There is something though, that i miss in the
discussions and in the intelectual interchange about this progression. The Intercultural cities network,
that is an important platform for this, explains how the european cities
developed from a guest worker/transit mentality, to a assimilation mentality,
from there to a mentality of multiculturalism and now to the state of mind of
interculturalism. The leap between multi- and interculturalism consists of
developing from coexistance of cultures in multiculturalism, to interaction
between cultures and cultural groups in the intercultural mindset. Very good.
From my point of view, it is important to have in
mind that all people that have migrated or changed their home territory have
had the natural instinct of the interculturalism. You have gotten to a place
and wanted to both interact and coexist. The migrant have always looked for the
possbility to share, trade and build relationships with the people in the new
homeland. The reason why interculturalism didn't occur or become the natural
state of things from the beginning, is that the people in the country of
reception always have tended to reject this intent of interculturalism. Instead
of welcoming, embracing and meeting up with a positive feeling to integrate -
they have treated the new members of the territory with suspicion and
rejection. Sometimes subtile, sometimes explicit. This created the state of
multiculturalism that we have been in for several decades by now.
The irony of it is that it also has created a
dynamic of blaming that is absurd: in almost every city with 10%+ of migrant
community, you will hear people from the majority population saying that the
migrants segregate themselves, don't want to integrate with the majority and
want to stay by themselves in their "ghettos".
What i am missing in the discourse of
interculturalism, is that we are returning to the natural and instinctive behaviour
that was sabotaged by the majority population - the majority population whos'
representatives are now trying to switch to normal again, instead of continuing
to act in the destructive ways that led away from interculturalism, and settled
with an approved multiculturalism.
Why is this an important nota bene? Because as for
now what i see is representatives from the majority population talking as if
they invented this concept that now will be implemented if everyone in an equal effort. Minority-groups and majority-groups are supposed to agree on this idea and implement it. But
the thing is - the minority groups always agreed, always wanted this. It is by
far a bigger responsability and a bigger effort required from the majority
group than for the minorities.
What we are doing now is repairing something we
broke, not inventing a spectacular new way of thinking.
