Contradictions Globalization: Migration And Ethnic Coexistence After September 11

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the present globalization process, the intensification of international migratory flows, and the problems arising from the inter-ethnic coexistence with immigrant minorities in Europe, particularly with Islamic immigrants after the September 11th attack. Nowadays international migrations can be seen as the distorted image of those contradictions that distinguish a globalization that, on the one hand, deepens the division and the exclusion and, on the other, removes political regulation from certain markets, while it introduces a more restrictive policy in others. These contradictions,  far from stopping migratory flows, is having the effect of increasing them. It also examines the limits and possibilities of some of the most discussed at present inter-ethnic coexistence models, particularly multicultural and intercultural ones. As contrasted with the atmosphere of general suspicions about Islamic immigrants, an effort of approach and mutual knowledge is proposed, so that barriers and commonplaces can be torn down, the real origins of the most violent expressions of Islamism can be analyzed and, through an intercultural dialogue, a universally accepted frame of values and referents can be built, on which a practical and fruitful coexistence can be founded.