Diversity in the European Union Review

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Diversity in the European Union ReviewIn 2010 Europe's hostility toward minorities is highly visible. Hungary's anti-Roma and anti-immigrant Jobbik party grows increasingly popular. Switzerland's 2009 referendum banned the construction of minarets. Surveys reveal identical sentiments elsewhere in Europe. A few years ago Lithuania demolished Roma dwellings and the Czech Republic walled off a Roma neighborhood and terminated their mail delivery service. In August 2010 French police dismantled 500 "illegal camps," sending Roma inhabitants "back" to Romania and Bulgaria. On September 9, 2010, the European Parliament voted to condemn France. A few days later Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights called the French action a "disgrace" and a violation of European law. Nevertheless, France proceeded to adopt a new law that will permit citizenship revocation of naturalized citizens who attack police, suggesting the expulsions will not be limited to residents of shantytowns. The European Commission has initiated its infringement procedure against France for its Roma expulsion.
Given the current mood in Europe, this study of diversity in Europe is welcome. Drawing on studies from Western and Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Baltics and the Balkans, the experience of minorities is contrasted with the high-minded European Union (EU) policies that should theoretically protect minorities. "These are very fine sentiments, but run counter to the lived reality of thousands, if not millions, of minority language speakers. The dominant feeling among far too many of such speakers is that, despite the international agreements, fine policy statements and democratic intent, their actual capacity to use their indigenous language in their dealings with the national or local state is capricious at best and malevolent at worst." There aren't public signs in Russian or public documents in Russian in Estonia despite the large population of native (for five generations or more) ethnic Russian and Russian speaking Estonians. Yet there is much signing in western languages, which are not regional minority languages.
The EU classifies language minorities as either RML (regional minority languages) or IML (immigrant languages) with differentiated rights. Cultural and ethnic minorities are classified as "traditional" and "national" minorities versus immigrant minorities. (Religious minorities are not classified but the rights of traditional regional religious minorities--Christian and Jewish--are protected in a manner unavailable to immigrant religious minorities--Sikh and Muslim.) Regional minority languages and traditional ethnic minorities have more rights than immigrant languages and immigrant ethnic minorities within the EU. Does the EU inclination to categorize everything into the smallest possible divisions encourage social divisions? Perhaps seeing this effect, the EU has not established territorial autonomy rights for minorities in the Baltics and Eastern Europe though they exist in several western states. And it has even been reluctant to insist on implementation of cultural and linguistic minority rights for the newer member states.
Joining the EU has facilitated transnational associations of minorities who work for common goals such as language rights or demands for enhanced autonomy that could verge on virtual independence. Irredentism is not the only fear motivating states that resist EU minority rights implementation. They also feel their national identity is threatened. "In the CEE context, the EU --seen as a political opportunity structure-- has empowered minorities and, thus, has become itself a potent motive for group radicalization. ... For Romanian elites, territorial autonomy on an ethnic basis is inconceivable as it contradicts the Constitution and... Romanian politicians invoke the country's legal right to sovereignty and territorial integrity and, therefore, seek to maintain the present form of the political unit." (It is an echo of the Serbs' objection to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1980's.)
Though the authors of many of the articles express optimism about future improvement, within EU states they find treatment of ethnic, cultural, language, religious and LGBT minorities falls short of the EU standards.
Diversity in the European Union OverviewDiversity in the European Union encompasses the national cultures and languages of the member states, but increasingly also assertions of difference within European societies. Immigrants have brought to the fore religious, ethnic, and racial diversity, sexual minorities have demanded equal rights, and regional and cultural minorities have clamored for recognition and participation. This volume provides an overview of EU actions seeking to manage diversity, introduces a conceptual framework to think about diversity in the European Union, and provides a tapestry of cases that illustrate minority politics and activism, contestations over identity and difference, and the construction of new meanings of European citizenship.

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