Transatlantic contradictions on immigration.

• Author: Newland, Kathleen
• Position: Immigration - Viewpoint essay

The countries of Western Europe are countries of immigration to very nearly the same extent as the United States, judged by the proportion of the population made up of immigrants and their descendents. Yet the contrasts could hardly be more stark in the way people and policy-makers on opposite sides of the Atlantic look at the issue.

While many in the U.S. are agitated about the prevalence of unauthorized immigration, lately focused on Hispanics, most acknowledge the benefits of legal immigration. In Western Europe, immigration is almost universally regarded as a problem, though some--like the Blair government in Britain--see it as a challenge that can be solved while others--on the political right, such as the Danish People's Party and Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in France--think the only answer is to bring it, as much as possible, to an end.

The contrasting attitudes toward immigration can be traced back to mega-trends in history, culture, and philosophies of governance. But current public policy also plays its part.

At the risk of over-generalizing, U.S. policy for at least the last ten years has been to bar immigrants from the public-welfare system and open the labor market wide. European governments, especially for asylum-seekers, have largely done the opposite, providing at least limited public assistance but restricting their access to the formal work force.

By choosing to protect the labor market and share some of the benefits of the welfare state, European governments have reinforced--and in some cases created--public prejudice toward immigrants as irretrievably incompatible, unmotivated scroungers with little to contribute to their host societies. Of course, this perception falls most heavily on the most visibly different, by virtue of skin color, dress, or habits.

As a result, European governments in practice are preoccupied with immigrant integration--or rather with its failure. This anxiety is fed by the increasingly vocal and occasionally violent reactions of frustration among immigrant communities--a trend matched by the rise of right-wing anti-immigrant political parties and a broad unease about the future of the European economic model. Fears of visible--especially Muslim--minorities have been fanned by a number of flamboyant acts of terrorism perpetrated by Islamist radicals.

In the United States, on the other hand, immigrant integration is a policy afterthought, as Michael Fix and Margie McHugh of the Migration...