Patriotism and Migration

Abstract

Concepts of patriotism are constructed around the idea of loyalty to a particular country and national identity. Patriotisms extend from the purely emotional, rooted in history and upbringing which demand unconditional loyalty to a given entity, to the largely rational on which the sense of patriotism depends on the characteristics of a specific country. While diversity from a variety of sources has long been a characteristic of most contemporary First World democracies, large-scale migration is often seen as adding a new layer of diversity and threatening long-held concepts of how many countries see themselves. Most varieties of patriotism on offer today would appear to offer little to migrants. They seem to demand an emotional attachment which is unrealistic to expect from people who are living in adopted countries and who probably still have a strong attachment to their countries of origin. If a sense of patriotism is considered essential for the development of the social unity necessary for liberal democracies to function, then patriotism must be conceptualized on a rational rather than on an emotive basis.