Immigration and Integration: Side-effects of Globalisation?
Look at these few incidents realted to Europe:
1. Netherlands:
Dutch government has proposed a 'Culture Test' for every aspiring immigrant to Europe. It makes mandetory for them to learn basic Dutch language and culture. One can teach language. But how to teach culture? For that Dutch Government has provided official CD for Test preparation, which contain things like nude beaches and gays kissing in the middle of the street. The Test will be based on such material. Government claims that such things are part of Dutch culture and immigrants should 'accept' it to integrate in Dutch society. But actually this test is clearly to prevent immigrants from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco from immigrating to Netherland, by offending them. On the top of that the test is really expensive, thousands of Euros. One more way to cut down immigration.
2. France:
This story was told to me by Amey Kelkar and I reverified it on BBC.
There are many places in France where food is served free of cost for the needy, unemployed and poor, as is done in most of the countries. However, a prominent right-wing party in France has changed the menu of these charity meals. Now they serve pork soup. Why? Clearly to prevent Muslims from coming to such places. The message is clear. We don't want any poor immigrants in the country.
Such stories have become common in Europe or for that matter even in US. Be it Belgium, or Germany or even England. The problem of immigration and more than that , integration is faced by most of the countries in the world over the years. But it is only in the last few years there has been overt opposition to it with many Government taking strict stance. The number of riots have increased over the issue. Possibly they are side-effects of globalisation.
Throughout the history there have been many instances of mass immigration. Many communities like Parsees in India, Jews in Europe were easily integrated in their respective countries. So why is it creating such a fuss over the last few years? The main reason is the rate of immigration and the widening gap between the economies.
With the advancements in communication and transportation, there is greater movement of people across the borders. This is further facilitated by the easing of international boundaries in certain areas like European Union. In fact, some of the developed countries encouraged immigrants to strengthen their economy. It worked well, when the economy was prospering, thereby creating more job, and the rate of immigration was low. But with European economy almost stagnant, growing by hardly 1 or 2 percent, the unemployed 'natives' are turning there wrath towards these people, who helped them to build their countries. Mexican immigrants in USA and North African immigrants in France are prime example of this. Even a tinge of superiority complex associated with the Western can be associated to this issue. The Europe is not completely ready to accept the fact that the centre of world economy is shifting towards East.
And the problem is not restricted to prosperous countries. Even India worries about the spates of immigrants immigrating from Bangladesh. In fact, the problem is faced even within the countries. This clearly shows that the problem is associated mainly with the economic disparities. There are many instances of Mexicans entering illegally in US, but no instances of Canadians entering US. There is lot of people from Nothern India coming to Mumbai, but not from Southern India. So economic development may be cited as a possible remedy.
But the problem is not limited to that. What would you do to all those who have already immigrated? And the movement of people may increase with the globalisation. So the only possible solution to this problem is to try to integrate communities, by proper education, by removing biases. This may be hard with the pace at which the World is moving. But if the entire World is to reap the benefits of globalisation, there is no other alternative.
PS:
There is an article in Newsweek, over the same issue, by Farid Zakaria. Worth reading!
1. Netherlands:
Dutch government has proposed a 'Culture Test' for every aspiring immigrant to Europe. It makes mandetory for them to learn basic Dutch language and culture. One can teach language. But how to teach culture? For that Dutch Government has provided official CD for Test preparation, which contain things like nude beaches and gays kissing in the middle of the street. The Test will be based on such material. Government claims that such things are part of Dutch culture and immigrants should 'accept' it to integrate in Dutch society. But actually this test is clearly to prevent immigrants from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco from immigrating to Netherland, by offending them. On the top of that the test is really expensive, thousands of Euros. One more way to cut down immigration.
2. France:
This story was told to me by Amey Kelkar and I reverified it on BBC.
There are many places in France where food is served free of cost for the needy, unemployed and poor, as is done in most of the countries. However, a prominent right-wing party in France has changed the menu of these charity meals. Now they serve pork soup. Why? Clearly to prevent Muslims from coming to such places. The message is clear. We don't want any poor immigrants in the country.
Such stories have become common in Europe or for that matter even in US. Be it Belgium, or Germany or even England. The problem of immigration and more than that , integration is faced by most of the countries in the world over the years. But it is only in the last few years there has been overt opposition to it with many Government taking strict stance. The number of riots have increased over the issue. Possibly they are side-effects of globalisation.
Throughout the history there have been many instances of mass immigration. Many communities like Parsees in India, Jews in Europe were easily integrated in their respective countries. So why is it creating such a fuss over the last few years? The main reason is the rate of immigration and the widening gap between the economies.
With the advancements in communication and transportation, there is greater movement of people across the borders. This is further facilitated by the easing of international boundaries in certain areas like European Union. In fact, some of the developed countries encouraged immigrants to strengthen their economy. It worked well, when the economy was prospering, thereby creating more job, and the rate of immigration was low. But with European economy almost stagnant, growing by hardly 1 or 2 percent, the unemployed 'natives' are turning there wrath towards these people, who helped them to build their countries. Mexican immigrants in USA and North African immigrants in France are prime example of this. Even a tinge of superiority complex associated with the Western can be associated to this issue. The Europe is not completely ready to accept the fact that the centre of world economy is shifting towards East.
And the problem is not restricted to prosperous countries. Even India worries about the spates of immigrants immigrating from Bangladesh. In fact, the problem is faced even within the countries. This clearly shows that the problem is associated mainly with the economic disparities. There are many instances of Mexicans entering illegally in US, but no instances of Canadians entering US. There is lot of people from Nothern India coming to Mumbai, but not from Southern India. So economic development may be cited as a possible remedy.
But the problem is not limited to that. What would you do to all those who have already immigrated? And the movement of people may increase with the globalisation. So the only possible solution to this problem is to try to integrate communities, by proper education, by removing biases. This may be hard with the pace at which the World is moving. But if the entire World is to reap the benefits of globalisation, there is no other alternative.
PS:
There is an article in Newsweek, over the same issue, by Farid Zakaria. Worth reading!
posted by ninad @ 7:44 pm
3 Comments:
hi pratim here
gosh! with skills like that i am sure you can beat farid zakaria out of business
keep up the good work
i would love if u could write on the reservation issue
from my side some suggestions are 1.how about restricting reservation to just one(or may be two) generations
for any category.this way people are disqualified automatically unlike economic status which can be faked
2.what about indirect reservations for the rich by means of management seats,donations etc
i m thinking about writing on reservations. will definitely write about it this week.
Language, culture, social values are built over a period of time in a closely knit society. Its always going to be difficult for people to change.
The minority must assimilate the culture of the majority and not maintain a secluded and separate identity. The composite culture(practised by all) evolving out of the interaction must be more similar to the majority. Then only will the frictions be less
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