The first step of creating cosmopolitan indicators that can be used in empirical research has been completed through a coherent and detailed discussion of cosmopolitanism and the development of theoretical tenets of various cosmopolitan approaches. At our disposal now are a variety of theoretical indicators of the cosmopolitan disposition. In a second step, it is crucial to present the possibility of operationalization of those theoretical cosmopolitan indicators as a mean to explain empirical findings and reality in the field of asylum of immigration and locate “actually existing
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cosmopolitanisms” (Malcolmson, 1998). What is important in this regard, is to keep in mind, that the individual theoretical tenets can not necessarily be operationalized individually into empirical indicators and utilized to capture the complexity of the cosmopolitan concept. Thus, the methodological solution and discussion presented in the table in Appendix 3 follows the assumption that the theoretical cosmopolitan indicators are operationalized into indicators and applied in empirical research and are manifested in a multi-dimensional nature.
In this regard, the commitment and compliance of countries to a variety of international human and fundamental rights provisions, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967, can be seen as a political cosmopolitan trait, in the sense that countries show a desire through being signatories to those treaties to “make the world more cosmopolitan through campaigning for human rights” (Smith, 2007; Van Hooft, 2007). However, through their compliance with those treaties and legislative measures countries also show that they are capable of, as Delanty (2009) calls it, a ‘shared normative culture’ based on the values of human rights.
As Beck (2006) points out cosmopolitanism can also be seen as a growing awareness of global risks which leads in turn to the establishment of a shared “community of fate”. This means that countries recognize their collective fortunes, but also collective problems, which consequently require collective solutions. In this respect, one could argue, that the Member States of the EU realized that conflicts, environmental disasters and other factors force people to flee in one part of the world, but because the EU is a major destination for those seeking refuge, it is a global issue that has to be solved together. Hence, one could say that the creation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in 1999, which attempted to tackle the challenges posed by refugee movements at a European level and which tried to harmonize and streamline all the various national asylum approaches into one universal European approach, represents a cosmopolitan answer to increasing refugee flows.
The creation of the Common European Asylum System and the implementation of EU legislative and administrative measures into national policies on immigration and asylum can also be described as not only the ‘willingness to expand political
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community’ (Pichler, 2008), but also as a sign of ‘trust in supranational institutions’ (Norris & Inglehart, 2009).
In regard to the topic of this thesis, which is dealing with the provision of reception conditions to asylum seekers- ranging from the access to education, healthcare and material reception conditions- one can say, that from a cosmopolitan perspective, the free access to the domestic labour market, healthcare and education for migrants and asylum seekers can be seen as an empirical evidence of a low degree of economic, cultural and institutional protectionism (Roudometof, 2005). While restrictions to the free access of one of these services could be described as a limit to political cosmopolitanism, if these services are delivered by national rather than transnational institutions (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002), which differentiate between citizens and non- citizens.
Education and health might provide a sound basis for an awareness of a shared ‘community of fate’ (Beck, 2006) because of the impact on the whole society of educational levels of its members, and because the wider consequences for public health if a section of society is denied access to health care. Limits on access to Higher Education could be seen as restricting cultural cosmopolitanism by denying opportunities to expand mutual understanding of cultures and identities, and to set one’s own cultural in a wider perspective relative to others (Delanty 2009). While restrictions on access to health care to asylum seekers could also be seen as a failure of moral cosmopolitanism, by failing in global responsibility (Nussbaum, 1997) and to act on pity for suffering (Chouliaraki, 2008).
Applying the indicator brought forward by Beck (2006) that in a cosmopolitan world, it is impossible to live in a world society without borders to the case of asylum and immigration in the European Union, one could argue that the actions of the EU Member States are contradicting. On the one hand, the EU Member States agreed to the creation of the European Single Market, hence the abolishment of internal borders in order to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services and labour. On the other hand, a desire to strengthen the EU external borders can be witnessed, which is leading to the creation of the ‘European Fortress’.
One of the main arguments for being classified as cosmopolitan actor, is the display of the ‘willingness to engage with the Other’ (Appiah, 2006) and the ‘coexistence of
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cultures’ (Hannerz, 1990). In addition to this, Beck (2006) adds that a cultural cosmopolitan actor should show ‘curiosity of the culturally different’. Following on from this one could argue, that if a Member State embraces their multicultural society and promotes integration of immigrants and asylum seekers through different initiatives and projects, they could be classified as ‘taking risks by virtue of encountering the Other’ (Szerszynski & Urry, 2002) and finding ‘civic and ethical value in the process of exposure to otherness’ (Gilroy, 2004); hence they act in a cultural cosmopolitan manner.
Finally, applying the cosmopolitan frame to the provision of accommodation to asylum seekers, one could argue that following Kant’s idea of the principle of universal hospitality, Member States could be classified as following this principle if they provide adequate living standards to asylum seekers and accommodate them amongst their own citizen creating the feeling of all belonging to a ‘greater society’ (Merton,1968).
3.5.Chapter summary
This chapter started out with a general overview of the history and the development of cosmopolitanism from the Stoic and Cynic school of thought to the Enlightenment era with Immanuel Kant’s idea of a cosmopolitan world and the different approaches and differences of the cosmopolitan outlook in contemporary and modern approaches to the concept. Following on from this, the chapter continued with a discussion of how states can be seen as cosmopolitan actors and what traits in this respect are necessary for a state to be classified as cosmopolitan. In a final step, all the findings of the literature review have been taken together in order to develop theoretical cosmopolitan indicators, grouped into cultural, political and moral, that can be used for empirical research in order to examine whether social phenomena or actors can be characterized as being cosmopolitan. The final step of this chapter, was to transform the theoretical cosmopolitan tenets into indicators and statements that can assist empirical research. During this process, it became evident, that the various theoretical cosmopolitan indicators could not always be translated into separate empirical indicators, due to the fact that cosmopolitanism is a multi-dimensional concept.
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Chapter 4
Methodology
Chapter 2 and 3 allowed an insight and overview of both the actual context, that the thesis is placed in and the theoretical framework and approach and the cosmopolitan indicators that will be used for the research. The following chapter 4 will discuss the methodological measures that will be used in order to collect data and generate research findings.