I Think I’m Turning European

The new Europe, like the rest of the world, is increasingly mobile and interconnected. People are constantly swimming backwards and forwards across borders, both physically and virtually. A new generation is growing up used to the benefits of a politically united Europe.

By: Josef Litobarski

I am one of those young people the EU has been trying so hard to “engage.” I am 23 years old, eager to work, eager to learn, and all my life I’ve been crossing borders like they don’t exist. I am English (or British?) with a splash of Polish blood, and I live in Italy near the Austrian border. Next year, perhaps I’ll move to Paris. Or Berlin. Or Warsaw.

I’ll move wherever I am needed, wherever I find work and wherever I want to live. When I apply for jobs, I will send out applications all across the European Union. In a recession, it does me no good to keep my options limited, and when the EU treaties guarantee the free movement of labour across borders, it is the free movement of my labour they are guaranteeing.

I do not speak a thousand languages. But I do find each European language strange and beautiful, and I hoover up words and phrases as I travel across the continent. Wherever I live, I study the language and I work hard to make friends with native-speakers. Chances are, if I meet you and you speak a different European tongue, I will at least be able to manage a conversation (if clumsily) and I’ll definitely be able to drink a toast with you!

People warn me about the way I live. They tell me that my roots are withering away. If I’m constantly moving across Europe, I will never form strong bonds and I will never have a proper home. But that is not how, as a young European, I see the world. My bonds are strong because my home is Europe. I know people in almost every country on the continent. Through online networks such as Facebook and Couchsurfing, I am constantly meeting up with new people and keeping in touch with old friends. With the internet, I can pay a virtual visits to family in the UK, China and South Africa.

The new Europe, like the rest of the world, is increasingly mobile and interconnected. People are constantly swimming backwards and forwards across borders, both physically and virtually. A new generation is growing up used to the benefits of a politically united Europe. The melting away of political borders, like the unfolding of globalisation across the world, is not something that can be resisted or reversed without wreaking untold economic havoc, especially now, when we need unity more than ever.

Despite all of the undeniable problems with our EU, I have grown up thinking of myself as a European [1]. Romano Prodi was wrong when he told Time magazine that “We will never have a European nation. Language alone will prevent that, even if the institutions change.” Prodi was wrong because language will not be a barrier forever. Like all barriers, it can be breached. As long as people are willing to learn other languages (and they are) then it will be breached. True, not many will be able to learn all the languages of Europe, but it only takes a few languages (chief among them English) to allow you to travel far and wide.

So what are the prospects for a European identity? Anthony D. Smith, one of the leading scholars of nationalism, believes they are pretty bleak. “There is no European analogue to Bastille or Armistice Day,” he writes, “no European ceremony for the fallen in battle, no European shrine of kings or saints. When it comes to the ritual and ceremony of collective identification there is no European equivalent of national or religious community.” [2]

Europe is a continent with a history of division along linguistic, religious, cultural and national lines. How can Europe commemorate its unknown soldiers when most of our wars have been fought against each other? Any national symbols neutral enough to be accepted by all the people of Europe are cursed with complete sterility and blandness.

This logic is wrong. It is based upon an old-fashioned, 19th century notion of nationalism. Young Europeans don’t care as much about abstract national symbols as we care about the people we meet. We are connecting with one another other directly, through travel, through technology, through shared popular culture and references.
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was closer to the truth when he said that “you can’t build a society purely on interests, you need a sense of belonging. This exists among the young people of Europe. But they’re not in power.” [3] Well, we won’t be without power forever.

[1] http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/030623/qandaprodi_2.html – accessed 26 May, 2009
[2] Anthony Smith, “National identity and the idea of European unity”. International affairs; Vol. 68/1. 1992, p. 7
[3] http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/030623/qandadestaing.html – accessed 26 May, 2009