Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
European heritage, or even to identify what
that means. In many ways, it has been easier
for politicians and policy-makers to focus on
selling the benefits of economic and political
unification than to try to engage citizens in
complex debates about social or cultural unity.
It is no coincidence that many countries and
regions have asserted their autonomy all the
more strongly at a time when there is perceived
pressure to further affiliate themselves to an
apparently homogenizing supranational bloc.
Fears about globalization and a concomitant
trivialization of cultures, has led to excessive
protectionism or even violent protest. Region-
alism is also still a strong underlying movement
in Europe (e.g. Rodriguez Pose and Gill,
2003). Many of the tensions about economic
and political inequality and social and cultural
identity originate from regions trying to assert
autonomy or claiming the need for greater
support. It is clear that tourism can act as a
powerful tool for regional development, the
diversification of economies, and the projec-
tion of regional imagery, but it cannot solve
political and social problems directly.
As noted earlier, it is interesting that the
most resistance to EU enlargement seems to
be emerging within the older members of
the EU. Fears of expansion are particularly
pronounced in such founding countries as
Germany and France. Germany in particular
fears a repeat of the economic consequences
of the reunification process, whereby eastern
Länder became a heavy burden on the state's
exchequer. In 2004, some EU15 countries
imposed work permits in order to restrict the
number of migrant workers from new acces-
sion countries. It has become a media cliché
that the French rejected the EU Constitution in
2005 because they had been overwhelmed by
Polish plumbers:
The fear of the Polish plumber became
a symbol, a symbol of a danger for France
and a symbol of the possibility to make a
social criticism of the constitution project.
The constitution became a symbol of the EU
enlargement and the Polish plumber
the symbol of the social danger of cheap
labour against the French social model.
(Radio National, 2005)
Leonard (2005) notes that the actual
number of migrant workers was much lower
than expected, even in countries where there
were fewer restrictions (e.g. Britain, Ireland
and Sweden) (see also Coles and Hall, 2005).
Germany and France have been grappling
with problems of unemployment, and the 2005
riots in France demonstrated clearly the politi-
cal, social and economic disenchantment of
the population. By contrast, the British needed
to fill gaps in the labour market, in such areas
as construction, semi-skilled manual work and
health-care provision.
Of course, many Western companies are
more than happy to exploit the cheap labour
that exists in CEE and elsewhere, and residents
from neighbouring countries have always
benefited from cheap, cross-border shopping.
It should also be remembered that many of the
countries and their inhabitants who are now
complaining about enlargement think nothing
of colonizing other countries' coastlines as
tourists and buying up second homes, pricing
local residents out of their own market. The
very countries whose citizens are now being
rejected as migrant workers ironically tend
to be those countries that are proving to be
the most attractive to Western investors and
tourists.
Concern continues over problems of persis-
tent racism against ethnic minorities, in both old
and new EU members states, where right-wing
nationalism has emerged in the former as a reac-
tion to perceived levels of in-migration, and in
the latter as a reaction to years of Communist
oppression (or even as a continuation of some of
the more fascistic tendencies of its mentality).
Although some anti-Islamic expression has been
stimulated by a series of terrorist attacks across
Europe and elsewhere, much of the tension is
historical and unfortunately deep-seated. For
example, anti-semitism is well-documented in
Poland (e.g. Kimel, 1996), and prejudice against
Roma people continues in Hungary, Slovakia
and elsewhere (e.g. Hancock, 1994). The elec-
tion of the conservative new President in Poland
(2005) also resulted in demonstrations by gays
and
lesbians
against
homophobia
(Ireland,
2005).
Although some countries seeking acces-
sion have been criticized over their human
rights or war crimes records, it would be of
increasing pertinence for all EU members to
closely examine their own policies of tolerance,
