European Immigration - Report Example

European Immigration European immigration is an area that depicts the story of Europe’s movement of population, rather its immigration. The paper will be narrating the growth wave between 1500 -1990 in terms of population, wealth, freedom, knowledge and the changing trend of post 1990s’ immigration where the European Institutions are adopting different ways to manage this new wave. In order to address the different institutional needs and orders, movement of population or immigration has remained a perpetual issue. Starting from Germanic and Slavic expansion, the Turkic, Magyar and Mongol expansion of High Middle Ages, the arrival of Roman people in the Late Middle Ages to the modern time’s population movement during World War II have engraved a great deal of impact and set examples to resolve the new wave of immigration. The story also beholds the sending out immigrants to the other part of the world. Iberian phase of 1500-1600 substantiates West European expansion to the East the then new world and bestowed Europe vast richest from the Eastern spice trade and the New World silver mines. Apart from outside and outward immigration, there is one more type of immigration, in vogue since 1990s’. It is the immigration within Europe. Assimilating a large body of European immigrants by creating and growing an integrated European Union is the inception of this large population movement for the first time. Institutional measures have been initiated across the continent. Government, schools, churches, media, police and politics have armed up to save and support the immigration and I am going to juxtapose the Institutional acts and the policies on run to manage this new wave of immigration. The story of immigration in Europe is not one sided. The inflow of immigration can be dated back to 1278. We know the existence of the then Chinese trading colonies in Moscow, Tabriz and Novgorod. Many Chinese engineers were employed in Mesopotamia. There are many known and unknown travelers and immigrants, brought outside population along, wealth, freedom, culture and knowledge. In recent time, according to Eurostat, the Spanish economy has created more than half of all the new jobs in the EU over the past five year. In early days generally population in cities also used to be thin enough to accommodate outsiders, but as per present global indicator the 3% urban population of 1800 has grown to 30% in 1950 and today it locks at 50% a crude indicator of immigration, of human and economic activity1. The primary force driving the immigration is the shifting attitude of government policies, which is becoming more market savvy (Blogdet) thus attracting the human mass for good money and good lifestyle. Due to this large exchange of population certain ideological controversies have come up across Europe. On analyzing, the unrest is mostly due to cultural shock, sentimental issues, anti-Semitism, racism, etc. These have segregated the society into different communities. And is gradually building a tension, where the common factor is Islam. One of growth of immigration is freedom which the immigrants had too many in the 1990s’. But this freedom has different name precisely, Political Islam. During one trail radical cleric Abu Hamza claimed that between 1997 and 2000, member of MI5, the British Domestic Security Service, effectively approved his frequent incitement to jihad, on one occasion telling him: “Well it’s freedom of speech. You don’t have to worry as long as we don’t see blood on the street”2. Hamza ran the Finsbury Park mosque in North London, finally arrested in 2004. In response, the British Government has laid down 12-piont plan that includes tighter enforcement of asylum and deportation, blacklists of extremist bookshops and bans on hard line Islamic groups. Joining hand Government, police is also formulating new plans. Apart from their routine duty they are mingling with the Muslim communities and culture to protect their community and to observe closely any suspected spying or criminal activity3. According to Mr. Bakker, the terrorism expert, "Islam is the most hated word in the country at this point"4. This hatred began to rise more after the murder of the Dutch filmmaker, van Gogh where the killer was described as a Muslim extremist5. The unrest and the cultural confrontation in France, regarding dress code in school have also drawn global attention. Students are even shifting to Muslim and Jewish Orthodox Schools on issues regarding mixed sex gym, biology classes of Government School, prayer break and so on. This is all, to avoid the French law, not ready to bend. There is a controversy in policy as French Government who wants a secular educational environment where as financing Orthodox Jewish School like Merkaz Hatorah School in the Paris suburb of Gagny. But there is no such finance for Muslims that makes stigmatized. Alain Bocquet, a Communist Party deputy voted against the law, said that it would “stigmatize” citizens of