Foundations of a common European home - Essay Example

r doors to migrations of selective groups notably: southern Europeans including Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese, as well as the recruitment of Turks for work in West Germany, Magrebians in France, and West Indian and Asians in the UK.1 What this meant is that Europe, immigration and, most importantly, the rapid industrialization would lay the foundations for the concept of a “common European home” in the 1950s and 1960s. In a bid to reassert their power in the postwar setting, countries in Europe, particularly Germany, France and Great Britain encouraged immigration, as many jobs were needed to filled.

Most of these were factory work – those who were avoided by the nationals. The source of immigrants came from the poorer European countries, initially, and when these countries closed the wage gap with its more affluent neighbors, immigration and labor recruitment started to be sourced from the European colonies such as in South Asia and Africa.2 As migrant laborers renew their working contracts time and time again, they eventually laid down roots and a sense of residential permanency that they strove to legalize.

Because of this, European governments have devised ways to integrate these immigrants into their respective societies drafting legislation to the same effect. For instance, we have the case of the West Berlin’s policy during the 1950s where the city government espoused the self-help philosophy in political-cultural integration. The functional approach that the city adopted has downplayed ethnic differences and made the immigrant-origin population an integral part of all local departmental and institutional mandates.

3 This has cultivated a multicultural society somewhat akin to a common European home for European nationalities. Later on, sometime in 1975, European countries such as France and West Germany would enact family reunification policies wherein foreigners could settle permanently in the country along with their families.4 Because of