Immigration

Events in France over the past few weeks have underscored the challenges facing European countries with respect to immigration.

The challenge is in how to successfully integrate immigrants into an established homogenous culture. Do societies choose to follow a “multicultural settlement model” where different cultures are allowed and even encouraged to flourish, or the “melting pot” model where all assimilate and become members of the existing mainstream culture?

France is uncomfortable with both models, as is the rest of Europe.

Despite past colonial ties, French society has not been very welcoming to immigrants from Islamic countries. 

In fact, Europe has never been a traditional welcoming society for Islamic immigrants, and the challenges facing these societies today are immense, given the influx of millions of refugees and undocumented immigrants from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa with many countries being former colonies of European powers. 

Rather than integrate with French society, whether by design or by osmosis, Muslim and African immigrants seem to have ghettoized themselves in “banlieues” surrounding major population centers, preferring to maintain their cultures rather than adapt and integrate into French society.

But is this a fair assessment? 

Have the French been welcoming to this sort of adaptation by immigrants, and are immigrants welcomed by French society and seen as “true” French citizens?

The riots in France were caused by two triggers: the first when police killed a 17-year-old Muslim boy likely due to racial profiling. The second is frustration amongst Muslim immigrant communities at what they perceive as a system that behaves as though they are a collective enemy of “true” French citizens.

Can the challenges of immigration be solved?

It will be a long and difficult process.

Human nature leads many to find simple solutions to complex problems, and for politicians to use emotionally charged language to rally their forces – even if this means focusing and channeling hatred towards others as their political narrative.

On the other side of the spectrum, many immigrants do not give up their roots easily, and, in many cases, refuse to give up their religious or social beliefs in order to meld with their new neighbors and environment.

Almost all countries have faced challenges that have led to tensions, riots and civil unrest, as we have seen in France over the past few weeks.

Frustrated people have sought refuge in extremist groups on both sides of the equation – those who oppose immigration, and those who feed on immigrants’ frustrations to further advance their own political agenda. Extremism on both sides has exacerbated the divide and threatens the security of all. France’s “laicite” laws also contribute to creating an “us vs. them” mentality by disallowing public displays of religious affiliation in public institutions. 

France has approximately 5.5 million Muslims, a majority of whom live on the margins of major French cities with limited integration into French society. Germany has about the same number, four million belonging mostly to the large Turkish Diaspora that contributed to the country’s significant growth in the 1960’s.

Germany’s decision to accept a thousand of Syrian refugees without consulting its European Union allies led to a negative reaction both within Germany and in other European Union (EU) states. 

Some EU members, with right-wing anti-immigration governments espouse extreme right-wing views with respect to cultural and religious purity. Indeed, in France and Germany, these parties are gaining strength and are already the primary opposition to supporters of legal migration. 

Far right governments in Sweden, Finland, and Italy are also currently against immigration. In addition, Hungary and Poland joined the anti-immigration bandwagon in 2010 and 2015 respectively. In Spain, right-wing anti-immigration party VOX stands a good chance of being a power broker after the July 23rd elections. 

On July 8th, the Dutch coalition government resigned over the issue of immigration since Prime Minister Rutte wanted to legislate stronger immigration laws much to the chagrin of two of his coalition partners.

With the pendulum leaning towards de-globalization and anti-globalization and immigration sentiment, finding solutions, at least in the short term, will be extremely challenging. 

It appears that it will be a long a difficult process that will require patience and hard work by pro-immigration forces to find better ways to plan for, validate, manage and integrate immigrants in order to keep Europe open to new influences and attract the labor force needed to offset aging populations with lowering birthrates. 

Constructive ideas are needed to ensure the immigration required to keep a productive, growing tax base adequate enough to keep the continent’s economies and social welfare programs flourishing.

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña