Nationalism is a dead cause

This post is a little bit of a departure from my previous posts, but it is still connected to my observation and study in Oslo. Nationalism seems to be the topic of the day for both of my courses. It has actually been a subject of debate and discussion since we arrived in Norway.

There seems to be a strong national identity in Norway, and I will be the first to admit that I don’t buy it. This strong national identity has been threatened by a recent influx of immigrants from all over the world who are attracted to Norway’s thriving economy and peaceful existence on the world stage. I've been told that one in three children in Oslo is a child of immigrant parents. Norway never was a homogeneous nation. While they have been ignored for much of Norwegian history, the Sami people in the north have been a significant minority from the start. Still, this national identity persists even with a non-ethnic population that seeks to be a part of the Norwegian nation.

In preparation for a tour of a Pakistani district in Oslo, we were assigned to read a text that attempts to explain how and why the Norwegian national identity exists. The author points to a mixed response to the other depending on the circumstances Norway was dealing with at the time. Norwegians treated Swedish immigrants as equals and fellow workers in times of prosperity and labeled them as bastards and mongrels when they feared that the immigrants would place a heavy burden on their economy.

There was also a tragic and unfortunate response to Jews in Norway. Even though the Jewish population was less than 2,000 before World War II, many Norwegians feared that Jewish business owners would overrun Norwegian businesses. On top of that, Norway almost never accepted Jewish refugees into the country at the start of WWII. The author suggests that many Norwegians did not want to acknowledge what was happening throughout Europe, and they especially did not want to take responsibility for assisting the millions of Jewish refugees.

On the flip side, my peace seminar reading of the day suggests the ethnicity has nothing to do with the reasons for conflict. In fact, ethnically diverse states are not any more likely to go to war than ethnically homogeneous states. Differences only become important as a tool for political mobilization to conflict. In other words, leaders use supposed injustices against their own ethnic group as a way to motivate people to fight for justice.

With that being said, I struggle to look at the Norwegian nation as a relevant construct in the present era. How can so many people still approve of a categorization that has so often been used to discriminate against others? At its extreme, nationalism has been the very instrument of armed conflict in regions that have not seen war for centuries.

Americans have also struggled with a national identity. I would argue that many of our discriminatory practices against immigrants in the last two centuries have been a result of the very pressures Norway experienced as well. But unlike Norway, the United States has definitive ethnic identity to attach to its national identity.

These are just some thoughts to consider. Maybe it is possible to integrate new members of a state into the nation. Then Norway would surprise me. But as far as I can tell, the current global climate makes it nearly impossible to survive as a homogeneous nation-state, no matter how small the country is. Maybe it is time to put nationalism behind and hold onto the idea of citizenship instead.

*The photo above features the folk choir, Bygdelagskoret, who performed for the ISS opening ceremony on Monday. I placed this photo because I question whether this is really a representative snapshot of Norwegian culture and identity.