Banter Without Borders

The international business risks of European immigration

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As someone who has been described as a serial immigrant, I read with interest the glowing reviews of Christopher Caldwell's book "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe," by Dwight Garner in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/books/30garner.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Christopher%20Caldwell&st=cse) and by Fouad Ajami in The New York Times Book Review (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/books/review/Ajami-t.html?scp=3&sq=Christopher%20Caldwell&st=cse). Ajami writes that Caldwell "gives this subject its most sustained and thoughtful treatment to date."

When we were working with a European client last year on issues of risk in their global marketing and advertising, one of the issues that arose was immigration and the way it was changing their marketplace. For most European countries, immigration is an economic necessity because of the aging and dwindling local population. However, immigration brings many challenges, especially to the established, socially liberal cultures.

Legal and illegal immigration has given rise to social, cultural and economic tensions in many western European countries. While immigrants can add cultural value and intellectual property to their newly adopted country, more often they are feared. Many reasons are given to spur anti-immigrant feelings; they take jobs from local workers and lower salaries, they overflow schools and hospitals, they cause disease, and they increase the social welfare costs. They also may be a source of crime and terrorism.

Immigrant populations in Europe from Africa and the Middle East tend to be poorer and not well-educated. The majority of these immigrants are Muslim. They are socially and economically marginalized, religious and tend to live in parallel societies rather than assimilate, as immigrants are more likely to do with the American-style melting pot or even with the Canadian-style ethnic mosaic, possibly because both North and South America have benefitted from immigration for centuries, whereas immigration is a fairly recent phenomenon in Europe.

Few immigrants in Europe enhance their adopted culture; most supplant it. Consequently, many Europeans feel threatened by newcomers who will dilute their culture, undermine their traditional values and cause them to lose their national identities. As a result, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center, large majorities in nearly every European country surveyed express the view that there should be greater restriction of immigration and tighter control of their country's borders. Unfortunately, debate about immigration is taboo in Europe since anyone there who is even remotely critical of Islam is branded as Islamophobic, as Caldwell points out in his book. That is a shame because immigration and immigration reform are topics that should be discussed openly.

The immigrant experience can be jarring, whether it is a temporary expat assignment or whether it is a permanent relocation. Having lived in several countries and having dealt with numerous expatriates, I have come to realize that there are some basic rules that can enhance the immigrant experience. First of all, it helps to make even some effort to learn the language; language does help to understand a culture. And, while it may feel safer to cling to the known, it does help, too, to become an active participant in your new home and culture; it will open new worlds to you. If you prefer to live in an enclave of fellow expatriates, perhaps you should consider repatriating, especially if you constantly continue to refer to the country of your birth as "my country." If that's where your allegiance is, that's where you belong. Equally appalling are people who become more native than the natives; you're insulting both your hosts and your heritage.

My copy of Caldwell's book is on order. I look forward to commenting further once I've read it. Meanwhile, it sounds like a worthwhile read for any executive whose company is doing business in Europe and for whom immigration might be a human resources or a marketing issue.