Welcome to the age of bespoke cultural identities

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recently released its latest report, once again sparking public concern about the impact immigration has had on the UK. Throughout the report, MAC explores the complications of the Home Office practice of condensing the impact of migration policy changes into a single number (the Net Present Value). Complications there very well may be, but this certainly isn’t the end of the story. There remains an aspect to the dialogue over economic and cultural openness that remains silent.

People often lament that economic and cultural openness destroys cultural identity, creating at once a homogenized world and nations that aren’t properly integrated. In a sense, this is correct. But this view is based on culture as defined by national borders. It is precisely this definition of culture, however, that I refuse to accede to.

As a young American undertaking an undergraduate university course in London, I am very much a product of a globalised world. I fundamentally oppose any nation’s attempt to define me, impose an identity upon me or to shape the way I view the world. Yet every time the state denies a person’s ability to cross a border or imposes a protectionist trade policy, they have claimed a victory against my freedom to define myself as an individual and control the way that I relate to the world. As technologies that transcend national borders continue to develop, I believe a claim to the free formation of our individual identities will eventually become a motivating factor for my generation against protectionist policies.

Cultural identities, loosely contained within national borders, develop based upon both the necessary demands of unique landscapes and the limited communication that occurred between relatively small groups of people. With increasing wealth and technological development, however, these factors are becoming irrelevant. International trade and communication now give us access to food, styles, products and ideas from all over the world, making it increasingly difficult to geographically locate clear cultural identities.

What we are witnessing is not the destruction of culture, but the potential to liberate  and decentralise culture on a fundamental level. However, we are only empowered to engage with this process of cultural decentralisation to the extent that the state leaves us free to consume goods, and associate with people as we choose. It is a process of both purposeful action and chance experience that forms our individual identity. Therefore, the state directly constrains our ability to freely form our individuality as soon as it limits the scope of what and whom we can intentionally and incidentally interact with.

Freedom of expression has been widely accepted as a fundamental human right. But it is being transgressed by demands for protectionism. Our acceptance of the basic right to freedom of expression necessarily assumes a right to our personal identity, as well as recognising the utility of the free exchange of ideas. The freedom to consume goods and associate with people without being restricted by national borders is simply a tangible component of our freedom of expression. Through the restriction of the movement of goods and people, therefore, the state undermines our freedom of expression in a profound way.

Of course, free trade and immigration are also economic issues. This economic dimension of openness is usually the justification used to restrict these aspects of our free expression, while simultaneously idolizing free speech as a symbol of the humanity of the modern world. However, this protectionist proposition is a lose-lose situation given the powerful evidence of the economic benefits of openness.

Unfortunately, I still find economic misinformation prevalent among fellow students, despite my generation broadly embracing a globalised culture. I remain optimistic, however, that protectionism will eventually be resisted, and that a reliance on cultural openness will ultimately be the factor that garners support for the free movement of goods and people.

As people continue to engage more with the borderless world created by technological advancement, I believe they will naturally begin to reject the idea that they are not able to tangibly engage with the world with the same level of freedom. Within my lifetime, culture will be crucially redefined and finally understood as something existing outside of national identities, and which is constructed as a result of the free association of individuals and their personal decisions regarding how they wish to interact with the world around them. We are entering the age of bespoke cultural identities.

The Independent Online is partnering with the Battle of Ideas festival to present a series of guest blogs from festival speakers on the key questions of our time.

Gabrielle Shiner is on the executive board of European Students For Liberty and studies English at Queen Mary, University of London.

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