[Memnoch]

Right, let's get some bloody debate happening here, to try and avert Z from shutting down this forum.
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All across Europe governments are tightening the regulations on immigrants, after recent riots and discord involving disaffected Muslim youths in France, assassinations of politicians in Holland, riots following the Mohammad cartoons and the recent home-grown Muslim terrorist attack in London.
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Basically this is what the European governments want, before they will accept immigrants into their countries (I will summarise the article below in case some of you are too lazy to read it - although it's fascinating and informative):
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- they want immigrants to respect Western values and ways of life (eg nudity, homosexuality, freedom of speech, etc)
- they want immigrants to learn the languages of where they're going to make it easier for them to find jobs
- they want immigrants to realise that if they move to a Euro country that they at least try and assimilate themselves into the culture of that country
- if immigrants cannot do any of the above, then the reasoning is that they will be unhappy in the country and should not be there
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I'm interested in people's views on this, particularly our European members. Unfortunately we don't seem to have any members who are of the Islamic faith - I'd love to hear their views on this. I have posted this on my cricket forum, where there is a sizeable Muslim community and will try and post their opinions here to provide some perspective. But for now: are these "requirements" reasonable or is Europe being unfair?
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From www.boston.com . Europe raises bar for immigrants Rules tightened as sentiment turns . By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff | May 22, 2006 . AMSTERDAM -- A naked woman frolics in the surf. Gay men nuzzle in a park. . These images are featured on a video, ''Coming to the Netherlands," that the government shows to prospective immigrants, part of the country's stringent new screening measures to determine whether newcomers can accept Western ''values." Anyone offended by such images, Dutch official reasoning goes, will probably be unhappy living in the country and should not be admitted. . Across Europe, countries that for decades have provided a generous reception for immigrants and refugees are now pulling away the welcome mat. Anti-immigrant sentiment bordering on the xenophobic -- once the purlieu of a few right-wing parties -- has become mainstream politics in such countries as the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Britain. . New laws are raising the hurdles for newcomers, especially Muslims, and winning cheers from many Europeans. Polls indicate that strong majorities in almost every European country favor not just tightening restrictions on ordinary immigrants but also casting a colder eye on the hard-luck tales of refugees seeking asylum. . The alarms sounding over immigration have some economic basis, such as perennial worry that newcomers are taking jobs from locals. But analysts say Europeans are mainly fearful of terrorism and the fast spread of Islamic culture. . Most undocumented immigrants and refugees streaming into the continent are Muslims from rural Africa, Turkey, and South Asia. They are changing the face of Western Europe. It's easier to buy goat kebab in Rotterdam than traditional Dutch pickled herring; Berlin is the largest ''Turkish city" outside Turkey; and shopping districts in suburban Paris have the feel of an North African bazaar, with veiled women fingering bolts of cloth and Halal butchers singing the virtues of their meats. . France gave preliminary approval last week to a bill that would sharply restrict immigration by nonskilled workers from outside Europe, set tougher standards for acquiring citizenship, and make it hard for foreigners already working in France to bring in their families. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel this month endorsed a plan to create rigorous new citizenship tests. . The Dutch immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, seemed to express the prevailing view in recent public comments: ''It is important to make clear demands of people. They need to subscribe to our European values, respect our laws, and learn our language[s]." . The justification given for the measures is better assimilation of immigrants. That's a new tack for Europe, which has long hoisted the banner of different-strokes-for-different-folks multiculturalism. But today, promoting American-style integration tops national agendas after deadly bombings by home-grown Islamic radicals in Britain, rioting in Muslim ghettoes in France, the killings of Dutch public figures by religious extremists, and the global furor that ensued after a Danish newspaper ran cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. . Some analysts see the new laws as a backlash. The continent has nervously watched its Muslim population swell from a few hundred thousand after World War II to more than 15 million today, mainly uneducated immigrant guest workers and their descendants. . ''Mistrust and fear of Muslims is deeper [in Europe] than in the United States even immediately after 9/11," said Kees Groenendijk, head of the Center for Migration Law at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. ''And unlike the US, our politicians make little attempt to emphasize that legitimate, law-abiding immigrants are not the problem [but are] necessary for our prosperity and for our survival as an open economy." . The Netherlands -- shocked by the 2002 assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn, who had warned that the country was admitting too many Muslims, and by the 2004 murder of film producer Theo van Gogh, shot and slashed on an Amsterdam street by an Islamic