Mikael Sandgren

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Europa som nation

THE VANTAGE POINT for this thesis is the passport as it was understood and used in the European Union from 1999 to 2001, as a requirement to cross the external borders of the EU and as a symbol of a united Europe free from a spectacular nationalism of the member states. According to nationalism, every nation should have its own state, and every state should be legitimized by a nation. If the modern passport has been a banal link between nation and state, the EU and its Europeanization of passports have mostly been considered as a separation of nation and state. Given that the symbols of the EU, which as well as a passport include a flag, a day, an anthem, a currency, and a motto, are strongly reminiscent of national symbols it could also be worth considering that the EU framed Europe as a nation. The aim of this thesis has been to understand how the EU could be legitimized by a vague idea of Europe as if it was a nation. This thesis is based on observations from two border controls—Tarajal in Ceuta at the periphery of the EU, and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at its centre—and from the immigration museum at Ellis Island in New York City, which is a contrast both as a tourist destination and as a historical border control. In combination with discourses on the EU compared with discourses on different nations, these observations have been understood in relation to theories of nationalism from a sociological point of view. According to the interpretation presented in this thesis the EU is legitimized by a new national style through a reformulation of assumptions inherent in the genre of nationalism. This national style would imply that the member states’ Gemeinschaft should be realised within the EU’s widening Gesellschaft. The interpretation put forward here serves as a reminder of the assumptions historically connected with the passport. At the same time the interpretation considers the reformulation of these assumptions in relation to undeniable social and cultural changes.

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