Multiculturalism : between myth and reality

Abstract

Throughout the past four decades the European continent has witnessed and experienced mass migration on a level unprecedented in human history. This has given rise to the encounter with other cultures, which some European countries had encountered as colonialists but which are now present within the former colonial powers' own geographical boundaries. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached and crossed the borders of what once was known as "fortress Europe" with a consistent intensity that has alarmed many, and which has now given rise to nationalist sentiments that have at times bordered on the extreme. On the other hand, it has become all too obvious that the European Union as a whole has in fact undergone a process of profound transformation and is emerging as a multi-ethnic society, in which various cultures are making their presence felt after decades of immigration.