extremist -- has changed from Europe's most open society to the country taking the hardest line. . Among other things, the Netherlands has vowed to expel more than 26,000 refugees who gained asylum under false pretenses. Refugees are given sanctuary from ''well-founded" threats to their safety because of political, ethnic, or religious persecution in their home country. An immigrant is allowed residency in a new country to take a job or join family. . In one extraordinary case, Dutch authorities last month handcuffed and deported a Kosovo-born teenager days before she was to graduate from high school. Taida Pasic, 18, who had lived in the Netherlands since she was 6, reentered the country on a fake tourist visa to complete her studies after her family was ejected last year for lying about their reasons for leaving the Balkans. . In an even more dramatic development, the Dutch government last week moved to strip citizenship from one of its lawmakers, who has gained international prominence for urging Europeans to more rigorously defend their culture against Muslim newcomers. Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who for two years has had to live under 24-hour police protection because of her campaign against mistreatment of women in Muslim countries, admitted to lying about her circumstances when applying for political asylum in 1992. . But even the most hard-nosed Dutch critics of immigration were aghast when Verdonk, known as ''Iron Rita," moved to cancel Hirsi Ali's citizenship. That decision was under review after sharp criticism from newspaper editorials and politicians across Europe. . The new laws in the Netherlands require prospective immigrants to pass grueling exams on Dutch language, history, and culture at a Netherlands embassy in their homelands, and watch the controversial video, which also depicts crowded immigrant enclaves, urban drug use, and other scenes calculated to give a more realistic view of life in the West. . In France, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has bluntly advised new immigrants: Love France or leave it. . ''If it bothers some people to be in France, then it shouldn't bother them to leave a country they don't love," Sarkozy has said. The popular politician, almost certain to be a front-runner in presidential elections next May, was referring to Muslims from North and West Africa who last fall torched public buildings and thousands of cars in riots sparked by dissatisfaction over subsidized housing, high unemployment, and schools perceived as substandard. . Last week, France's National Assembly overwhelmingly passed a stringent immigration bill sponsored by Sarkozy that will deny welfare benefits to newcomers who refuse to take jobs, restrict non-European immigration only to individuals with ''high technical skills or special talents," and require immigrants to sign a pledge agreeing to learn French and respect ''the French way of life." . The proposed law, which still needs approval from the Senate, triggered angry protests in former French colonies in Africa and drew charges of racism at home. . ''It tries to kill every liberty and every right of the French immigrants," said Marielou Jampolski, spokeswoman for the group SOS Racisme. ''It's very dangerous for the country." . In Britain, public anger over large numbers of illegal immigrants erupted last month when the government admitted that it had accidentally freed 1,023 foreigners convicted of serious crimes -- including murder and rape -- instead of deporting them. A recent poll found that 59 percent of Britons said they would approve of a blanket ban on all further immigration, although there is little chance such a drastic measure would ever become law. . Germany is pondering new citizenship tests, including one drawn up by the state of Hesse that questions immigrants on their views on women's rights, arranged marriages, Israel's right to exist, and head scarves on schoolgirls -- topics that seem designed specifically to test the tolerance of Muslims. Another state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, asks applicants for citizenship whether they consider the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers to be ''terrorists or freedom fighters" and whether they are disturbed by ''open homosexuals holding public positions." . As debate intensifies, Germany started the process of setting the country's first national guidelines for obtaining citizenship. Until now, the country's 16 states set standards and there was virtually no effort to encourage Turks and North Africans to gain citizenship or follow cultural norms. Many of the country's 3 million Muslims, including second- and third-generation descendants of guest workers, speak little German and live in immigrant communities where joblessness is high and high school graduation rates are low. . The Netherlands faces a similar situation: In some cities, such as Rotterdam, immigrants and their offspring represent 50 percent of the population. . ''There are over 600,000 people in the country [of 16 million] who can't speak proper Dutch and are mostly unemployed," Verdonk said in recent public comments. ''We can no longer afford to welcome immigrants who will not integrate into mainstream society." . But analysts also say Western Europe cannot survive without immigrants. New blood is required to offset declining birth rates, expand economies, and -- not least of all -- pay the taxes to support pensions and other social programs that benefit all Europeans. . ''The world is changing, Europe is changing, and Holland must accept change, too, even though many Dutch fear it," said Jean Tillie at the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies. ''New laws truly intended to promote social cohesion and more tolerance may be necessary. But laws created out of fear and mistrust will eventually do more harm than good. Europe needs immigrants." . Source: Click here for original Boston Globe article

[ 05-23-2006, 04:48 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]