Being Bicultural in Europe | Biculturalism / Multiculturalism | Forum

hmm interesting question! I, too, would be interested in reading what people have to say.

As for me, I am bicultural, living in Austria,  but I find it excessively difficult to answer this question.

Simply because I do not know whether it is "easier or harder" than being …. monocultural? I can't say, because I have been bicultural my whole life, so I have no basis of comparison. Easier or harder than … living elsewhere, you mean? Same problem here, I have no basis of comparison since I don't know whether living a bicultural life in France is the same as in Austria. My guess is that it is probably not the same. It would also depend on whether you live in the country (more traditional, monocultural) or in the city, which is usually multicultural.

I can speak of my experiences, but need to emphasize that Austria is NOT representative of ALL of Europe – no one EU country can be representative of a heterogeneous continent that consists of 45 different countries with equally many cultures. And I would not dare compare my experiences of a country life in a traditional part of Austria to other continents like Asia or the Americas out of fear of generalizing; and comparing it to my life in, say, NYC, is like comparing apples and pears.

Advantage or disadvantage – in what sense? Could you be more specific?

In what sense do you think that "Europeans" like to appear tolerant, but might not be in reality?

I am wondering whether the actual question that you would really like to get at is whether, as a bicultural in a European country, one seems to experience more discrimination than in other countries?

Geri, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about your question and be forewarned: I'm not going to give you a concrete answer. Yes, it is a big and complex question, and I think that it is not possible to answer the question in a big and general way. Europe is culturally and language-wise a very heterogeneous region. That Europe managed, after the horrors of WW2, to come together and form something like the European Union, where it is possible to travel without a passport, is in my personal view a miracle in itself. Maybe this is what you mean when you refer to Europe as a tolerant country.

I could, however, give you at least a dozen counter-examples that illustrate that Europe is not as tolerant as it might appear from the outside. Maybe the increased globalization and increased loss of national sovereignty (in the context of the EU) contributed towards a fear of cultural loss and loss of identity. Maybe migration from within the EU and from outside the EU also contributes. This, I think, could be a contributing factor why political parties with xenophobic programs start to gain increasing number of votes in more and more European countries, also (or especially) in those which were considered traditionally very tolerant and liberal. And I do want to leave the counterargument unmentioned that, yes, in the past many cross-cultural problems apparently were not sufficiently addressed and solved by politics. Certain hot topics were simply not addressed out of (in my opinion) the issue of "political correctness". Just turn on the TV and watch the political debates. In the case of immigration (be it from outside the EU, or from EU internal migration), the fear of loss of cultural identity can be found on many sides (by the migrant as well as the "original natives") . There is the saying, that the European Union is in the heads of the people, but not yet in their hearts. It's ironic that in even in Belgium, which seats the European capital Bruxelles, there are language conflicts, which have been going on for years, and there are many other examples, even within a small country such as Austria.

Another point: Growing up bilingually (multilingually) in Europe is nothing unusual. And trust me, these languages can be very different from each other and from the national language German, here in Austria where I live. After a one hour drive north I will end up in the Czech Republic (Czech language), northeast you can find Slovakia (different pronunciation than Czech). A short drive east of Vienna, the capital of Austria, they speak Hungarian. In the eastern Provinces of Austria they speak increasingly Croatian (but not the same one which is spoken in Croatia). South you can find Slovenian. And there is also a border to Italy (language Italian). For me, as a native German speaker, having been raised in "High German", it is impossible to understand the "Swiss German" spoken only a few hundred km West of where I live. But luckily the Swiss have two other national languages, Italian and French, to choose from. There are (including sign language) a total of seven recognized minority languages in Austria alone. These languages are not the most common languages, however. Right after German, we have Turkish as the most widely spoken language, followed by Serbian (Wikipedia).

Ah, before I forget: Spanish is starting to over take French as the most popular third language (after Engilsh) as an elective course in Austrian schools, and everyone who wants to study a social science, any language, medicine or law in Austrian universities have to pass an exam in Latin (unless they took it in school).

Practical consequences: Compare this situation with the US, for example. It's possible for someone living in California to apply for a job in Washington DC and then move to that place. In Europe this is not always possible. People are much more sessile, not only due to cultural issues, but also due to language barriers. If people now do start to move to a different area, than it is immediately evident that they are not locals, if they can speak the language of that country at all. Even within the same language this is the case, where there are strong local accents.

No wonder some people suggest that a culturally neutral language, such as the constructed language of Esperanto, should become the "national language" of Europe.

To what extent does the ability to speak several languages automatically make you multicultural? This is a question also of definition, and so complex that this topic can be covered in a pHD thesis, but not in a blog comment….. Anyone care to comment?

another response from an austrian (born and raised)

i grew up monocultural, in a pretty monolingual family, in a mostly monocultural community. i made a point in making friends with foreigners, especially because i was always drawn to multiculturalism. i have only spent a very short time with my egyptian (back then) fiance, and let me tell you: it was horrible. my immidiate family was very accepting and loving, and most of my close friends as well. but when we went out together everyone stared at us. many people made very rude commends and warned me of getting married to "one of those arabs". i can tell you that this was very hard, and that i am happy to not put my husband in this situation right now (we live in the us).

i believe there is a great difference in how europeans (and in this case i can talk of pretty much all of western europe) see multiculturalism: if you are american married to a european, or if there are two people from different countries in the west married, it is pretty darn cool. your children grow up with french and german? how amazing! english and italian? how lucky they are!

but as soon as there are turks involved, or eastern europeans, asians, africans or people from the middle east: not so good. these people are often looked down at, and unfortionately there is a lot of racism.

i think the general view is: if both partners are from the western world: big advantage, if not: disadvantage (because of ignorance and prejudice).

let me give you a specific example using two schools. on one hand you have the american international school with a great diversity and then you have a austrian school with even greater diversity. the american school is held in high esteem, the austrian international school is very much looked down at. why? because most people who go to the austrian international school are turks, middle easterners, eastern europeans and africans. but most students in the american school are from the states, and other countries that have a great image in europe. sad, isn't it?

of course not every one sees it that way, and i have many friends who think multiculturalism is fantastic, no matter where the couple comes from, and i might be speaking out of hurt and frustration i faced with my multiculturalism. my experience here in the states has been a lot better, people are fascinated and interested in our story and life.

i also have a lot of friends in europe that are from eastern europe and parts of africa and they feel very comfortable in austria, even though there is a lot of racism. but there are a lot of people who fight racism with all their might.

i just saw, that all the other posts are from like, two years ago, but i'll post it anyway :)

After reading some of the comments I'm glad I found this page, I'm a Catalan living in Edinburgh and I wanted to say that I kind of agree with what has been said about the "cons of Europe" (not that tolerant, looking down on people from outside the UE)but  I wanted to add my little experience on this.

As a Catalan (Barcelona, north east of Spain) I've been raised in two cultures, Spanish and Catalan. And well, whenever I'm asked "where are you from" I'd have to say I'm Catalan, probably because it's been my dominant language, and there are two reactions after I pronounce that: ignorance on the subject (np) or a raised eyebrow saying "you're a radical".

Unfortunately I've encountered that in the multicultural Europe, in the country I live in, Spain doesn't want nor ever will acknowledge our existence as a separate nation living within them. One country one nation. Of course we're not dealing with nationalities here and I'm not particulary keen of that discussion but my point is, what 's going to happen to my language and culture?

I mentione it because I don't think Spain is the only country dealing with that issue, unluckily thery're not dealing with it in a European way, whatever that is. It should protect multiculturalism but in some cases, it can't be bothered because politics, shame on it.