AN EUROPEAN SOCIETY AND MIGRATION: THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSCULTURAL DIVERSITY

This study attempts to examine why European policy does not address the issue of migration of people from non-European countries to Europe with sufficient recognition of the impact of migration on European society. Irregular migration, as the term preferred in European policy circles, has been the subject of increasing and ongoing public debate in Europe in recent years. Each year about 250 000 people apply for an asylum in the EU. However, the number of applicants is not equally distributed among EU countries. Global migrations present a fundamental challenge to European society, so this study address issues related to the impact of migration on European society, especially from non-European countries into Europe, with sufficient recognition of the major impact it has on European identity. Migration is one of the major influences to challenge traditional conceptions of Europe structured on nations. Therefore, this study points out the problems of the EU cultural policy and its rise in profile and issues of social cohesion. This paper joins a growing number of calls for a change in the perspective of policy-making to reflect the transnational reality of migration and its impact on the European society. This study is driven by an interest to research how European policy can address the demographic, social and cultural changes brought by the migration of people from non-European countries into the EU.