Page - 52 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

52 | www.limina-graz.eu people with less formal education, and youth) made the migration of Mus- lims from the Middle East and Africa, as well as sub-Saharan Africans, an incendiary issue. The result was a pulling back from embracing the vision of the European Union and a shared humanity, and a turning to national- ism and xenophobia. Economic insecurity and migration had similar ef- fects in the United States and Australia, where nationalist and xenophobic movements gained popularity. Nationalism and Populism Nationalism first appeared in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies as an effort to bring diverse cultures (called “nations” at the time) into larger political units (states), so that the diverse nations would react together as a single social and political unit (nation-states). At the time of the French revolution, it is estimated that only about twenty percent of France’s population spoke standard French. Bismarck formed Germany out of a host of several smaller principalities. In other words, nationalism— seen positively—provided a way of bringing diverse peoples together under new forms of social unity. This has been most evident in so-called “coun- tries of migration” such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, where new common identities were formed out of groups hailing from very dif- ferent origins elsewhere. At the same time, nationalism also always had a deep shadow side. The very forces that allowed people to come together could also become engines of exclusion for those deemed not to belong. This was most painfully evident with the rise of National Socialism in Germany in the 1930s, and the sub- sequent expulsion of German-speaking peoples from Eastern Europe af- ter the Second World War. What is now widely called “populism” might be seen as the flip side of this attempt to create a greater, transcultural social unit. Rather than embracing a kind of hybridity of cultures, it seeks to cre- ate a new purity that excludes any “other” that does not match a specific identity. Populism is a negative reaction growing out of this sense of loss of control over one’s life, and quite frequently, carries racial overtones (Müller 2016). robert J. schreiter | Globalization and Plural theologies Nationalism brought diverse peoples together under new forms of social unity. But, at the same time, it became an engine of exclusion.