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Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

Migrant men and European women

Author:     Economist Staff
Source:     The Economist (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Jan 16th 2016
 Link: Migrant men and European women
Stephan:   Traditionally one of the great strengths of America, and one of the explanations for our success is that as bad as we have been we are still much better than other nations at assimilating minorities. There are five reasons for this in my mind: Everyone including Native Americans traces back to an immigrant so we had to find a way to work together. Everyone came from somewhere else. Second, because we began with the frontier mentality we have traditionally been upwardly mobile, and have valued innovation. Third, again, as bad as we have been, we have still be better than other nations in terms of gender equality. On an isolated frontier farm everyone in the family is a player. Fourth, from the beginning we have built our society on laws that at least in theory treat people equally. Fifth, we had a fire wall between church and state. This essay written for a British publication describes the challenge that is tearing Europe apart. How do those nations deal with immigrants, and gender relationships?
Credit: Reuters/AP

Credit: Reuters/AP

Four months ago, the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey after he, his brother and his mother drowned while trying to reach Greece. A photograph of Aylan quickly became the defining image of the masses of refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war. The picture helped cement a brief consensus that the Middle Eastern migrants risking death to get to Europe should be allowed in to apply for asylum. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, announced that her country would accept asylum applications from any Syrians who reached its borders. Much of Europe seemed on the verge of joining the project.

But Europe never joined. The task of absorbing the migrants has been left to Germany and Sweden, with a bit of help from the Netherlands and a few other countries. German and Swedish eagerness to welcome so many refugees has gradually been worn down. Now the events of New Year’s Eve in Cologne and other German cities may have buried it for good.

That night, gangs of young men, mainly asylum-seekers, formed rings […]

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