Globalization

GLOBALIZATION ESSAY

Summary of the article ”Liberal multiculturalism masks an old barbarism with a human face”:

The article highlights the issue of immigration in Europe. Quite recently there has been a protest all around Europe alongside the expulsion of Roma, or Gypsies, in France, but the expulsion is just an insignificant part of the problem. Two main parties have dominated recently. Most European countries have overall majority of the electorate, but recent electorates results showed emergence of a different polarity: parties standing for global capitalism and supporting tolerance towards abortion, religious and ethnic minorities etc., and contrasting these parties are the increasingly strong anti-immigrant populist parties, which, on their fringes, are associated with visibly racist neofascist groups. After the dissolution of the communist regime in the 1990s, these right-wing extremists tried to plant fear of immigrants in the people. This has led to anti-immigration policy becoming increasing crucial in countries such as Germany, France, Austria and Holland. The parties and their adherents roughly see the immigrants as outsiders who have to follow the cultural values within their country. The progressive liberals are alarmed by such populist racism, although their own tolerance of multiculturalism actually is quite similar, at some points, to their opponents. This article illustrates the increasing uproar and fear that Europe may be losing its national identity due to the rise of immigrants. It seems ironic that Europe is now screaming the need to protect its country against immigrants since they were the ones that had an idealism to create somewhat a world without borders. Are we supposed to have a world where everybody has the same cultural values, if yes, there will be no ‘others’. That’s possibly what Europe wants.

Globalization is one of the strongest phenomenons in the modern world. It is a multidimensional concept which has been defined...