When Worlds Collide

In a recent speech before the French Parliament, President Nicolas Sarkozy strongly condemned Muslim women in France for wearing the burqa. Discounting it as a religious symbol, Sarkozy instead called it a sign of the subjugation and submission of women and proclaimed that "it will not be welcome in our territory."

A widely debated issue in France, the wearing of the burqa is also a small example of the cultural conflicts that erupt as a consequence of migration. With international migration having reached unprecedented levels, one can expect many more such cultural dislocations to become political issues.  

Migration

The UN estimated that in 2005, approximately 190 million people had moved from one country to another. At 3 percent of the world's population, this was the highest recorded rate of migration in modern times.

More and more, people are moving across national boundaries in order to improve their lives or, as refugees, to find safe havens. They join large numbers of rural residents who have left the countryside to find a better life in the burgeoning cities.

In the developing world, net rural-to-urban migration peaked in the 1980s at over 13 million people, with China accounting for almost 60 percent of that total. Globally, the shift from a predominately rural world to a predominately urban world is underway. Estimates suggest that, demographically at least, it has already happened. Whether immigrants or once-rural dwellers, those who arrive in the cities almost inevitably bring values, ways of life and attitudes that differ from those of long-term city residents.

This increase in migration has had obvious consequences. One of the most prominent has been the emergence of megacities of more than 10 million residents. Tokyo leads the list with over 33 million people in its urban conurbation, followed in size by Seoul, Mexico City and Delhi. China has experienced an unprecedented growth in its cities and now has over 50 urban conurbations with over one million residents - a number equal to the US and well in excess of that - 35 - in India. In addition, China hosts three of the world's megacities: Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Migration, and specifically temporary labor migration, has been a key element in the growth of Dubai. That city has more than doubled in size since 1995 to over 1.2 million residents. Most striking is that fewer than one in five of those residents are United Arab Emirate nationals; most of the expatriates are Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi.

And, while migration alone is insufficient to explain global urbanization trends - declining mortality is equally if not more important in a number of countries - it is nonetheless crucial for understanding the political frictions that often accompany rapid urbanization.

Broadly considered, contemporary migration is a consequence of three large-scale social forces: globalization, nationalism and urbanization itself.

Global economic integration

For decades, globalization has been one of the major factors in the decline of subsistence and small-scale, domestic agriculture in many countries. Enticed by global markets, subsidized by nation-states intent on raising export revenues, and encouraged by 'free trade' policies, large landowners have converted to cash crops that can be sold internationally. Small, independent farmers and tenant farmers have been left adrift and, once adrift, prone to migrating to the cities in search of employment opportunities.

The growth of the global airline industry has facilitated international migration by making it possible for people to travel long distances relatively easily and maintain contact with their countries of origin. It has also fueled circular migration in which people go back and forth between places. International telecommunications and banking, in turn, have enabled many migrants to send money back to family in their home country. These remittances have become a key source of income for a number of villages and small towns.

As a last example, globally integrated production chains have provided employment opportunities for rural migrants in the urban areas of low-wage countries. Nike was once the 'poster child' for off-shore production in low-wage countries, but the garment industry has been equally international in its geographic scope.

Consequences of nationalism

Nationalism has also contributed to heightened migration, whether through civil wars or cross-border disputes, which create refugees or the break-up of countries such as Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union that set in motion ethnic groups in search of safe havens. National laws and policies are also crucial in encouraging or discouraging migration.

In Germany, the need for labor in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to an influx of Turkish guest workers, while the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany in the early 1990s produced a surge of people moving westward for better jobs and higher incomes.

Acting defensively, the US federal government has built a wall along the country's border with Mexico to stem illegal emigration.

Urbanization has been both a consequence of these forces and, once firmly established, a contributor to further migration. Large cities are often one of the most prominent products of urbanization and, when compared to the countryside, have greater transportation accessibility that enables migration, offer more formal and informal job opportunities, and frequently have residents from the village or nation where migrants are originating, a factor that reinforces migratory flows.

Cultural conflicts: numerous examples

The forces that cause migration and raise urbanization levels also increase the potential for cultural dislocations that lead to conflicts in the political sphere.

Examples are numerous. In Zimbabwe, the confiscation of white-owned farms beginning in the late 1980s led to the uprooting of the rural population and its migration to the country's cities. The inability of the new owners to properly manage the farms led to a severe decline in agricultural exports, hyper-inflation and a precipitous shrinkage of the economy. Domestic food production also suffered.

As the regime of Robert Mugabe became more corrupt and mismanaged the economic crisis, the cultural dislocations attendant to rural-to-urban migration became political issues as well, culminating in the government's destruction in 2005 of Killarney, one of the largest slums and markets in Harare.

Operation Murambatsvina (or 'clean-up') displaced approximately 570.000 people. It was allegedly intended to deal with the area's illegality but was also part of the Mugabe regime's efforts to disrupt populations that threatened its ability to remain in power.

Additionally, economic dislocations and political machinations in Zimbabwe have created large numbers of refugees, with over 3 million of them estimated to have relocated to South Africa.

In South Africa, foreign migrants from near-by countries have been attacked in the cities and townships by native South Africans who view them as taking away jobs that are rightfully theirs, using a disproportionate share of scarce governmental social services, and raising crime rates. The resultant xenophobia has led to violence and deaths. In 2006, 29 Somalis were killed in Cape Town in just over a three month period. Two years later, in May 2008, 42 immigrants were killed in Alexandra Township just outside Johannesburg. Over half of them were from Mozambique.

In the US, Somali refugees flocked to Lewiston, Maine, in the early 2000s in search of a small-town environment that would support their family values and enable them to practice their Muslim religion. The increase in the demand for local public services and the fears unearthed by their presence in this largely French-Canadian community led to much political debate and public tensions. Until then, Lewiston had been losing population but now it was growing, except with black African Muslims and not white American Christians.

Rumors spread, more than a few local residents were leery, and a small group of neo-Nazis (likely from elsewhere) appeared to protest the Somali presence. The mayor even wrote an open letter to the Somali community asking them to stop bringing their families because the local government was being overwhelmed and the city was emotionally drained.

The Netherlands provides another example of the cultural dislocations brought about by migration. The influx of Islamic migrants has severely tested the famed Dutch tolerance. For example, family violence, including 'honor killings,' has been rare but nonetheless disconcerting in a Dutch society relatively free of violence. And attitudes toward homosexuality and public discussion of sexuality are quite at odds. Employment discrimination against immigrants is also an issue.

The tensions culminated with the assassination in 2004 of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who had made a film about Islamic violence against women. His killer was a Muslim, and his death had been preceded by vehement denunciations of his views in the Muslim community. After his death, there were numerous xenophobic attacks on Muslim targets.

Dangerous dislocations

Migrants often threaten previously formed local and national identities and disrupt prevailing cultural norms. In large numbers, they might even be seen as threatening national sovereignty. These threats emerge in many small ways and occur throughout the places where migrants and natives meet.

Urbanization has the potential to generate cultural dislocations. Some, like the stocking of foreign foods in the local supermarket, are unlikely to have political ramifications. Others, such as religious practices, attitudes toward the education of girls, and understandings of what counts as 'medicine,' are likely to become public concerns.

Migration, of course, has significant benefits for migrants and for the countries to which they relocate - and countries almost always make accommodations for immigrants. Whether reciprocal integration, tolerance of difference or enduring tensions, any accommodation, though, will and must be a matter of political debate.