Immigration and Racism in Western Europe: When the Colonies Return

2008-02-05
By Mark Q. Sawyer

At this very moment there are contentious and passionate debates raging over immigration, race and the meaning of national identity  -  but they’re not happening in the United States. While Lou Dobbs may have given us impression the that this immigration is an issue unique to the U.S., it is most certainly not.

All over Europe immigration from former colonies has driven a profound shift in the discussions about race, politics and the future of a Europe that is “European.” Those debates parallel the arguments about Mexican migration in the United States and show how many people, despite growing racial diversity in the West, still think of their nations as racially homogenous entities.

Europe was once a place where African Americans like W.E. B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Miles Davis and others went to escape the sting of Jim Crow in the United States and found a Europe that allowed them a freedom of movement unprecedented in the United States.  Further, African American soldiers in Europe during WWI and WWII enjoyed a freedom of movement denied to them in the U.S.  But many mistakenly believed that meant Europe was immune to racism.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The “civilized” Europe, though devoid of Jim Crow laws, always depended upon keeping the natives in their colonies and not allowing them to come to the homeland in any large numbers. In fact, the experiences of Jews and the Roma (a.k.a. “gypsies”) chronicle the long history of racism in Western Europe. For the last few centuries, Europe has existed in a delicate balance by keeping racial and ethnic minorities at bay or oppressed by systems in the colonies that made Jim Crow look mild, while developing a notion of a homogenous national identity at home. 

In many ways, it was the colonies that allowed the French to become French and the British to become British, at least in perception. Absent of colonies in places like South Asia and Africa there might have been much more focus on ethnic and cultural differences among groups within nations like Britain, France or Spain. The very notion of European “civilization” and all that it entailed depended upon its opposite - the “uncivilized natives” in the colonies. The contrast also provided justification for European activity in those places.

In the meantime the stark division between the European nations and their former colonies has collapsed. Since WWII but mostly in recent years, immigration has accelerated as birth rates in Europe have lagged and the population has aged. Immigration, just as in the United States, is providing needed vitality to lift what would otherwise be a zero or negative birth rate and declining population. 

Old age pensions are increasingly being paid in Western Europe on the backs of non-white immigrants and their children. However, the dynamic of having so many people that are different racially, along with the insecurity generated by globalization and the rise of the European Union has created a backlash that has brought racism out of the colonies and presented it as an issue at home.

Anti-immigrant and Nationalist parties have seen varying levels of growth in countries as different as France, the Netherlands, and Italy. Far right wing parties have enjoyed substantial success in various elections by attacking immigration and the process of European integration.  Racist incidents have occurred in places like Spain, Moscow, Germany, France, and Great Britain.  In response, some countries like Great Britain have developed distinct Civil Rights legislation to protect the rights of minorities and to ensure non-discrimination. Even the European Parliament has passed template legislation to protect minorities but many countries have been slow to adopt it, or have adopted versions that are hopelessly watered down.

Other places like France steadfastly argue that there is no race problem or discrimination despite the several days of race riots in the Paris suburbs this past fall and during the fall of 2005. The riots revealed the anger, misery and discrimination faced by French youth of Arab, Caribbean and North African descent.

Some of the most demonstrative incidents have been on the soccer fields.  Black players in places like Moscow, Spain, Croatia and Italy have faced monkey chants and bananas thrown on the field when they received the ball. It became so bad that Nike and the world governing body have launched anti-racism campaigns. 

The rise of racism in Western Europe not only threatens the process of European integration but also the social compact.  So even as films like  Michael Moore’s “Sicko” marvel at the humane and wonderful social welfare systems in Western Europe, those very systems - universal health care, unemployment benefits, high wages and substantial old age pensions – are being questioned as the idea of these benefits going to “undeserving” blacks or Arabs gives many Western Europeans pause.

It becomes increasingly clear that anti-immigrant sentiment and obvious racism may, just like the immigration debate, make Europe look more and more familiar to Americans.

Mark Sawyer is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at UCLA and Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. He is the author of Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba (Cambridge Press, 2006)