Marshall Memorial Fellowship: Can Super-Diversity in the United States Provide Models for the European Union?
The concept of super-diversity as we know it today was coined in 2007 and refers to the unprecedented levels of population diversity many societies are now experiencing. Although it can be equally applied both to Europe and the United States, there is in some parts of the latter a general level of super-diversity in all domains of human existence and activity which those of us from Europe certainly have some difficulty grasping, despite our historic multiculturalism.
Our fragmented “Europeanness” also accounts for some of this dissonance. Indeed, urban, political, geographic, legal, infrastructural, social, cultural, gender, and ethnic “super-diversities” within one country sometimes seem to challenge and undermine the way the notions of unity and pluralism have been constructed within the European Union.. How to retain super-diversity as a powerful catalyst—and how to avoid social asphyxia, inter-ethnic resentment, inflating nationalism and growing xenophobia—are undoubtedly some of the burning questions the European Union must solve in order not to disintegrate into even smaller, mono-cultural units, ethnically homogeneous regions or provinces.
Can an urban structure of super-diversities like Los Angeles provide an example or a model for certain cities of the European Union? Just to mention some facts and numbers, the linguistic diversity in some schools definitely deserves attention: more than 90 languages are spoken by the students of the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, where 45% of the students have to learn English, which in itself is considered as important as preserving and nurturing the students’ native language. Young undocumented immigrants are able to study and attend university without having American nationality. The concept of the “sanctuary city,” which caught our attention as we, European Marshall Memorial Fellows, were listening to immigration experts from the City of LA’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, is not new either. Los Angeles declared itself such back in 1979, neither allowing municipal funds nor resources to be used to enforce federal immigration laws nor police or municipal employees to inquire about an individual's immigration status. LA was followed in the adoption of the policy by cities likes Washington, DC, New York, Baltimore, Seattle, Miami and Chicago. And super-diversity is visibly prospering within the city, thanks to the freedom that ethnic communities have to organize themselves, develop a cultural network that also helps their older or newer members to keep and find their marks in an American environment, as demonstrated by the Korean community.
How could the European Union also turn the actual tensions that diversity presently generates into super-diversity assets, beyond the already acknowledged educational opportunities and cultural openness, curiosity and exchange? Could the designation of super-diverse areas with a different legal status inside the EU itself ever be considered an option or a long-term, inclusive and engaging plan to adapt to the deeply reshaping cultural, ethnic and linguistic parameters?
Rona Kopeczky, Artistic Director of acb Gallery and Founder of the platform Easttopics for Eastern European art in Budapest, is a Spring 2016 European Marshall Memorial Fellow.