MONOCULTURE – MIGRATIE
Ensemble
At the time of the publication of A Seventh Man: Migrant Workers in Europe in 1975, one manual worker in seven in the UK and Germany was of migrant background. John Berger and Jean Mohr examine the material conditions and inner experiences of migrant workers, revealing how they do not live in the margins of modern society but actually right in the middle of it. The novel Le Camp des Saints by Jean Raspail describes the emigration of a million people on cargo ships from India to France, where they hope for a better life. Due to the blindness of government and population, this ‘invasion’, in itself peaceful, leads to the end of the French nation and ultimately of European civilisation. Le Camp des Saints is about the fear of losing the racial and cultural purity of the ‘West’. According to Raspail, the danger mainly comes from within because artists, intellectuals and the media impose their tolerant attitude towards migration upon the population. Although the book wasn’t an overwhelming success when it was published in 1973, thanks to the controversy surrounding it due to the changing political climate and media landscape, it has become a cult book in nationalist, identitarian and suprematist circles in Europe and the United States. In Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, Bat Ye’or introduces the concept of ‘Eurabia’, referring to a Europe that is Islamised and that eventually will be completely absorbed by the Arab world. The starting point of Bat Ye’or’s conspiracy theory is a number of agreements that took place between leaders of European and Arab countries in the 1970s and the creation of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. Bat Ye’or claims that during the Copenhagen European Summit of December 1973, the Arab contingent agreed to ensure the supply of oil to Europe in exchange for allowing migration, in order to Islamise Europe. In Europe, Bat Ye’or’s concept of Eurabia is mainly adopted by politicians from extreme right-wing parties, who use them in their Islamophobic anti-immigration discourse.