Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

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From the Spring Issue "Beyond Borders"

By Thorbjørn Jagland

STRASBOURG, France—Any attempt to explain a transnational
identity must take into account that nations, cultures, and people have always met and mixed across borders and boundaries. Europe’s historically grounded diversity constitutes our true identity and gives us great strength if properly understood and respected. Over the centuries, nations have been born, and borders created or modified. The most recent wave of border changes occurred after the fall of communism. While some changes proved violent, such as war in the Balkans after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, others were peaceful. Czechoslovakia split, without conflict, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

While border changes are important to European identity, my main concern for defining who we are as Europeans centers on properly integrating minorities and migrants across all frontiers, new and old. It’s about thinking beyond national borders and about a pan-European community. It’s about the need to have empathy beyond traditional national borders and for real cross-boundary understanding. Minorities have always made up an essential part of the European mosaic, while migrants are fast becoming part of it. As the stabilization of the euro is surely the most acute short-term challenge in Europe, we have to face the long-term challenge of how to manage migration, not just legally but also politically and socially.

DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY

Migration has brought millions to our countries, from the United Kingdom to the Russian Federation. In my own country, Norway, 11.4 percent of the population in 2010 were immigrants. Those with foreign roots exceed 10 percent of the overall number of residents in at least a dozen European states. According to some economists, Europe will need between 40 and 60 million immigrant workers by 2050. Without them, there will be simply no chance of sustaining Europe’s level of prosperity and welfare. We cannot escape the demographic reality of Europe’s aging population.

But newcomers are often targets of vicious political campaigns. The economic crisis has exposed the fact that public debates in many countries are driven by emotion, not reason. When times are difficult, migrants are easy scapegoats for taking jobs, cheating on social benefits, monopolizing social housing, engaging in criminal activities, and practicing alien values. We should remember, though, that migrants bring creativity and strive for success in life just like everyone else. They are a source of new energy and fresh ideas, which Europe needs to stay competitive in the world.

Our identity is an integral part of who we are as individuals. But identity must never come at the expense of what holds us together as a society—namely, our common values. These values are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and in a comprehensive human rights system, which encompasses over 200 conventions, numerous monitoring mechanisms, and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as the centerpiece. Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and the respect for human rights are values that serve as the foundations of a tolerant and civilized society and are indispensable for stability, economic growth, and social cohesion. On the basis of these values, we can find shared solutions to major problems such as terrorism, organized crime and corruption, bioethics and cloning, violence against children and women, and human trafficking. Cooperation between all member states is the only way to solve such problems, including challenges associated with migration and increasing diversity in Europe. Keeping in mind our values, we must recognize that identities are a voluntary matter for the individuals concerned. People today want to have multiple identities. Societies need to embrace diversity and accept that one can be a “hyphenated European”—a Turkish-German, a North African-Frenchwoman, or an Asian-Brit—just as one can be an African- or Italian-American.

To embrace diversity properly, all long-term residents should be accepted as citizens. Individuals—regardless of faith, culture, or ethnicity—should be treated equally by the law, the authorities, and their fellow citizens. By the same token, each individual must respect the rule of law and the common values that make up Europe’s identity. All this helps to make boundaries disappear in the interest of a common good.

One particularly important issue has been the protection of rights of religious minorities. Over the last few years, there has been a worrying trend across Europe—an increase in convictions for inciting hatred against Muslim communities and immigrants. Muslims and non-Muslims need to get to know each other much better. Both sides must recognize the great contribution that Islam has made, historically, to European culture, and the myriad ways Muslims contribute to the success and vibrancy of societies today.

Greater understanding starts with education. In 2010, I asked a group of nine experts, academics, and former politicians, under the leadership of former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, to identify the threats to open societies and to put forward recommendations about how we can live together. Those recommendations include that migrants should learn the languages of their host countries and that all states should extend the full rights and obligations of citizenship—including the right to vote—to as many of their residents as possible. The conclusion of that report is clear on two points: Our societies are very diverse, and we are not very successful in managing that diversity. The report was a first attempt to establish a debate among the 47 European states on how to transform diversity from a perceived threat to an unmistakable benefit.

It is important to underscore that religions are profound markers of identity. For Muslims and non-Muslims to understand one another, we need to deepen interreligious dialogue. We must debate the role of religion in our society, and we need to discourage the use of religion as a cover for extremism and intolerance.

