In the U.S., Immigrants Find Acceptance; in Europe, Ghettos

I am a product of immigration and multiculturalism. I was born and raised in England to Indian parents. I have lived and worked in Syria and Saudi Arabia, and now New York is my home. I am grateful to Europe for all that it has given me, but it continues to fail to provide a “sense of belonging” to its immigrants and their children.

In the United States, immigrants are accepted; in most of Europe, they are just tolerated. Unlike France and Germany, Britain has been experimenting with multiculturalism for three decades now. The British are ahead of mainland Europe, having fostered greater diversity in business, media and politics. But we’ve also helped create monocultural ghettos in northern cities where entire communities can survive without speaking English or making any contact with “white Britain.” Physically they are in Britain, mentally in Pakistan. Germany and Denmark refer to second- and third-generation “immigrants” as “guest workers” in a “host country”; they are seen as Turks, not Germans, despite birth and upbringing in Deutschland.

When multiculturalism creates communal segregation and sectarianism and sows the seeds for future conflicts, we have a civic duty to take our heads out of the sand. In Europe, millions of Muslims and people of color do not feel “European.” They are mostly perceived as and therefore behave as “outsiders.” Granted, some feel British or French, but I am not sure whether “host countries” and their upper classes see them that way. (Class structure, of course, is another barrier to integration in Europe.) At lower rungs of society, the rise of right-wing parties confirms my suspicions of Europe.

Europe itself lacks an identity. How can it welcome newcomers? In contrast, America is confident in itself: multiculturalism here is different, and broadly successful. The Statue of Liberty (ironic: a French gift) continues to call toward constitutional guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In President Obama’s America, minorities, women and youth are presidential kingmakers. Multiculturalism thrives when there is a framework of national identity underpinning it. Europe lacks that; America cherishes it every day as children from all backgrounds swear allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.

Finally, the ultimate test of when members of an immigrant community stop being “outsiders” is when its sons and daughters offer the ultimate sacrifice by joining a nation’s armed forces. American Muslims and members of other minority communities serve in the U.S. military and in law enforcement, and they do so with communal pride and support from elders. I have met American Muslims who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some have been laid to rest as heroes at Arlington cemetery. In Europe, such dedication remains taboo and is still seen as betrayal by fellow Muslims who see a false choice between Islam and the West. To fight for a western country is to oppose Islam, they argue. American Muslims defy that false narrative.

Multiculturalism in Europe needs desperate mending, not ending. And the United States offers instructive insights on how Europe can perhaps heal.

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