immigrant origin and “set things on fire rather than calm them down”6 Today, there is a growing anti-Semitism and racism leading to anti – immigration prejudice. From London to Madrid to Amsterdam, terror is so closely associated with radical Islam. However, we have forgotten the home ground terrorism from national liberation in the cases of Irish Republic Army or the Basque E.T.A. to radical leftism (Baader-Meinhop and Brigate Rosse). The economic insecurity associates immigration when in France, a Polish Plumber undercuts Frenchmen’s Wages. This is an equal-opportunities bias7. Like every coin has its two faces, it is a different story in Belgium. Vlaams Belang deploys a cleaver variation, publicly praising Jews and seeking their support against Muslims, whom it tellingly describes as “the main enemy of the moment”8. Meanwhile, the Dutch politician Geert Wilder calls Islam “ideology retarded culture.”8 However, we may call this the “political usage diaspora” 8. A reflection of anti-Islamic bias is becoming institutionalized in the continent’s politics. Europeans are still not convinced or comfortable with fact that culturally and religiously different immigrants are or can be the equal member of the society or be assimilated. With issues related inequality the U.S. has passed on its legacy to Europe. Hitler was the one to imitate for his own purpose the legalized racism in the form of the Jim Crow Laws. Hitler’s success in eradicating social differences for the post war burgeon society is disturbed by the population of European Muslims or any other immigrants. This discomfort of European gives a negative and controversial picture of them, that they still remember the holocaust. In theory Europe remembers the holocaust. But the depth of their memory may be doubted. Maintaining the course inequality, it is the legal system too which is under public discussion. Outrage was not that on Rowan William’s (archbishop of Canterbury) mention of orthodox Jewish law, but it was the word shariah that was radioactivated. The concern is about, why Islamic law? The common image of shariah is of torture punishment and leads to terrorism, thus to keep Political Islam at bay. Whereas today’s ‘shariah’ needs high standard proof for punishment and Muslims today compares and accepts Shariah as the Political Justice.9 To conclude the paper, I must throw light to the issue that world wide Muslims are being convicted in the name of terror. Along with the diminishing birth rate in Europe there is a growing concern regarding the Muslims taking over the continent. The people of this community lacked the art of family planning and it is highly feared that hey might not be able to keep up the western culture10. I believe, in this wild rush some of moderate Muslims are falling pray of this burning agenda for sure. In most of the cases issues are wrapped with sentiments. A society may be secular, but it should have the humanity, tolerance and understanding. And if it is about sentiments the society needs to go deeper into it. For instance, Europe has seen holocaust. Their own people are migrating out of their own land. And it counts that they should be compassionate with people having cultural shock. It needs to be understood their values without hurting their sentiments. And then only we can find a mutual ground to wipe out terrorism. Plotting counter- attack without any comprehension of the higher values will just accelerate few more attacks from Radicals, the Political Islam. Works Cited 1. Blodget, Henry, Three Billion New Capitalist: consider the outsource, The New York Times, July 3, 2005. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/books/review/03BLODGET.html 2. Christopher, Caldwell, After Londonistan, The New York Times, June25, 2006. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/magazine/25london.html 3. Feldman, Noah: The Way We Live Now: The New Pariahs? , The New York Times, June 22, 2008. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22wwln-lede-t.html 4. Feldman, Noah: Why Shariah? , The New York Times, March 16, 2008. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16Shariah-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin 5. Friedman, Thomas & Gulden Tim, The World In Numbers: The World Is Spiky, The Atlantic Monthly, October 2005. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic30774.files/2-2_Florida.pdf 6. Sciolino, Elaine: French Assembly Votes to Ban Religious Symbols in School. New York Times, February 11, 2004, retrieved on July 18, 2008 from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE2DB153AF932A25751C0A9629C8B63 7. Shorto, Russell, No Babies?, The New York Times, 2008, retrieved on July 27, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29Birth-t.html 8. Smith, Craig S. In Mourning Slain Filmmaker, Dutch Confront Limitations of Their Tolerance, The New York Times, November 10, 2004, retrieved on July 27, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/international/europe/10dutch.html Read More