THE PAST OF CENTRAL EUROPE IS THE FUTURE OF EUROPE, AN INTERVIEW WITH ZYGMUNT BAUMAN

Excerpt: Every process has its discontents, and diasporization is no  exception. Denmark or the Netherlands, until recently symbols of openness and hospitality, turned into pioneers of barring immigration and reintroduced boundary control. And yet such resistance to diasporization may well be a lost battle. According to demographic predictions, by 2050 Europe will lose eighty million inhabitants by comparison with its present population. There will be eighty million less Europeans, if immigration does not continue – something that the European economy would hardly bear. Business interests would not allow governments to really stop the immigration, as politicians promise their electors: the alternative to immigration would be to move their own industrial plants elsewhere, where labour force is cheaper and more docile. Fundamentalism, xenophobia, boundary closing are in the long run unrealistic; just playing to the nebulous dream of making the ever more complex world simpler, and reducing the multitude of heterogeneous  problems such complexity brings forth by getting rid of one, blamed for other challenges and the fears they arouse in people exposed to uncertainty and insecurity.

Source: www.citsee.eu/interview/past-central-europe-future-europe-interview-zygmunt-bauman