The Politics of Immigration in Europe
Historically Europe has been a net exporter of people since the middle ages as the Great Powers expanded into Africa, The Indian subcontinent, and other parts of the world. People moved out in search of wealth and land. The Age of Empires drew to a close and now it is mostly the highly skilled that leave Europe to other developed nations. People all over the world look at the developed nations as either a land of opportunity or safety from persecution & oppression.
In the last fifty years the pattern of migration has been inwards towards Europe and increasingly over the two decades the changing demographics have become a major political issue. Each country in Europe has its own views on the issue of immigration. The further east one goes the more relaxed they are as they know that Western Europe is the desired destination of most immigrants.
British autos with cannon in France (LOC)
No Mans Land, Flanders Field, France, 1919 (LOC)
English: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989. The ph...Turkey and Greece are not popular countries for immigration so they serve as rather open gateways into Europe.
The first wave of modern immigration into Europe came as former colonials wanted to move to the mother country and various other countries taking in foreign workers in an effort to boost the national economy with what should have been. This essay will draw mostly upon German and British experience with immigration.
Each country in Europe has its own culture that has pretty much been in place since the Treaty of Westphalia with a few changes due to peace treaty conditions after major wars.
Countries have allowed immigration for a number of reasons firstly that they had no grounds to stop it, that there was a shortfall in certain areas of the labour pool and they were receiving displaced fellow countrymen or skilled artisans. Before World War One...