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Border Anxiety: Culture, Identity and Belonging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Brenda Almond
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Abstract

This paper considers the ethical choices confronting European countries in relation to what has been described as border anxiety. Last year over a million migrants and asylum-seekers crossed European Union borders and the flow has shown no sign of diminishing. This unprecedented movement of people has attracted two main responses. A core issue for both is the Schengen principle of open borders and opinion is split between those who believe that the sheer weight of numbers of would-be migrants requires the reintroduction of strictly controlled frontiers, and those who demand a prompt and sympathetic response to the plight of refugees from war-torn countries. These two positions, however, do not constitute the sum of the moral debate. A broader appraisal of the issues must take account of matters of culture and identity, partiality and preference, and also of some rather more arcane questions about the ethics of ownership, the notion of belonging, and the legitimacy of preferring your ‘own’, whether at a global, national, or personal level. The complexity of this debate and its internal paradoxes throw light on some contemporary concerns about the threat the current situation may pose to Europe's own historic culture and identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 91 , Issue 4 , October 2016 , pp. 463 - 481
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016 

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References

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6 Existing immigration practice and policy in the United Kingdom means that the British population will increase by just over 5 million by 2025 and continue to grow till 2040 (Office for National Statistics), most of the increase being due to migration of dependents and spouses of immigrants who have already settled there. Figures for families with three or more children in the UK are: Bangladeshis, 60%, Pakistanis 54 %, Indian, 30%, Chinese, 24%, Caribbean, 22%. The figure for the native population (officially described as ‘white British’ and including the English, Scots and Welsh) with three or more children is less than one in five.

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28 I should like to express my thanks to Jovan Babic and other participants in the conference on ‘Borders and Frontiers – Space(s) of Life and Causes for Conflicts and Wars’ organised by ILECS (International Law and Ethics Conference Series) at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, for their helpful and stimulating discussion of this paper and the issues raised.