Effects On Intergroup Relations of Immigration Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Immigration affects not only the ethnic, racial, religious, and linguistic makeup of immigrant-receiving countries but also conceptions of national identity and relations between the multitudes of groups that constitute pluralistic societies. In particular, it affects relations between ethnic groups, or as Max Weber (1996) describes, “those human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration” (p. 35). Under the best circumstances, immigration adds to and enriches the fabric of society and leads to harmonious relationships between ethnic groups. Under the worst, it causes profound socioeconomic and political change that leads to violent conflict.

For many Europeans, immigrating to the New World meant an escape from poverty, increased economic prospects and political freedoms, and the beginning of a new life infused with great opportunity. Conversely, from the vantage point of the native inhabitants, European immigration was commonly associated with conquest, domination, displacement, disease, genocide, and the destruction of traditional ways of life. For the estimated ten million Africans brought to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, their forced migration experience was characterized by enslavement and extreme racial prejudice. These patterns of migration and settlement resulted in a hierarchical power structure based on race, with whites holding dominant social, economic, and political positions.

Integration And Assimilation

In the modern age of migration, immigration’s effect on intergroup relations differs from country to country. In so-called countries of immigration, such as Canada and the United States, where immigration was part of the nation-building process, immigrants are absorbed into society relatively quickly. That is, in countries where the vast majority of the population is descended from immigrants, the inclination is to accept the notion, We are a country of immigrants, and therefore assimilate newcomers of any background—as long as they naturalize, learn the language, and respect the laws of the land. In the United States, for example, the children of immigrants born on American soil are, pursuant to the jus soli (birthright citizenship) principle codified in the Fourteenth Amendment, automatically citizens of the country. When immigrants and their children are quickly naturalized and granted concomitant rights and liberties, feelings of social marginalization and tension between ethnic groups are mitigated.

In European countries, some of which have evolved from countries of emigration to countries of immigration, the integration and assimilation of immigrants has often been slow and fraught with intergroup conflict. This is because immigration in most European countries was not, at least in the popular imagination, an explicit part of the nation-building process. Despite growing ethnic heterogeneity, many European countries have struggled to incorporate immigrants and embrace multiculturalism. Germany officially maintained that it was not a country of immigration until 1998, at which time nearly 9 percent of the total population was classified as foreign, and only in 2000 implemented a conditional jus soli citizenship policy. Even so, many Germans still have difficulty accepting foreigners, especially non-European immigrants, as German, even if they are born in Germany, acquire citizenship, and speak perfect German.

Ethnic Conflict And Nationalism

Intergroup tensions are common in countries that have experienced high rates of immigration. Race riots have periodically erupted in the United Kingdom, for example, in the Notting Hill area of London in 1958 and in Oldham in 2001. France, which has long prided itself on its civic nationalism, as opposed to ethnic nationalism, has also experienced recurrent urban unrest and violence in its immigrant communities. French youths of African descent argue that there is little real intergroup fraternité or égalité in a country where the National Front, a party that espouses a “France for the French” ideology, is an enduring presence. In the Netherlands, the much-touted Dutch model of integration, which allowed immigrants to create their own space within a multicultural Dutch society, has come under scrutiny in recent years. Since the assassinations of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh and the politician Pim Fortuyn, both of whom were critical of Muslim immigration, some skeptics have denounced the Dutch model as a failure.

Ultimately, immigration’s effect on intergroup relations is context specific and determined by multiple factors. Legal immigrants tend to be more accepted by host populations, enjoy more political rights and protection under the law, and be more readily integrated than illegal immigrants. Country of origin, socioeconomic class, race, language, conditions of exit from the sending country, and conditions of entry in the receiving country also play important roles in the ways immigrants are treated and how they relate to other societal groups. In the United States, for example, white immigrant doctors from the United Kingdom are treated differently than unskilled Mexican laborers; in Germany, an Austrian typically experiences a higher level of social acceptance than a Turk; and in Sweden, Norwegian immigrants tend to acculturate more quickly than Rwandan refugees.

Nativist discourse on immigration, whether in the United States, Germany, or Australia, expresses the real and imagined fears of the demos. Those who oppose immigration often do so because they perceive immigrants as an enemy other, who are seen as overcrowding the country, taking jobs, abusing social services, competing for scarce resources, lowering standards of living, usurping political power, committing crimes, lowering educational standards, introducing new languages and religions, changing the culture and national identity, and so on. When ethnic groups feel that their power, wealth, or prestige is threatened, xenophobic anxieties can lead to support for nationalist parties, such as the Freedom Party in Austria, Flemish Bloc in Belgium, and Republikaner in Germany.

The poet Max Frisch once wrote of immigration to Switzerland, “Ein kleines Herrenvolk sieht sich in Gefahr: man hat Arbeitskräfte gerufen, und es kommen Menschen” (A small master race feels threatened: workers were invited, and human beings are coming). His point is that there are serious economic as well as ethical dimensions to immigration, namely, that workers are also human beings with needs and wants and who, given the opportunity, will create their own space in society, put down roots, raise families, form political organizations, participate in representative democracy, and become long-term residents and eventually citizens. If this process of integration and assimilation is to happen with as much ease and as little conflict as possible, then it should be encouraged by governments, striven for by immigrants, and facilitated by the diverse groups that must inevitably coexist in contemporary multicultural, pluralist societies.

Bibliography:

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