Posted on 07/13/2004 2:21:44 PM PDT by Isara
Europe: The Continent is beginning to notice it has an identity problem with no easy solution in sight. The U.S. shouldn't gloat. It may be seeing its own future.
It's not often that we feel sympathy for Jacques Chirac, but we must admit the French president has real social and cultural trouble on his hands. So do other leaders in Western Europe.
What they're facing is a crisis of integration and identity. On one hand, they're hooked on immigration for economic reasons — low birthrates and an aging population that must be supported by younger workers. On the other, they're learning they can't simply trust new arrivals to fit in.
It's clear that integration will occur with conscious policy and some limits on self-expression (such as the French ban on Muslim head scarves at schools). But that leaves the question: integrated into what? What does it mean to be truly French, British or European these days?
It's fine to say that being French or "Western" means believing in values such as freedom, democracy and tolerance. But what if radicalized immigrants (or their children) believe in none of those?
Recently the newspaper Le Monde leaked a government study concluding that hundreds of suburban communities had become separate ethnic ghettos, where residents reject mainstream French society and cling to old country practices, even polygamy.
The report is all the more disturbing because these suburbs are mainly North African and Muslim. Their alienation makes them ideal breeding grounds for radical Islam.
The immigrants have been victims of some discrimination by the native-born. But the latter have also insisted too little on real assimilation. When it comes to insisting on certain social norms, Europe has been tolerant to a fault, making it fertile soil for the ideology of multiculturalism, which judges immigrant cultures by one standard and applies a higher one to the mores of the native-born.
It would not be surprising if the French sense they are losing control of their country. They may indeed wake up to find it unrecognizable, as it is already in many Parisian suburbs, unless they regain a surer sense of their national identity and a willingness to make newcomers adopt it.
This goes for other European nations, which tend to be too timid about recognizing and defending their great traditions.
The U.S. has been relatively lucky with its immigration, which is mostly from places with compatible religions or cultures. But its intellectual elites have caught the multicultural bug, and it, too, faces the economic vise of falling birthrates and aging demographics. Europe is far down the road this country could be on soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
The EU has two pressures. The eurocrats who want to erase anything but loyalty to the EU over any "nation" AND immigrants who want to remake all EU in their third world image.
The French National soccer team at the recent Euro 2004 tournament was made up of immigrants (mostly African), with the exception of goalie Fabien Bartez.
From what I understand about the demographic situation in many European countries its not a question of if there will be a Muslim majority but a question of when. Lets face it Europe is a lost cause. What could not achieved by force of arms is now being achieved by immigration, high birth rates, with the help of a self-hating elite who are so cowardly as not to defend Europe's culture and historical legacy.
Are you sure you're not referring to the USA?
Trust me when I say that the US is blessed with the immigrants we have. Most are Christian, westernized, and family oriented. Only a fool, or an old person, in any country would not want to learn English. What we have are a generation of bi-lingual children. Only a fool wouldn't want to encourage bi-lingual knowledge for their children.
Trust me when I say that the US is blessed with the immigrants we have. Most are Christian, westernized, and family oriented. Only a fool, or an old person, in any country would not want to learn English. What we have are a generation of bi-lingual children. Only a fool wouldn't want to encourage bi-lingual knowledge for their children.
The Eurinal resoning has always escaped me because it means the same kind of melting pot that we have. The first major step was the money, abandoning national currencies for some currency that will make bribery easier. The greeks abandoned money mentioned in the bible for Euros. The Germans have planned this to take over Europe without a shot being fired this time.
Tengo miedo, tenemos que aprender español.
Our own elites are beguiled. They think they can stay on the top of the heap while the whole society is roiling beneath. The liberal aristocracy of France thought the same thing but were pulled down by radicals who wanted to lead.
Five years ago, heck THREE years ago, tackling such a topic would've been considered a hate crime.
"We have problems with spanish-speaking immigrants right now. Are they going to learn English or do we have to learn Spanish?"
Neither, because they will murder us.
With the large concentration of centralized power at the Federal level and the needs of the low paid workers and infastructure in the inner cities, the condlict boils down to socializing the tax structure to support the new arrivals. The Blue and the Grey that formed the basis for the Civil War has a chance to be replaced by the Blue and the Red in the next conflict if conditions don't start improving and unity being worked out.
It's a risky strategy. It reminded me of Mexico's policy toward American immigrants into Texas in the 1820's.
There is a big difference between a club team and a national team !
Yes, I agree. And it doesn't hurt for us to speak a little Espanol with those still assimilating.
Who are the faceless, emasculated europpeens ground down by fifty years on one side by gramscian attacks on their morality and on the other by the brain-numbing regulation of the socialist bureaucrats?
Why, the long expected arrival of the Grey Goo no less! putty in the hands of the socialist elites, which unfortunately won't have the grey goo to protect them from the islamic beast that is about to slit their throats...
I had similar experiences when working for an oil company. Out of 23 guys on the team, there were only three of us who were native born, with a majority of Hispanics from Peru, Argentina, Honduras and Mexico.
I'd overhear them rattling off in Spanish and then of a sudden there would be an American word. If you ever heard the old Cid Ceasar quasi-German routines you'd know what I mean.
I asked one of the girls why they did that and her reply was illuminating. It seems that all South American languages, while basically European Spanish, had varying degrees of local Indian languages mixed in. In one particular instance there was no common word for "turkey" so they lapsed in American since everybody knew that word.
It seems there is a hierarchy of who is "most Spanish" with the Ecuadorians being closest to the "pure" Castillian Spanish. At the opposite end were the Mexicans who spoke "dirty Spanish" since their language had the most Indian words.
When I tried chatting up the chicks in pre-Castro Cuba with my high school Spanish, they'd throw up their hands and say "Hablan Castillano". YEARS later I had a Helluva time in Venezuela asking for "cigaros" and nobody knew what I meant until I spoke to some guy who beamed and said, "Ah, TABAC!".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.