- Cities are made of migration,
historically, they were made of migration.
They were important places where trade was going through
and often where flows of people were going through.
That is actually often forgotten
but migration made cities.
So in a way, it's in their DNA.
I think cities are emerging as a very important
level of identification.
I think it's promising in terms of diversity
because somehow, first of all, integration
happens in cities, so, it is the everyday life,
and it is where the challenges come
and where local governments oftentimes,
most of the time, they're more progressive
in saying, okay, I don't care for instance, about,
the citizenship accusation and changes
in the citizenship law, but I want to integrate
my people in the schools, for instance,
in local activities, into civic activism,
into voluntary projects - and that's very important.
That is also another level of identity
that can do away with a lot of the tensions
of the national level, so is this person
a true friend, is he a true German,
or is she a true Italian or rather say,
she is from Milan, she is from Turin,
he is from Berlin, she is from Marsailles.
Now, of course I think the way you identify with your city
has a lot to do with, also, your ethnic
and national register.
So for me, in a way, this is a new thing that I'm finding
through my research because within my own Greek background,
there was no space for cities.
So it's not that you were an Athenian. I grew up,
was born and grew up in Athens,
from a family that has been in Athens for
three or four generations, which is generally unusual,
but I never, there was no space and I think,
perhaps, to a large extent, there's still no space
in the Greek national register to say, "I'm an Athenian."
But probably, this is going to come, as a result
of the diversity and migration and intermingling.
Identifying with your city is more acceptable
both for the newcomer, whatever the newcomer is,
but also for the local - so the person
who is originally from that city
for one or two or three generations.
Because it is validating more the everyday,
the current experience. It kind of
avoids the historical issues and avoids
the legal issues.
I think, of course, it's an idiom more for large cities.
Perhaps it works, I mean, while integration
can still work well and probably even better
in smaller towns, but the register of having a city
identity is more difficult if you come from
a small town, while if you come from a medium or large
city it makes sense to say, you know,
I feel "Marseillais,"
rather than to say, I feel "a person from a really small..."
And probably has a place in the world.
I think city heritage does not really antagonize
national heritage or national definitions
of what is...national dominant discourses
about what it means to be German, to be Greek,
or to be American for that matter.
I think it really functions on a different register,
and I think that's actually what is promising.
Try to think of yourself as a citizen,
as an inhabitant of your own city,
and how you want to live your life
in connection with that and hence, then,
you bring everything together with this local connection.
And it helps also build resilience and fight alienation.
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