We must also be culturally sensitive. The Council of Europe is launching an online youth campaign against hate speech, with online communities raising awareness about incendiary language and its risks for democracy as well as for individual young people, while promoting media and Internet literacy. Hate speech—incitement, spreading, or promoting racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of intolerance—threatens democratic stability and uproots the fundamental values laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. Just as metals can be used in the building of hospitals or of tanks, and atomic energy used to light up a city or destroy it, modern information networks can be used for good or ill. We saw this last year with the Innocence of Muslims documentary—a crude video which stoked anger across the Middle East, leading to the deaths of dozens of people. The video was an insult not only to Muslims but to all non-Muslims as well.

MARGINALIZED AND STIGMATIZED

Globalization exposes us to diversity with unprecedented speed and scope. The increasingly free movement of ideas, cultures, and individuals across boundaries is confronting our identity with different, sometimes conflicting ideas, views, habits, and customs. When I first heard of the Anders Behring Breivik killings in Utøya, Norway in 2011, I joined my country in mourning. It was a trying time. Looking back, Utøya is not only a painful reminder that hatred exists but also a radical example of intolerance and nationalism. Xenophobic parties have been gaining popularity in some European countries. Minorities are being marginalized and stigmatized. In several countries, anti-Semitism is latent.

When I participated in a ceremony last summer in Budapest to remember Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, it was another reminder of the horrors that racism had brought to Europe. Once again, as in the early 1930s, Europe is living through a profound economic crisis. Once again, we are threatened with recession and unemployment. Once again, many of us react by taking refuge in populism, xenophobia, and extreme nationalism. And once again, it is minorities and the most vulnerable among us who are threatened.

The absorption of disadvantaged Roma in European societies is a priority. But this is not an easy task. Decades, even centuries of exclusion cannot be solved with quick fixes. Education and resolute action to combat discriminatory attitudes and media stereotypes are essential. Authorities and the public need to learn to see and treat the Roma, or gypsies as they are often known, as citizens, and at the same time, many Roma need to be given the chance to become active and productive citizens. The employment of mediators for Roma communities in our member states has brought positive and, in some cases, remarkable results. More than 1,000 mediators in 20 countries have been trained so far. Mostly of Roma background, they represent local Roma communities to public institutions. They work in a wide variety of fields such as training teaching assistants to create links between schools, families, and society and to promote intercultural dialogue. They also help Roma overcome obstacles to employment and health care services.

We have seen that in areas where mediators are deployed, a higher number of Roma have access to education, health care, and employment. Institutions have worked more effectively to address Roma needs, and mutual relations have improved. At the Council of Europe we are convinced that further determined efforts are necessary to build mutual trust between Roma and non-Roma citizens. We must end the marginalization of the Roma by making them full and equal members of society.

OPEN THREATS

For me, personally, the most urgent task is to create societies where people interact. We have to harmonize our concept of open societies against the background of growing diversity. After World War II, we established an alternative to nationalism—cooperation, accompanied by social and political integration. Europe represents an attractive model of combining economic performance with social welfare and human rights. We can be proud of our balance between individual and collective rights. The current crisis is putting this model to the test, but this is a test we cannot and will not fail.

I had the honor of knowing one of Europe’s greatest statesmen, Willy Brandt. Our personal discussions on democracy and human rights have stayed with me, because he was always clear about one of the most important lessons of World War II. Brandt, the former chancellor of West Germany, told me that when respect for humanity—and for the individual especially—had eroded, it opened the door to the darkest chapter in European history. We can never again allow Europe to be a place where human rights could be for some and not for all.

We must challenge the rise of anti-immigration and anti-European parties. We must challenge political leaders who fail to act against racism and who fail to embrace the benefits of diversity. Europe’s leaders have a responsibility to tell the truth to their citizens. Namely, that our pluralist and multicultural societies are here to stay. Europe has always been a continent of many religions and ethnic groups, but merely accepting the multicultural patchwork of our continent is not enough. We must embrace it. It is time for us to adapt and take advantage of our diversity. So I would say as Willy Brandt did: “Human rights must be for all. If not, they are for none.”

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Thorbjørn Jagland, former prime minister and foreign minister of Norway, is secretary general of the Council of Europe and chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Photo courtesy of Lieven Soete]