Tom Fudge: The domestic curse of the United States is our history of slavery and the racial tensions that still rise from it. Immigration, on the other hand, is something we do pretty well. We're a nation of immigrants after all, and we have a long history of assimilating immigrants into our larger society. The same cannot be said of Europe.
And that's a problem today. Low birth rates in Europe require it to invite immigrants into their counties to fill the workforce. And the relative prosperity of Europe makes it attractive to people from many counties. Yet racial and cultural tensions are widespread, especially when it comes to Muslim immigrants. This was made clear again last week when riots broke out in Paris, involving that city's immigrants and their children. In a notorious case in the Netherlands, film maker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death after making a film that was critical of Islamic society.
We're going to spend some time talking about the modern history of immigration to Europe from Muslim countries.
Peter will be speaking about "Muslim Youth and State Policies in Europe" at 3 p.m. on Tues. Dec. 4 in the Deutz Room at the Institute of the Americas at UCSD's Eleanor Roosevelt College .
Guest
- Frank Peter , research fellow studying comparative social cultural anthropology at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) in Frankfurt, Germany.
