Global Multiculture, Flexible Acculturation

Abstract

This article develops two propositions: multiculturalism has gone global and identification has become flexible. Multiculturalism is a global arena, yet most treatments still conceive of multiculturalism as a national arena. In contemporary global multiculture far-off conflicts become part of multiculturalism arenas; this is illustrated with a discussion of two multicultural conflicts, the Danish cartoon episode and the murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam. Muslim women's headscarves from Istanbul and Cairo to Tehran and Lyon display a wide register of meanings, but in the French national assembly have been signified in just one. Multiculturalism means global engagement and to engage with the world is to engage with its conflicts. Multiculturalism is not no man's land. Multiculturalism is not consensus. There is no consensus in Britain about the war in Iraq and there is none among immigrants either. The securitization of cultural difference confirms the interplay between global and multicultural frictions. Multiculturalism is one of the faces of globalization and globalization, at its Sunday best, is human history conscious of itself, which by the way is not always nice. Contemporary global multiculture represents a new phase of globalization.

Acknowledgments

This article is based on a paper presented at conferences at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Utrecht University, the International Sociological Association Congress, Durban and at Stockholm, Gothenburg and Freiburg universities in 2006. I thank participants for comments and in particular Fazal Rizvi, Daniel Beltram, Jan Ekecrantz and Don Kalb. Thanks to Ken Cuno and Lisa Chason for references.

Notes

1. The translation is from Wikipedia, under ‘Muhammad cartoons controversy’.

2. Also National Post, in Danish. Quote: ‘For years, Danes lauded multiculturalism and insisted they had no problem with the Muslim customs—until one day they found that they did. Some major issues: Living on the dole: Third-world immigrants—most of them Muslims … —constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending. Engaging in crime: Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists [and] … practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Self-imposed isolation: Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane. Importing unacceptable customs: Forced marriages … are one problem. Another is threats to kill Muslims who convert out of Islam. … Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark's approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection. … Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough—a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.’ The article sparked a debate on multiculturalism with Danish parliamentarians.

3. On Fortuyn, see Broertjes (2002). On van Gogh and Hirsi Ali, see Ali (2004); Bawer (2004); Majid (2004); Cécilia (2005); Simons (2005b); Caldwell (2005a); Linklater (2005).

4. Katja Schuurman, ‘Prettig weekend, ondanks alles’, 2005. Fauwe and van Amerongen (2006) report on Bouyeri's background.

5. After five years' residence immigrants have the right to vote and stand in municipal but not in national elections, so the left swing has been less marked in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

6. Cf. Hannerz (1992) on high rises and multiculturalism in Amsterdam.

7. ‘Their physical isolation sustains a sense of alienation, they become dormitory ghettos’ (Heathcote, 2005).

8. Other signatories include: Iranian writer Chahla Chafiq, who is exiled in France; French writer Caroline Fourest; Irshad Manji, a Ugandan refugee and writer living in Canada; Mehdi Mozaffari, an Iranian academic exiled in Denmark; Maryam Namazie, an Iranian writer living in Britain; Antoine Sfeir, director of a French review examing the Middle East; Charlie Hebdo director Phillippe Val; and Ibn Warraq, a US academic of Indian and Pakistani origin who wrote a book titled Why I Am Not a Muslim. This was widely reported (e.g. ‘Writers take aim at Islamic totalitarianism’, available at http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1141148701500B263 (accessed 28 February 2006).

9. See Wikipedia under Globish; and Nerrière (2004).

10. As of 2005 4.5 million British passport holders live overseas (Sriskandarajah, 2006).