Diasporic Community and European Cultural Identity

Global Cultural Studies NASTITI, Aulia Dwi Diasporic Media and the Question of European Cultural Identity Introduction The question of European identity has been continuously on the cultural and academics debate arena. What is Europe—a geographical space or a model of civilisation? A new historical reality or a philosophical concept? In the making of Europe, as a political project of unification, these inquiries ought to be considered, along with its implication for the diverse and multiple identities consolidated within the framework of the nation-state—defined by Max Weber (1919) as the only political organisation born of modernity. A project entitled An Identity for Europe : The Relevance of Multiculturalism in EU Construction (Kastoryano, et.al, 2009) has addressed this question and stated evidently that from the start, a united Europe arises from de facto pluralism: linguistic diversity and cultural diversity (national and regional, majoritarian and minoritarian) as well as institutional diversity in which each carries strong cultural and political traditions. From this point, I suggest that the problem of diaspora across Europe must necessarily be brought into the game. I additio , there are the o -Europea foreig ers resident in Europe. It s the fa t o e should ad it that Europe is the la d of ho are igratio i which dominant ideologies of Europeanism project an image of Europe as a common and distinct cultural Home that, in certain extent, excludes those migrants and reproducing the Other ess attri uted to the he the do t see fit i a its odel of universalism (Georgiou, 2005). Although policies of immigration and integration pertain to national domains, the populations resulting from immigration who proclaim other kinds of belongings than to the nation-states of their residence find support in the new political space being constructed—although its identity is uncertain—promoting collective identities ofte la eled eth i , whether religious or national (Decaux, 2009). Another problem raised then: how to conjugate the pluralistic and complex sense of belonging of individuals, groups, and peoples to construct a political identity that is purportedly European, or rather, to arouse identification with Europe as a new political space for action and demands? This leads me to the questions about modes of participation and representation of individuals and groups and about the means of expression of all collective identities—as complex and heterogeneous as they may be. In this context, I argue that diasporic media—as those means of diverse cultural expressions—have significant implications for imagining multicultural Europe and for participating (or not) in European societies and transnational communities. I will quote Georgiou (2005) here to highlight the significance of diasporic media in relation to the discourse of multicultural identity of Europe. According to her, Studying diasporic media in their complexity and beyond their cultural singularities and moral panics can help us understand what is different and what is common i the Europea ultural spa e […] they invite us to think how media cultures might bring together, represent and include difference and how they might exclude it and lead to confli ts etwee differe t groups (Georgiou, 2005: 3). Moreover, I identify that most studies regarding the construction of European identity tend to address this problem within the framework of policy analysis or European political project (Delanty, 1995; Cowles, Caporasso, and Risse, 2001; Kohli, 2000; Decaux, 2009) with limited recognition given to the discourse of diasporic media in Europe. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to examine the role of media among the diasporic communities within Europe to construct the cultural identity. My analysis here is structured from the historical background in regard with migration and diffusion of diaspora across Europe, media practices in the diasporic communities, the construction of cultural identity within the diasporic media, and in conclusion part, those finally bring me to reflect upon the multicultural identity in Europe. Drawing from literature review of several studies and reports on media and diasporic community in Europe, hat s ei g i the fo us here how diasporic media plays role in intercultural exchanges, especially those taking place within Europe between immigrant groups and host cultures. The question I will try to address is more or less about how do they use media (as interpreters and producers) so as to actively construct networks and cultural identities in response to their changing circumstances? How do the selfrepresentations among diaspora communities implicate to the construction of European (multi)cultural identity? Immigration and Diaspora across Europe: A Historico-political Background Europe has been shaped by a long history of migration within the continent as the mobilisation of people emerged within the colonisation and modernisation in this region over the 17th-19th century. However, large-scale immigration into Europe is much more recent episode, dating back to the end of World War II. Since the early 1950s, many colonial powers in Europe (e.g UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal) lose their colonies and there was huge flows of population movement toward the region who played important role in post- ar e o o i e pa sio i Europe. B the s, for er te porar guest workers turned into permanent residents, and facilitated further entries from their native countries through family reunification. Since then, Europe has been witnessing the increasing growth of people enter the region and made it widely known as one of the most principal home for immigration. The growing diversity in Europe during the twentieth century led to rich and tense political and academic debates and to policy changes in the area of diversity and inclusion. While the history of European countries is entwined with the mobilisation within, from and between them, this migration history has not become part of national self-understanding for European society. Meanwhile, it is in the experience of diaspora that we may begin to understand the way beyond empire. In the experience of migration, difference is confronted: boundaries are crossed; cultures are mingled; identities become blurred. The diaspora experience, as Stuart Hall argues, is a out u settli g, recombinatio , h ridisatio a d ut-and- i carries with it a transformed relation to Tradition, one in which there a retur [to] or re o er of the a estral past a d e o si ple hi h is ot re-experienced through the categories of the prese t (Hall, 1988, in Morley and Robins, 