This document discusses issues of identity in Europe including: 1) Stories and experiences of individuals from different European countries dealing with issues like nationalism, immigration, and social/political changes. 2) Quotes from European institutions about developing a collective European identity through shared values and democratic participation. 3) Data showing some commonalities among those with stronger European identities being younger, more educated individuals with higher social status.

1. I am a native foreigner
Dealing with the change: communities, memories, narratives
ICOM Europe Annual Conference, Bologna, 14.11.2017

2. Night of the Greek referendum, 2015

3. The Catalan independentist leaders heading to Court, 2017

5. “A European collective identity is achievable
despite the lack of a ‘European people’. Collective
identity should be understood as arising through
conversations and narratives about identification
and belonging to a political community, undertaken
in a European public sphere. (…) In a European
public sphere, identities may be reshaped, and the
degree of attachment may be strengthened or
weakened through democratic processes.”
European Commission “The Development of European Indentity/Identities:
Unfinished Business” (2012)

6. “The European Union's fundamental values are
respect for human dignity and human rights,
freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of
law. These values unite all the member states – no
country that does not recognise these values can
belong to the Union.”
European Parliament website

10. Member States are close in terms of
values:
• young
56% among 15-24 year-olds
• more educated
57% studied beyond the age of 20
• top social scales
62% upper middle and 57% upper

11. Struggling for free food, Athens, Greece

12. News of the terminal decline of NHS (or the benefits system), UK

13. Waiting to board a bus, Lesvos,
Greece
At the Hungarian border

14. Demonstrations in France because of the removal of a Roma girl from a school
bus by immigration officials, threatening to deport her.

15. The Catalan referendum

16. Czech legislative
elections campaign
Brexit campaign

18. “A woman’s adultery is a very serious attack on the
honor and dignity of a man. Societies exist where an
adulterous woman is stoned to death. In the Bible, we
can read that the adulterous woman should be punished
by death.”

19. “White Europe of brotherly nations”
“Pray for Islamic Holocaust”
Nationalist march in Warsaw on Polish Independence Day, 11.11.2017

20. Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg, President of the European Commission

21. Marion Bloem, Holland, Writer, of indo descent (mixed Dutch and Indonesian)

22. Giannis Adetokunbo, Greece, Basketball player, son of Nigerian immigrants

23. Children of the Muslim minority in Northern Greece

24. Maria Vlachou, Greece/Portugal, Cultural Manager

25. Francisca Van Dunem, Portugal, Minister of Justice

26. Audrey Azoulay, France, ex-Minister of Culture, of Morrocan descent, Jewish

27. Anonymous, Britain, Muslim

28. Anonymous, Britain, trans woman

29. Conchita, Austria, Performer, a man in a dress

30. Anonymous, Spain, where a dictionary defines “Gypsy” as “swindler”

31. Elmedini, Roma, stateless

32. Shirin Ebadi Kurt Westergaard

35. National Museum of Archaeology, Lisbon

36. Grada Kilomba, Table of Goods, MAAT, Lisbon

37. Cypriot terrorists / resistance figherts

38. Ahlam Shibli, Phantom House
Jeu de Paume, Paris

39. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Cornelius van Harlaam,
“Bathsheba at her toilet”
(1594)
“(…) Because Bathsheba’s
maidservant is black, the
subtly erotic painting takes on
an exotic tinge.”

42. “Things have changed so much
that I often feel like a stranger in
my own country.”

43. Thank you
Maria Vlachou
mariavlachou.pt@gmail.com
Blog: Musing on Culture