Saturday, March 15, 2014
Forum (Omni Shoreham)
Social integration—a goal integral to the European project—has not followed economic integration. The main argument I set forth here is that European economic integration is producing the very opposite of its intended goals, namely, it is leading to cultural disintegration in the form of rising nationalism and radical right mobilization. One consequence of European integration is Europeans’ increasing tendency to identify more with their nations than with Europe. Analysis of Eurobarometer survey data from before and after the 2007-2009 economic crisis shows that Europeans’ support for the European project is deeply tied to their identities: those who see themselves in primarily nationalist terms are more likely to oppose their country’s continued membership in the EU as well as further European integration. The EU’s response to the economic crisis drove European citizens to pull away from Europe: across all countries, Europeans saw themselves in increasingly nationalist, as opposed to European, terms. In countries that were hardest hit by the economic crisis, individuals turned towards their national governments and national identities in dramatically high numbers. European citizens have grown increasingly disillusioned with the EU, and this disillusionment, anchored by sense of detachment from the European project, has taken shape along nationalist lines.