1995: 123). In contrary, dominant universalism ideologies of Europeanism and top-down politics of multiculturalism usually fail to recognise this dialectic and the continuities, the unstable, creative and tense condition of multicultural societies (Husband, 1996 in Georgiou, 2005: 15). Assessing from the making of migration policy in the national level, Geddes (2003) European countries have tendency to regard international migration rather nervously as challenging their territorial, organisational and conceptual boundaries; to their ways of thinking about themselves and others. Along with the negative view embedded in European igratio poli ies, it s also oted that argu e ts hi h re ol e arou d the pote tial threats of diasporic and migrant media cultures for European democracy and values has also become increasingly common in popular media and mainstream political discourse. For me, it then leads to the necessity to analyse deeper the media practise and cultures of diasporic communities in Europe because I conceive that it helps us achieve better understanding of the veritable role of diaspora and media in the construction of European cultural identity. Media Cultures among Diasporic Communities in Europe In this part, I will present several case studies taken from several research and report in the context of diasporic media cultures in diaspora communities across Europe. I choose various cases to represent different geographical contexts, ethnical background, and level of media. First is a cross-European research mission on diasporic media cultures conducted by Myria Georgiou (2005) which addresses the role of local, national, and transnational diasporic media based in UK to shape the politics of difference and particularity in Europe. Georgiou analyses Al-Jazeera as a transnational satellite television; New Vision as national online news for the refugee community in UK, but also Ethiopian diaspora in Britain in beyond; and London Greek Radio as local media which serves the Greek diaspora community in London. Result of Georgiou s studies showed several important findings concerning the implications of the shape of diasporic media cultures for multicultural Europe. Through each of diasporic media, different minority groups raise issues of recognition and of alternaive politics within universalism. Many diasporic and ethnic minority media projects argue that equality is not based on sameness or assimilation, but actually on the celebration and promotion of difference. Such minority movements propose forms of particularisation of universalism and reshape the universalistic European values. The development and success of minority diasporic media are, at least partly, expressions of reaction and resistance to the universalistic ideologies of the nation-state. A real consequence for Europe is the tension between minority media and the European states. The universalistic project of the nation-state implies inclusion and participation of all citizens. At the same time, the emergences of alternative cultures that are not contained or controlled by the state are potential threats to its power and integrity. Second, there is ethnographic research project from Müller and Van Gorp (2011) that seeks to analyse how the media practise of Yugoslavian and Western Africa diaspora in Netherland affects the process of identity formation of diasporic communities. In this project conducted by Utrecht University, Müller and Van Gorp grounded their study on the o eptual defi itio that diasporas are ot gi e ut elo g to hat A derso or o je ti el defi a le o alled i agi ed o u ities u ities’. The communities construct themselves by exchanging products and the consumption of media images. Müller focuses the analysis on refugees and gendered diasporic networks in Yugoslavian diasporas, while Van Gorp concentrates on West African diaspora in Amsterdam. They investigated how the members of the diasporic communities use media to actively construct identities in response to shifting circumstances as consequences of migration. In addition, they also explored the media use of the communities, and its relation with networking practices. The study gave insight that in Netherlands media landscape, the Yugoslavian diaspora is not very visible and neither of them nor Balkan diaspora are represented as one community. Through their uses of media, Yugoslavian diaspora is in process of creating an imagined united of Yugoslavia as part of their construction of Balkan identity in Holland. The tension between these collective identities and ethnic identities in particular created a hybrid identity amongst Yugoslavian migrants and women in particular. In the other hand, Ghana diasporic communities use the film industry in their country of origin to spread moral and religious messages in the diaspora since these messages help them create an imagined community. This community is meant to enable immigrants to stay connected to their roots. However, both communities show that they consume Netherland media to keep attentive to the discourse in the host country to be connected in their current residency. Third, and the last, case is taken from Ruxandra Trandafoiou (2006) who studied the diasporic online forum for Romanian workers to explain the role of new media technologies as a space to express their cultural exchanges and their experience of European identity. She analyses main websites in Britain and Italy used by Romanian migrant workers. The study found that within this diasporic media, local events and contexts override ethnocentric tendencies and the virtual diasporic space is opened up to include cross cultural and transnational markers. The discussion in this online groups clustered around different topics reflect the same intermingling of European wide issues. The exchanges resonance larger European debates linked with policy initiatives in the area of multiculturalism, social structure, employment and work ethics. The combination et ee irtual third spa es a d elements of multiple localities can be translated at a political level. Reflection upon circumstances and the place of the group within the host community spur in time political activism, which can make the group visible. The multiplication of cosmopolitan voices within the European space of virtual communication networks can lead in time to actual civic networks of participation. Thus, in this study, Trandafoiuo concluded that the Internet space is not the place to hide difference or tuck away from public mainstream view whole communities, but the place where diasporic communities gain strength, identity and visibility so that they start to count in the public arena where the tension between difference and universalism