Abstract
Nationalism is one of the controversial issues in political science studies. Nationalism includes rational approaches as well as emotional ones, both strong support and intense criticism. This chapter will apply the primordial approach of nationalism, considering its roots from before the French Revolution and as a result of human psychology. So, the sense of belonging, is the main argument of the primordial approach in nationalism studies, will be examined with its effect on the migration economy. The main focus of the chapter will be the European Union facing huge refugee flows from Syria, the economic impact of refugees by the effect of migration, and citizen reaction to immigrants and the economy.
TopNationalism: A General Concept
Nationalism has hardly annual concept and includes lack of concurrence the opinion. Surrounded by an ideological frame, it makes difficult to provide a common acceptance on the definition.
Nationalism has defined in several ways such as ‘sleeping beauty’ or ‘the source of harm’. ‘Good’, ‘bad’, ‘constructive’ or ‘destructive’ developments in historical periods had influenced these emotional approaches. Constructive developments such as the power to unite nations, impulse force of state-building process or immersive influence on citizens at the time of war; as well as destructive developments such as laying low an empire or harboring to hatred may affect the conceptual definition of nationalism. So, the term can simply be introduced as a figure of speech or expressive formation (Gökalp, 2007:281).
While there is no simple definition on nationalism, discussion over its nature vary. For example, Berghe (1981) frames nationalism with its characteristic as ‘original sin’ referring to its stimulating nature of irrational ambitions. Also, Kedouire (1960) announces nationalism as an intellectual mistake of political history, that of including bad ideas community.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Irregular Migration: Undocumented, illegal or unauthorized movements.
EU: The most favorite destination for irregular immigrants.
Nationalism: There are several definitions considering its relation with sentiments, instrumental dimension, culture, destructive and constructive structure.