I haven’t done much with nationalism prior to this course. ‘Globalisation’ is thrown around in pretty much every International Relations course in this university, but most of my personal research regarding globalisation focuses on the areas outside of Europe. I was intrigued to read Conrad’s adamant statement that nationalisation and nationalism are the product of globalisation and not a ‘prerequisite’. Once I read this it of course made sense; the penetration of the ‘other’ into the workforce and culture of an established nation-state would absolutely be seen as a threat to national identity, resulting of course in the increase of national rehortic. Yet, I had never really given much thought to this. I found Conrad’s writing particularly interesting for this reason.
He talked about mass mobility, the rise of eugenics, and education all as agents of the rising nationalistic discourse in European states. He explains in his introduction that with globalisation came a fear of the ‘homogenisation’ of Europe and the various states and cultures within it. It was interesting to read about the recruitment of Polish agricultural workers for seasonal farm work in Germany with this fear in mind. Polish workers were seen as a convenient way to bolster the labour force in the agricultural industry, which many Germans considered “a symbol of the fatherland and a nursery of national strength and energy.”
There is a sort of irony in recruiting outsiders to help maintain and grow the nation’s main source of strength and pride. As more Polish workers came to Germany the fear of losing national identity grew. The result of this fear was displayed through the introduction of guarded border crossing, the segregation of nationalities, and the construction of a colonial difference between Germans, Poles, and Ruthenes. These tools were used to create a political difference between the groups, explains Conrad. Homogenisation as a result of globalisation did not scare nation-states regarding the loss of their culture to the melting pot. Rather, it seems, the fear was about becoming more like the ‘other’ that was truly frightening. This right-wing nationalism increased at the end of the nineteenth century as nationalistic rhetoric transitioned to talk of protecting themselves from ‘enemies of the state’. This sort of thinking lends itself quite obviously to the racialisation of nationalistic discourse. Conrad mentions the rise of eugenics in the 1900s and how this racialised discourse quickly lead to the radicalisation of nationalistic sentiment. I found the connections Conrad made between shifts in national opinion and nationalist rhetoric as a result of globalisation enlightening.