is articulated. Diasporic Media and Construction of European Cultural Identity Having presented the abstraction of the presented cases above, in this section, I will further analyse the role of diasporic media illustrated in the result of each studies in relation with the construction of their cultural identity within the context of European multicultural society. The relation between the diasporic media and diasporic communities become a key area for thinking the recognition of particularity on one hand and or respect of universalistic values of democracy and communication across Europe on the other. As suggested by Georgiou (2005), universalism and particularism become central analytical concepts for understanding diasporic media cultures in their actual expressions and implications for multicultural Europe. Comprehensive observation on what is shared and what is not between minorities and majorities invites us to think how media cultures might bring together, represent and include the difference as well as how they might exclude the difference in European society. Diasporic communities sustain and partly depend for their communal shared sense of identity on transnational communications. Yet, the national and local context where diasporic populations live is equally important for the construction of meanings of community and identity, especially as inclusion, exclusion and participation in the broader societies are largely grounded in the national and local space: nation-states and locales have some distinct historical, cultural and political characteristics. Diasporic media expands across and beyond Europe, connecting local, national, and transnational cultures spaces and populations, and also acting autonomously in local, national, and transnational contexts. It manifests in various sizes, level of professionals, success and lifespan. On a technical level, the media might differ in technology they employ, managerial system they apply, or cultural and political goals they aim. What all they have in common is that they aim to be means of representation of particular ethnic, linguistic, or religious groups that live within border and diverse multicultural societies, named Europe. In relation with its implication for the identity formation in Europe, I argue that diasporic media can indeed be used in processes of reconfirmation of diasporic identities and specific cultural communities; at the same time we can observe a growing diversity of diasporic mediascapes, which leads to further diversification of the ways that diasporic subjects relate to communities. My contention here is that diasporic media could provide the opportu ities of produ i g new spaces where remote localities and their experiences come together a d e o e s a ilit to li e at the sa e ti e i hro ised Tsagarousia ou, 2004) and the oth the glo al a d the lo al ‘a ta e , 2005). In this sense, my main argument is taking the same stance as Georgiou s otio from her study (2005) that diasporic media cultures do not emerge as projects that oppose the universalistic projects of Europe and of global communication, but that they gain from ideologies of globalisation and democratic participation as much as they gain and depend on ideologies of identity and particularism. Media become involved in the everyday construction of images of Us and Others , while fixing and (re-)broadcasting those images to members and non-members of a group. Their ever-presence means they get involved in identity construction in multiple ways. In their availability and presence in everyday life, they provide access to distant world, to the dispersed diaspora, to the country of origin. However, it is important to underline that the existence of these media per se does not guarantee the continuity of the relevance of community. Members of diasporas are also consumers; as cosmopolitan subjects they tend to have access to a large number of cultural (mediated) sources to choose from. Furthermore, the potential users of the media have multiple identities, different lifestyles and their identities are not inescapably dependent on diasporic continuity and belonging. Conclusion My paper has mainly defended the argument that there is solid connection between the diasporic media and the construction of cultural identity of Europe as multicultural realm. One might suppose that a multiculturalism born from an initial diversity might in fact become an explicit theory of European identity. Multiculturalism is probably one of the keys to success or failure of the European project—with the difficulty that it is a totally unprecedented situation in the history of humanity. Cultural differences are just as much one of the strengths of Europe as one of the principal causes of the proje t s failure. Europea ide tit has a s oli di e sio that akes the i agi ed o u it difficult to envision, but this does not mean that it does not exist or that it cannot be translated at the level of common public opinion. Euro-identity also does little to make room for the large numbers of migrant and diasporic populations now living in the continent. European identity, for all its apparent self-confidence, remains a vulnerable and anxious phenomenon, and is increasingly articulated with regressive forms of pan-European white racism. For this matter, we can conclude that the culture of diasporic media entails significant implications to become indispensable spaces where European identity could be articulated as it gave the possibility for the diaspora communitites to imagine multicultural Europe and for participating (or not) in European societies and transnational communities. While the role of specific media and political or constitutional policies should not be underestimated and should be extended, political participation should also be reconsidered and read in the context of community inspired and local phenomena that embraces the participation of diaspora—who is consideres as minorities. Grassroots initiatives by small localised or virtual publics must not be undervalued and their potential for political activism, providing equal European rights and similar approaches to managing multiculturalism needs to be acknowledged. Bibliography Cowles, Maria Green, J. Caporasso, and T. Risse (Ed.). Transforming Europe: Europeanization and Domestic Change. New York: Cornell University Press. Delanty, Gerard. (1995). Inventing Europe: Idea, Identity, Reality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved April 10, 2014 (http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/31062) Kohli, Marti . . The Battlegrou ds of Europea Ide tit . European Societies, Vol. 2 (2), pp. 113-137. 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