Still Two Tiers of Ethnic Conflict? Implications for the Evolution of a European Identity and Polity Anthony M. Messina Department of Political Science University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556
[email protected] Paper presented to the conference “European Identities? Regionalism, Nationalism, and Religion,” University of Notre Dame London Centre, October 17-18, 2008 0 “The way identity bears on European integration depends on how it is framed, and it is framed in domestic political conflict.” (Hooghe and Marks 2008: 120) “Giving up one’s loyalty to the nation is not required for a European demos. But we know little about those social and political contexts in which European and national identities might actually clash.” (Risse 2004: 271) 1 Introduction In an article published more than a decade a half ago I argued that the recent escalation of tensions between the “new” minority and so-called “native” populations had resulted in two distinct but interactive tiers of ethnic conflict in Western Europe (Messina 1992). On the first tier, I asserted, the aspirations, material interests, and often the cultural identities of Western Europe’s new ethnic and racial minorities are in conflict with those of the domestic majority population. On the second tier, the aspirations, interests, and identities of the new minorities collide with not only those of the majority population, or significant fractions thereof, but also directly or indirectly with those of the traditional minority groups. Although the latter had emerged too recently to discern a universal pattern of interaction between the two tiers, I nevertheless offered three observations inspired by evidence drawn from several country cases.