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| A New Approach to Immigration |
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The root cause for fearing foreigners
The countries of Europe still remain a collection of independent nation states each with its own culture, history and national identity, despite the attempts of the European project to integrate the markets and policies of the countries that make up the European Union. Within the ideological framework of a nation state, migrations across political boundaries are considered to still be an exceptional occurrence or an aberration to the normal order; since fundamentally nation states exist to protect and further the interests of their own citizens and not of foreigners. Consequently, European countries do not in principle seek immigration or view it as a good in itself; however when reality dictates otherwise i.e. there is an economic need for immigration for labour shortage reasons, they frame immigration as a "problem" that needs to be managed. In some newer nation states such as the United States, Canada and Australia, immigration has been explicitly encouraged; these countries recognised that the growth of their societies depended upon continuing immigration; but even in these countries there is a fear amongst host communities, as in Europe, that continuing large-scale immigration can or will cause a change in the culture and national identity of that society, especially if the immigrant culture and values do not match that of the host society. A further reason why some European countries have a problem with immigration is that national identities and cultures of some European societies are based on an assumption of the superiority of their own culture and values over others. This makes it difficult for them to accept immigrants with what they see as 'inferior' foreign non-Western cultures.
Even in pro-immigration nation states such as the United States many people are now becoming concerned that identities and culture are now under attack from non-white immigrants such as the Hispanics. In Samuel Huntington's "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity" he brings the argument that since the 1965 Immigration Act, which effectively abolished quotas on immigrants from Europe, the United States has experienced one of the largest migrations of foreigners to its shores since its inception; non-white people whose first language is not English now make up a greater percentage of the US population than at any other time in history. The impact of these immigrants: bilingualism, dual citizenship, religious diversity, and multiculturalism place increasing demands on US culture and politics. If the United States continues to allow entry to everyone who wants to come, it risks losing its American ideals.
Many voters in France and the Netherlands when asked by pollsters as to why they rejected the European constitution have highlighted one key reason as being the fear of the impact of immigration. It was the fear that their culture and way of life was under threat today from immigrants who had come with foreign and alien cultures and also the fear that if Turkey - a country with a majority Muslim population - joined the EU, 70 million people (Muslims) with a foreign culture would be able to settle anywhere in Europe. Following the referendum, and in direct response to the public mood, the new French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin ordered his ministers to submit proposals on how France can block more people from entering the country illegally. After meeting with a recently formed immigration control committee, he issued a statement in which he said it is time "to end the hijacking of rights or procedures, unacceptable and tolerated for too long". Whilst in the Netherlands, Dutch politicians have been competing with each other on ways to restrict immigration since the killing of the film maker Theo van Gogh last year. Fearing that immigrants have not assimilated into Dutch society there is strong support for a Dutch language and culture test that all new and possibly existing immigrants will need to pass if they wish to settle or remain in the Netherlands. Fear of foreigners and the fear of the culture and values they bring is also manifested in the various approaches different European countries adopt in treating immigrants.
Some countries such as Germany and Austria have taken the approach that if they need immigrants because they are suffering from a shortage of labour, these immigrants should never become full citizens. Rather they would be treated as 'guest workers' and would leave when these shortages are no longer present. Moreover the nature of the national identity of countries like Germany was not suited to accepting foreigners because national identity historically was defined in terms of ethnic ancestry; so that Germans returning to the fatherland would be welcomed as re-settlers (Aussiedler) whilst settled foreigners would be viewed as aliens (Auslander). Even children of guest workers born in Germany would not be given citizenship even if their parents had lived there for several decades. In other countries such as France, immigrants would only become citizens if they adopted the French Republican identity with its language, culture and associated French values; to become a French citizen required the immigrant to leave behind his 'backward' ethnic values and traditions.
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