Here’s how you build real multiculturalism

As globalization is fading and a multipolar world emerging, the question of identity is essential for people not to get lost. Between the abstract multicultural ideal and homogeneity aspirations, Russia presents itself as a unique ‘middle way’.

Certainly, international law distinguishes between the concepts of nationality and citizenship. But these are legal subtleties that don’t concern random individuals, who have many other things to think about and who often, particularly in the West, have the tendency to believe that the two concepts are synonymous. Nevertheless, in a world that is being totally reshaped, we are touching here on the fundamental question of identity. If we don’t know where we come from, we can’t know where we are going.

The dominant West has unconsciously adopted a vision of identity heavily influenced by Rousseau’s version of the social contract theory. A contract between the population and the state, but one tainted with a naïve humanism that tends to consider all human beings as inherently equivalent and interchangeable. Universalism did not originate with the Age of Enlightenment – one can argue that its roots lie in Christianity – however, it was slowly but surely propelled by French intellectuals, to such an extent that it became a Western standard. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that about half of the English vocabulary is derived from French, particularly in the areas of law, government, and the military.

Consequently, the West has philosophically integrated a narrow conception of identity as a purely legal contract between a state and an individual. You have the papers? You belong to the country. Born in Pakistan, Muslim, and you obtained your British passport at 35? You are a true subject of the British Crown. Born in Mali, educated in Mali, but obtained a French passport? You are French. Born in Korea, arrived in the United States at 50 and obtained an American passport? You are American. Well, you get the idea.