Discovering something that the blogosphere has known for months, the European Union's European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) has discovered that Europe is a hotbed of anti-semitism and anti-Muslim views. This article discusses the issue at some length.
There are a number of um, interesting takes on some issues in the article. Here are a few that caught my eye:
Mainstream politicians in Europe had allowed themselves to be pushed into a negative debate on immigration by far-right populist parties, Purkiss said.
That statement in and of itself, while not exactly biased, casts an angle on the terms of the debate.
Migrants faced problems ranging from direct racism such as verbal abuse in the workplace to indirect discrimination in the form of unrealistic language requirements.
Unrealistic language requirements—does this mean that employees are expected to speak the language of the host country? If so, that is entirely reasonable.
On average, the unemployment rate for immigrants is twice as high as national rates in EU member states, ranging from 22 percent in France to 5.3 percent in Portugal, and many migrants worked in the informal labor market, the study said.
If the immigrant unemployment rates are so high, why is there a push for more immigration? Doesn't it make sense to achieve a lower unemployment rate (22% is astronomical, even for Europe) before one opens the floodgates?
posted on December 10, 2002 06:50 PM
Comments:
You have to wonder how many of those people are unemployed because the national government (or the European Union itself) puts up with that sort of thing. Maybe France can cut the work week to 28 hours or something.
posted on December 10, 2002 06:50 PM
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