Searching for Answers: Migration & the Good Life
2024 Eurofellows Reflection
This post was written by educator Nick Zavediuk from Guilford Technical Community College
While most jobs require some manner of professional development, a wonderful perk of being a community college professor is that we are given a wide berth in pursuing opportunities to improve ourselves as teachers. As a recipient of the Eurofellows Educator Fellowship for 2023–24, I may have begun the program with only an inkling of what we would learn and how we would proceed, but, by the end, left with a deep appreciation for the dedication, values, and organization of the Center for European Studies (CES) as it promotes knowledge of Europe through giving support and resources to K-14 faculty and staff. (The guided tour of the Ackland Art Museum must not be missed, should you have the chance!)
Two aspects of our workshops this year with the CES were highlights for me. The first was the multiple sessions with teachers and researchers from across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These sessions were already valuable because of how these experts shared their varied approaches (and tools) for teaching specific subject matter about European history, society, politics, and economics. But what set these sessions apart was the way these same researchers and teachers gave us glimpses of their distinctive research programs, showing us the direct importance of matters like the ongoing efforts to realize the four freedoms of the EU, the culinary traditions of distinctive regions of Spain, or the experiences of African immigrants and Black Americans living in different European countries. And these are only a small sample of the topics we were introduced to during our time in the FedEx Global Education Center.
Another pleasant surprise was our inclusion as visitors in several events organized by the CES to support current and future students interested in opportunities and careers that involve global perspectives and international cooperation. For example, we attended two panel discussions with Transatlantic Masters Program alumni discussing their post-graduation career arcs and international career paths through the U.N., the U.S. Foreign Service, and entities adjacent to both. There was also a memorable, interactive presentation on the culture of Crimean Tatars set against the backdrop of their plight as a result of Crimea’s most recent (and wholly indefensible) annexation by the Russian Federation. These events demonstrated to me in a most concrete way how invested CES is in both student success and the support of work that intersects scholarship and activism.
My responsibility as a Eurofellow was to deliver a lesson plan that encourages student knowledge and awareness of European perspectives. There are plenty of places that a philosophy professor could start a lesson. Immigration and migration raise a number of interesting philosophical issues and problems, which are made all the more pressing given a large increase in migration flows around the world over the last decade. Some questions are conceptual in nature. What makes a person a migrant as opposed to a refugee? How much control over territorial borders does a state require to be sovereign? Many more questions have evaluative dimensions involving contested notions of justice, freedom, self-determination, and equality. These questions are where much of the philosophical action is, so to speak.
However, rather than engaging and analyzing (im)migration issues through a consequentialist analysis (How much do different kinds of migration impact per capita GDP or measure of social cohesion?) or a non-consequentialist one (Is it fair to exclude migrants from certain benefits available to natural-born citizens?), my lesson plan is interested in the lives of migrants themselves. Why? The reason is that I suspect that any good answers to questions concerning assimilation, integration, or accommodation of migrants to Europe requires some excavation of our own ideas about how we live our lives and how we should live them. As such, my lesson plan begins with a body of questions related to the good life. What is ‘happiness’? What makes a life ‘meaningful’? What sorts of steps can one attempt to increase their ‘well-being’? Insofar as we can grasp the reasons why people migrate to Europe, what they hope such a move will bring them, and perhaps even the sacrifices that migration unavoidably entails, the closer we come to understanding what makes a good life (in a pluralistic sense) for migrants. At that point, students can look to the social sciences and argue the case for what kinds of policies and interventions serve the best interests of Europeans and those who have migrated to Europe.
UNC Chapel Hill philosophy professor Susan Wolf defines a meaningful life as one that “arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.” With respect to European migration, the purpose of my lesson plan is to help students gain an appreciation of what makes lives valuable for those who live them, and then consider what steps a supranational union, and individual nation-state, or even a community can undertake to increase the happiness and well-being of their new members
