Do I Belong?

Book excerpt: Beginning in childhood, one of our strongest and most fundamental human emotions is the desire to belong. This emotion extends beyond merely the self, affecting on a macro scale at a political level. Since its foundation in 1957, the European Union has encouraged people across its member states to feel a sense of belonging to one united international community--with very mixed results. Today, faced with the fracturing impact of the migration crisis, threats of terrorism, and rising tensions, governments within and outside the EU now seek to impose a different kind of belonging through policies of exclusion and border control. In this collection of personal essays, a diverse group of novelists, journalists, and activists reflect on their own individual senses of citizen belonging. In creative and disarming ways, they confront the challenges of nationalism, populism, racism, and fundamentalism and offer fascinating insights into some of the most pressing questions of our day: Why do people fear growing diversity? Is there truly a European identity? Who determines who belongs? ​ Literary, accessible, and timely, Do I Belong? provides unique commentary on an insufficiently understood and defining phenomenon of our age.