Living Together In Perfect Harmony

Integration. "The intermixing of persons previously segregated." "(Psychological) the combination of the diverse elements of perception etc. in a personality." The Concise Oxford.

Integration. There is a letter in this week's "Euro Weekly" which takes to task columnist Leapy Lee's assertion that Mallorca "has not been taken over by expatriates". The author of the letter bemoans the fact that Mallorca has lost its "traditional Spanish way of life" and has in effect been colonised by those (and he's referring to the Brits) who don't bother to learn the language.

Integration. It's an old theme, one tossed around without, one senses, a great deal of appreciation as to its meaning or its subtleties. The first of the Oxford definitions is questionable in its accuracy, in a Mallorcan context at any rate. Segregation suggests a form of apartheid or separate development; this has never been the reality save for some unofficial and occasionally official discrimination. The second definition is the more meaningful as it alludes to the degree to which mentally the incomer, the expatriate, embraces his new society as opposed to purely physically in terms, for instance, of location. But to return to segregation, this ties in with what the letter-writer says about colonisation - as he sees it.

If I recall correctly, the piece by Mr. Graham (to give Leapy Lee his name; I find it somewhat absurd using "leapy" when referring to someone close on being a septuagenarian, but be that as it may) referred to his urbanisation - in Santa Ponsa I think. There was an enclave of different nationalities living in peace and harmony, or something like that. My own urbanisation is perhaps similar: British, Germans, Mallorcans. It would be stretching the imagination to say that we're all best mates. Most keep themselves to themselves, especially the Mallorcans; pretty much like many places I would suggest. But colonies? Where are these colonies exactly? It is not as if certain roads or districts in towns can be said to be "British". That Brits may live in reasonable proximity to each other is a fact of the places not being that big, not that they have actively sought to re-create parts of Mallorca that are forever England. If the writer is referring to bars, then he may be on firmer ground but even then anyone with an ounce of knowledge of bars in for example Alcúdia's Mile will know that many of these, whilst proclaiming "Britishness", are well and truly not British. Colonisation by cultural import perhaps, but not by any means all by British-owned businesses. If there is any source of colonisation it has been the tour operators.

Physically, therefore, there is integration in the sense of lack of segregation when it comes to where people live. In Puerto Pollensa, a resort of almost total British tourism dominance, there are also plenty of Brit residents, but no one could say that it looks or feels British, because it doesn't. The town may have lost some of its charm (its "Spanish way of life" perhaps to use the letter-writer's words) but that's the fault of developers responding not only to British or overseas demand but also local. There is "intermixing" of the races. The only sense in which one might agree that colonisation has been undertaken lies with the fact that towns such as Puerto Pollensa have an attraction to the new-coming British expatriate because there is already a strong British community, but this does not translate into the equivalent of ghettoes or anything approaching them.

Then there is intermixing at a social level. Here the author has a stronger case. Freedom of movement and of property rights have caused the growth in immigration and the inexorable rise of the British expatriate group and of other nationalities. Ally these to the existence of British establishments and to the sheer convenience of Britishness abroad, courtesy of daily newspapers now printed locally, Sky, the internet, cheap flights back home, and the motivation to move out of a predominantly British way of life is greatly reduced. There is not the same imperative to mix with the local population as might have been the case decades ago when to have not done so would have meant virtual isolation.

There are plenty of people who will say that they have any number of Spanish friends. Some seem to wish to boast of this in a notching-up manner; it's trophy friendship-making - I've got more Spanish friends than you have sort of thing. It's tacky and ultimately patronising to those Spaniards who might be included among their ranks. Of course there are expats who spend most of their existence with and around Mallorcans or Spaniards; many of them have married a local, a few have gone native. But for the most part, the "Spanish friends" are really acquaintances; the expat still exists within his own community. There is the reverse side of the coin. How many Mallorcans actually want to "intermix" with the expats? They can be very friendly but that does not make them friends; the Mallorcan is not typically antagonistic but nor is he totally accommodating.

The British and the Germans form the largest expatriate groups in Mallorca among the "old" Europe countries. But they are not the largest groups. The Argentinians, for instance, outstrip them both by some distance. The difference of course lies with language. The Argentinian may have a discernible accent and some different usages but his language is that of Spain. He intermixes far more readily as he shares a cultural birthright. Language is the greatest obstacle to integration. Can one really create friendships without communicating properly? Moreover, without good language understanding it is impossible to fully come to terms with the society one lives in. For the Brit who struggles with a bit of the lingo, it is so much easier to simply fall back onto his community. Even for those who speak Spanish reasonably fluently, there is a gap. Spanish is not the language of the Mallorcan. Oh yes, Mallorcans speak Spanish, but it is not their language and nor, in many ways, is Spain their culture. When the letter-writer talks of a "Spanish way of life", he's missing the point.

Recently I said to an old lag of many years British expatriatism that I wished to learn Mallorquín (I may have explained before that while I can understand much of it in written form I can't speak it). Why did I want to do that? They all speak Spanish. My motivation is not so that I can say I have integrated. To be honest I never give the subject much thought except when compiling pieces such as this. But I do want to understand and to be able to converse. Guy de Forestier's "Beloved Majorcans" is quite clear on the nuances of both the Mallorquín language and non-verbal communication. These are signficantly different not obviously just to Spanish but also mainland Catalan. The Mallorquín language is the culture and vice versa; the two are indivisible. Integration - "the combination of the diverse elements of perception" - begins and ends with language. To this end, only a minority of British expatriates, and probably quite a small one, can be said to have integrated. The letter-writer is correct in this regard, but I suspect he's also wrong as he's talking in a different language - as it were.

This claim of an erosion of the "Spanish way of life" in Mallorca is tenuous as well as it is fallacious in failing to allude to a "Mallorcan way of life". What erosion may have occurred is the result only in part because of immigration. Mallorca's societal shift in the later part of the last century was down to its equivalent of an industrial revolution - tourism. The expat is a consequence of a change in Mallorcan society not the cause of it; a change brought about by Europeanisation and legislation. Mallorca comprises many different nationalities now; it is cosmopolitan. But this has not meant an undermining of traditions. The language has been rediscovered following the period of proscription and if anything, as I wrote about in a previous piece, there has been a rediscovery of traditions, partly perhaps as a buffer to the changes in the wider society. The expat, far from eroding that way of life, has probably, inadvertently, helped to strengthen it.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Johnny Hates Jazz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRHLkLFJxaw). Today's title - a lyric from a well-intentioned but ultimately yucky allegoric duet by?

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