INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN AN INTEGRATING EUROPE

This article addresses the question of whether a common European cultural identity really exists. Firstly, it discusses two main forms of the definition of European identity, nan ıely a European cultural identity composed of intellectual and political constructs and a pre-existing and single mass European identity clearly distinct from each several cultural otherness. The former tends to regard the EU as a single multiethnic and multicultural entity whose identity was imposed above by various agencies while the latter takes as giyen the existence of a common European identity and is in belief that the present unification of Europe has resulted fro ın this self-existing identity. On the basis of this discussion, the article focuses especially on the critical issues surrounding the creation of a coın ınon European identity, such as what foundations, ideas and values such an identity is to be built upon, what the Europeans should do in order to be European, how they act to build a common European identity and how the EU itself can ıı naınbiguously identity common ideals of the European peoples. Its conclusion is that any formation of a com ınon European identity whose characteristics transcend all boundaries must take Europe as a discrete historical category and build up a common base, a genuinely continental space within which both commonalities and differences of individuals can be balanced.