Migrants Feel a Chill in Europe

Immigrants to Britain may soon have to do more than just fill out forms. They may have to know where Cockneys live, how many British households have pets, and what goes into a traditional Christmas dinner.

Such topics could form part of a “Britishness test” the government is proposing as it heads into a general election. Many voters fear that the country is being swamped by immigrants who are keen to embrace British jobs and British social services but not the British way of life.

Britain is just one of a host of European countries where politicians are responding to immigration angst. Prime Minister Tony Blair is campaigning on the slogan, “Your country’s borders protected,” while the opposition wants immigrants tested for HIV. Stricter laws in the Netherlands threaten thousands of asylum-seekers with deportation. France is considering a special immigration police force, and Germany’s ruling coalition is facing allegations of lax visa procedures that opened the door to criminals.

Polls suggest the politicians are reflecting the public mood, but European Union countries are in a bind: Most studies say they desperately need immigrants to replenish aging populations and offset low birthrates.

That can be a hard sell when unemployment in some countries exceeds 10% and overburdened welfare systems are widely perceived as besieged by deadbeat immigrants. A U.N. study estimates that Europe will need 1.6 million migrants a year for the next 45 years to maintain its work force, yet in a poll of 25,000 EU residents last fall, 54% disagreed with the statement that Europe needs immigrants.

The perception that Britain has too many immigrants is false, said Anne Kershen, director of the Center for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary College, University of London.

“If you took all the illegal immigrants out of London, the economy would probably collapse,” she said.

Overall, about 8% of Western Europe’s population is foreign-born. In Germany, the figure is about 9%, in Britain around 8% -- but in a British poll conducted in 2000, the average guess was 20%. (The U.S. figure is 11.8%.)

Such perceptions have made immigration a major issue in early campaigning for British elections expected in May, with Blair’s Labor Party advocating selecting immigrants with skills and making newcomers learn English and take the “Britishness test” to qualify for permanent residency.

The test would be based on “Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship,” a government handbook that tells newcomers, among other things, that Cockneys live in London, just under half of all households keep pets, and Christmas dinner is turkey and steamed pudding.

Susie Symes, a trustee of a museum dedicated to London’s immigrant history, said the perception of immigrants as a social burden is nothing new. Three hundred years ago, she said, it was French Protestants fleeing persecution and British lawmakers saying, “We should kick the immigrants out of the country.”

“This is a country -- politically, socially and economically -- shaped by immigration over 2,000 years,” she said.

Large-scale immigration got underway after World War II, as Turks came to Germany to help rebuild the war-shattered country and thousands from the former European empires came looking for work -- Africans and West Indians to Britain, Algerians to France, Indonesians to the Netherlands.

Today, thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere try to enter Europe each year -- from Africa in overloaded boats across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain, from Turkey across the Aegean to the Greek islands, in speedboats over the Adriatic from Albania to Italy, in trucks through the Channel Tunnel between France and England.

In Britain, as in many other European countries, immigrant workers are needed to do crucial but often poorly paid jobs at hotels, hospitals, pubs, construction sites and farms.

But fear of immigrants has intensified since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and the Madrid train bombings of a year ago. Today the “ugly immigrant” in the public imagination is not just the welfare scrounger but the hidden terrorist, which is why Blair’s “Your country’s borders protected” slogan cuts two ways.

In the Netherlands, where every fifth person is an immigrant or the child of one, a surge of hostile sentiment spiked with the November murder, allegedly by a Muslim radical, of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. France, meanwhile, is among many countries where citizens believe that too many immigrants are coming for the good life, not to assimilate into their adopted countries -- hence, France’s much-disputed effort to ban schoolgirls from wearing Muslim headscarves.

Across the continent, extreme nationalist parties like the Flemish Bloc in Belgium and the National Front in France have gained at the polls by exploiting fears of a rising tide of immigrants and refugees.

National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked France by finishing second to President Jacques Chirac in the first round of presidential elections in 2002. (He lost resoundingly in the runoff.) Le Pen also has been convicted six times of racism or anti-Semitism -- most recently in February for a newspaper interview in which he said a growing Muslim population meant that soon “the French will lower their heads and walk the sidewalk with their eyes down.”

Moderate parties, whether left- or right-leaning, have echoed some of the far right’s concerns, arguing that to forestall a really dangerous anti-foreigner surge, tough policies are needed to choke off illegal migration and stop migrants from “asylum shopping” for the most generous host country.

“We will never maintain the tolerant, diverse nation of which we can be so proud, unless we have the strict controls that keep it so,” Blair says.

France’s government has proposed creating a special police force to keep out illegal immigrants. A law has taken effect in Germany designed to cherry-pick skilled immigrants. Newcomers are obliged to take government-funded German-language and civics courses or risk losing state benefits.

Germany’s backlash against its previously lenient approach has lately been highlighted by a furor over revelations that immigrants who poured in from the former Soviet Union under a relaxed visa policy turned out to include criminals and women forced into prostitution.

The Dutch government has introduced steep visa fees, restrictions on foreign marriages and compulsory integration classes. The government has vowed to deport 26,000 rejected asylum seekers by the summer of 2007.

Denmark has also tightened its laws.

Shamit Saggar, a political scientist at the University of Sussex who has studied attitudes toward immigration across Europe, said the anti-immigrant mood would continue to dominate politics in many European countries. But in Britain, he says, the picture is more complex.

“Immigration has been broadly something that has been welcomed in this country,” Saggar said.

“While polls show many people are hostile to future immigration, they are generally positive about past immigration,” he said. “There’s a long tradition of being pragmatic about these things in Britain.”

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The Britishness quiz

The British government has proposed that immigrants seeking permanent residency take a “Britishness” test, to be based on the publication “Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship.” Here are some facts immigrants could learn from the handbook:

Q: What areas are home to the Geordie, Scouse and Cockney accents?

A: Tyneside, Liverpool and London.

Q: Where are the majority of Britain’s thatched cottages found?

A: In the south, southwest and east of England.

Q: What do Britons traditionally eat for Christmas dinner?

A: Roast turkey and Christmas pudding -- “a rich steamed pudding made from suet, dried fruit and spices.”

Q: What proportion of British households own a pet?

A: Just under a half.

Q: What should you do if you accidentally spill a stranger’s drink in a bar?

A: “It is good manners (and prudent) to offer to buy another.”

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times