Europe’s Failed Immigration Model?
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The NewsAn interesting perspective in contrasting Europe’s response to illegal immigration with that in place, and being challenged, in the United States.
Seven years ago, when I was visiting Germany, I met with an official who explained to me that the country had a foolproof solution to its economic woes. Watching the U.S. economy soar during the 1990s, the Germans had decided that they, too, needed to go the high-technology route. But how? In the late ’90s, the answer seemed obvious: Indians. After all, Indian entrepreneurs accounted for one of every three Silicon Valley start-ups.
So the German government decided that it would lure Indians to Germany just as America does: by offering green cards. Officials created something called the German Green Card and announced that they would issue 20,000 in the first year. Naturally, they expected that tens of thousands more Indians would soon be begging to come, and perhaps the quotas would have to be increased. But the program was a flop. A year later barely half of the 20,000 cards had been issued. After a few extensions, the program was abolished.
I told the German official at the time that I was sure the initiative would fail. It’s not that I had any particular expertise in immigration policy, but I understood something about green cards, because I had one (the American version) myself.
The German Green Card was misnamed, I argued, because it never, under any circumstances, translated into German citizenship. The U.S. green card, by contrast, is an almost automatic path to becoming American (after five years and a clean record).
So, what’s the downside of this type of conditional green card?
Apparently more than one might think and perhaps as the author describes with recent situations in France and other parts of Europe there might be unintended drawbacks …
Many Americans have become enamored of the European approach to immigration — perhaps without realizing it. Guest workers, penalties, sanctions and deportation are all a part of Europe’s mode of dealing with immigrants. The results of this approach have been on display recently in France, where rioting migrant youths again burned cars last week. Across Europe one sees disaffected, alienated immigrants, ripe for radicalism. The immigrant communities deserve their fair share of blame for this, but there’s a cycle at work. European societies exclude the immigrants, who become alienated and reject their societies.
One puzzle about post-Sept. 11 America is that it has not had a subsequent terror attack — not even a small backpack bomb in a movie theater — while there have been dozens in Europe. My own explanation is that American immigrant communities, even Arab and Muslim ones, are not very radicalized. (Even if such an attack does take place, the fact that 4 1/2 years have gone by without one provides some proof of this contention.) Compared with every other country in the world, America does immigration superbly. Do we really want to junk that for the French approach?
Personally, I think France has more problems resulting from their failed Socialist agenda than just this type of immigration policy.
Although this is an interesting perspective of why we should take heed to not go in too extreme a direction in our pursuit of a more stringent immigration policy.
Read the whole article and judge whether there’s a true cause and effect factor which should be considered.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 and is filed under In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 4th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Zakaria’s always worth reading. I think he’s probably right about why we haven’t had more domestic terror in the past four years – certainly, his rationale is more compelling than the “flypaper theory.”
On a very basic level, I can agree with more conservative types than myself who argue that it’s really about assimilation, not immigration. And that’s why I generally agreed with the Bush immigration proposals of a couple years ago.
Parenthetically, while French economic policy is certainly not above criticism, dismissing it as a “failed Socialist agenda” does your argument little credit. See here for example.
April 5th, 2006 at 11:02 am
I have a friend living in Augsburg, who was born in northern Germany. He changed his accent, took up Bavarian customs, did everything he could to fit in with his neighbors. Yet, he was still regarded as a Prussian transplant and never really accepted by his community.
On the other hand, last fall during football season, the muslim girls with their head scarves (in school colors, even) were largely indistinguishable from the rest of the high school girls showing their spirit in the front of the stands. The girl with the blue hair and cat ears (we’re the Panthers – blue and orange) did attract a bit of attention, though.
Considering that both the London and Spanish bombers were home grown, I think the American system of assimilation naturally counteracts a significant source of terrorism.
April 4th, 2007 at 12:29 am
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