans are feeling more united by studying abroad. Photo credit: Didier Misson
Claudia Lage, on the other hand, feels very rooted in her Portuguese upbringing: “I spent the first 18 years of my life in Portugal. That obviously has an effect on the way I am and who I am today.”
Living in another European country hasn’t caused her to feel more European, she said. But Claudia Lage, as well as Iris Becker, feel more connected to other member states through the Euro, the EU’s common currency.
Nevertheless, Ms Becker and Tuan Ly both admit that they feel they don’t know enough about the EU. Claudia Lage feels that, although information about EU politics and daily affairs is out there, in many cases citizens have to research the information themselves.
Many EU citizens expressed a similar view in a 2007 Eurobarometer survey carried out on behalf of the European Commission. Last month, the Economist’s European columnist Charlemagne even went so far as to say the UK media held a “fierce hostility (…) towards the European Union”. And as many people tend to get their information through national media, this probably affects their view on European identity – at least in the UK.
3 Comments
Hanna
The examples that you give of Claudia and Tuan could be replicated if you were to interview British people of their generation who live in major European capitals. I would be extremely surprised if such English people did not feel English first and foremost.
Claudia’s comment is what one would normally expect from most citizens in the continent called Europe. Hardly rocket science.
Tuan’s comment is frequent among those whose birth origins (or parental origins) are in poor countries and have transplanted themselves to richer, usually Western, societies.
I would encourage you, Hanna, if you write another article, this time daring to bare your definition of European identity. Some of us are very clear about it. Although implicit from your article, in my opinion, Iris Becker could indicate several specific points. Otherwise, it should not be a surprise if your readership, which I suspect is likely to include many British people, may assume or reach the conclusion that no definition means an obvious reference to the POLITICAL meaning of Europe, i.e. the EU.
By the way, I don’t believe my suggestion of another article on your part is too much to ask, or even what in my native Spain we call “no le mires los cinco pies al gato” (roughly translates to “stop looking for 5 feet in a cat”). No, it’s just the old “if you give me more context, I’m more content”.
Dear Manuel,
This is not an article about the difference between continental Europeans and Britons. This is an article about the question if EU citizens identify themselves with the European Union (please see the first paragraph: “Still, only few people seem to identify themselves with the European Union”). So, yes, European identity here is defined as what you call the “political meaning of Europe, i.e. the EU”.
Also: Since Britons and people with a migration background holding a passport from a EU member country are in fact EU citizens, their views are just as valid as the ones held by people who have continental European origins. So, I think that the argument that Britons might hold similar views as a people from continental Europe does not contradict the main points of this article. Nor does the choice to interview a European citizen whose parents weren’t born in Europe. And if Claudia’s answers are common ones, then they are the ones to present, I believe.
Best wishes,
Hanna
Manuel:
I think it is a bit unfair to ask Hanna to try to define the European identity, whether it be in this article or in a new one.
Consider that this article is only an approach to the issue, using the viewpoints of several European citizens. Trying to actually define the question of European identity would take an academic paper of many thousand words and that is not what this website is for.
The fact that you state that Claudia Tage’s comments are what is expected from a European is exactly the point of what Hanna was trying to say. She is an example of what you wrote is “normally expected”.
Tuan Ly’s comments, on the other hand, are not what is common among Europeans and I believe that is why Hanna included it in the article. His background makes the question of his identification with the EU very difficult and I do not believe, as you say, that this is the common perception of people from “poor countries”. Your own country also has many problems with identifying themselves as Europeans or even Spanish, as the examples of the Catalans or the Basques show.
Many of the current problems of the EU stem from the fact that there is no common identity. In addition, many of the agreements and documents such as the European Constitution have failed because of their incapacity to address this issue.
The British already have a skewed view of the issue because British media is biased against Europe. But it is through articles such as Hanna’s that both the British and International people (both part of The First Pint’s readership) can see that this is a more complex issue and that no one has the final word on it.