what's the difference between european and american immigration?
Long before the discovery of the new worlds from 1492 onwards Europe had ceased to be a geographical area of immigration by forcible invasion or otherwise; but the American colonies were founded to take surplus populations and the new nation actively encouraged new settlers.
Naturally, there had always been a great deal of movement between populations within the European nation states, but the threat of invasion from a non-white civilization was negligible at the start of the 15th century.
The last time England had been invaded, for instance, was by the Normans in 1066 - hardly an earth shattering experience because they were close neighbors with common ideals; and the same goes for the migration of the Huguenots, the French Protestants, after the 1685 Edict of Nantes revoked their protection, and the Russian Jews after the pogroms of 1881. The French Huguenots and the Russian Jews were foreign, but they were white and as such they blended with the existing population.
It is true that there always had been a threat from the Ottoman Turks, but their incursions were restricted to the eastern boundaries of Europe and north-western Europe had been essentially safe for thousands of years. (That the EU is now in the process of admitting Moslem Turkey into its fold is an amazing turn of events!)
As most Europeans had never seen a black person before in their lives, it was a shock for them to suddenly cope with the arrival of wave after wave of non-European immigrants with legitimate citizenship rights granted as a result of post-WWII colonial independence.
America did not face this sort of problem because it had always had a black population and it has always been an immigrant nation. More importantly, because of its geographical location and strict immigration policy it had almost total control over who arrived on its shores, and absolute control over who was granted citizenship.
Americans - of whom the most prominent racial group has always been German, followed by Irish, then African-American and English - may complain about the problem of Mexicans illegally crossing the border between the two countries, but this would be like ancient Celts complaining about ancient Britons invading their territory and vice versa. It's a neighbor's dispute, not a clash of civilizations such as that being experienced in Europe with illegal migrants arriving from distant lands. When settlement in America approaches the age of settlement in Europe, Mexican migration will not be considered a problem at all.
Naturally, there had always been a great deal of movement between populations within the European nation states, but the threat of invasion from a non-white civilization was negligible at the start of the 15th century.
The last time England had been invaded, for instance, was by the Normans in 1066 - hardly an earth shattering experience because they were close neighbors with common ideals; and the same goes for the migration of the Huguenots, the French Protestants, after the 1685 Edict of Nantes revoked their protection, and the Russian Jews after the pogroms of 1881. The French Huguenots and the Russian Jews were foreign, but they were white and as such they blended with the existing population.
It is true that there always had been a threat from the Ottoman Turks, but their incursions were restricted to the eastern boundaries of Europe and north-western Europe had been essentially safe for thousands of years. (That the EU is now in the process of admitting Moslem Turkey into its fold is an amazing turn of events!)
As most Europeans had never seen a black person before in their lives, it was a shock for them to suddenly cope with the arrival of wave after wave of non-European immigrants with legitimate citizenship rights granted as a result of post-WWII colonial independence.
America did not face this sort of problem because it had always had a black population and it has always been an immigrant nation. More importantly, because of its geographical location and strict immigration policy it had almost total control over who arrived on its shores, and absolute control over who was granted citizenship.
Americans - of whom the most prominent racial group has always been German, followed by Irish, then African-American and English - may complain about the problem of Mexicans illegally crossing the border between the two countries, but this would be like ancient Celts complaining about ancient Britons invading their territory and vice versa. It's a neighbor's dispute, not a clash of civilizations such as that being experienced in Europe with illegal migrants arriving from distant lands. When settlement in America approaches the age of settlement in Europe, Mexican migration will not be considered a problem at all.
Labels: America, europe, immigration, mexicans, turks
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