THE ESSENTIAL THING IS MIGRATION Engin Erkiner
Türkçe
English
Deutsch
Italiano
Français
Ελληνικά
Kurdî
Español
THE ESSENTIAL IS MIGRATION Engin Erkiner In the history of mankind, migration is the main thing, not settlement. Stone age man, the longest period of humanity, was constantly migrating. If the area he migrated to was not empty, if there were others, he usually tried to drive them out. In human history, wars started long before the emergence of classes. If we consider the period of classical colonialism as 450-500 years, there were great migrations in this period as well. One of them was the forced migration of large numbers of blacks from African countries to the American continent to work in production. There was also migration to the Far and Middle East through the slave trade, but it was small. The second is the migration from colonial countries to colonies. The newcomers pushed the old ones aside and dominated the region. Central and South America were colonised by the Spanish and Portuguese for many years. Indigenous languages were suppressed and the two languages of the colonisers dominated. The first people of the USA, the Indians, were displaced by immigrants from Europe and many were killed. These are well-known examples; there are many less well-known examples. The first conclusion; the understanding that we were the first people to come here and this place is ours is wrong. It is contrary to the general line of human history. Throughout history, those who have migrated have either melted into the society that has always existed in the region they have migrated to, or they have driven them out. Neither process should be viewed as one hundred per cent. The newcomer and the old influenced each other to varying degrees. Major wars have caused major displacements. During the two world wars there were significant population shifts in Europe. For the last 40 years or so, this migration has been reversed, with many people from Africa and South and Central America trying to reach the USA and the European Union by various means. The second conclusion is that it should not be our job, nor the job of those who will live after us, to correct the consequences of a long historical period. This cannot be done. Only time will be wasted. What can be done is to work for people to learn to live together better. This is not easy either. The main reason for the rising xenophobia in European countries is the increasing deterioration of the everyday life to which they have become accustomed. Inevitably, culture is also changing and diversifying, and there is a considerable reaction to this change. Both old and newcomers find it difficult to change. This should not be seen as a local-foreign conflict. For example, the old immigrants do not want the new ones, especially those who are different from them. For example, look at how Turks in Germany talk about the increasing number of Arabs... The first condition for coexistence is that everyone must change, that some aspects must be, so to speak, sculpted. In Germany, the concept of Leitkultur (leading culture), which the Christian Democrats have reintroduced into their programme, is the product of discomfort with change. If there had been no pressure from the grassroots, the concept, which was once included in their programme and then removed due to reactions, would not have been brought back to the agenda. You cannot stop migration, which continues to increase worldwide. Migration is the decisive aspect of human history, not settlement... We usually do not know or even hear about the large migration movements between African countries... This great migration may lead to conflicts and even massacres, as we have seen in history. People will learn to live together, to co-exist with those who are different, by chipping away at certain aspects of themselves. The trend is in this direction, it is imperative to learn and change.
