Ken Stein
Tel Aviv Notes
July 24, 2002
…current demographic characteristics and future trends and suggest that Europe faces a potential Arab immigrant onslaught perhaps as great as that America endured during the European immigration of the 19th and early 20th centuries. …European immigrants to the United States altered American culture and urban demographics, spawned nativism, and changed the nature of domestic politics. There is no reason to believe that an Arab migration of such magnitude will not similarly alter Europe’s political, social, and cultural landscape over the next quarter-century.
…So what happens when European labor demand meets Arab supply over the next two decades and beyond? In Europe, effects will come in national and local elections, delivery of health care, urban growth, pressure on infrastructure, real estate prices, labor issues, cultural changes, and demands for social protection packages. Externally, mass immigration will influence common or separate policies toward immigration, asylum, exiles, and foreign policy choices. [Read more…]