I'm looking for a topic to write about throughout this semester for my English class and this topic to mind. As greater numbers of immigrants from the Middle East come to Europe, there seems to be a bit of clash between native European society and the Muslim immigrants. How do you feel this trend is affecting Europe's (or just your own country's) economy or society?

I am not looking for a debate or argument on this post and would appreciate replies from Europeans only unless you have something legitimate to contribute.

Also, if any moderators read this, would it be appropriate for me to repost this in the French, Dutch, and German boards?

Edited January 26, 201511 yr by SIR_Sergeant

I think it's different for every country. Over here, there are people who are against 'people from certain cultures and religions' all being criminals or [enter random accusation here], but it's only a small group. Most people just don't really care. Then again, for some reason said 'people from certain cultures and religions' do tend to have the crappier jobs, live in crappier neighborhoods and appear on crime statistics a bit more often, although that isn't very representative.

 

As for posting in the Dutch section, I don't really care too much. Just be adviced, translating from English to Dutch with Google Translate rapes your sentences quite a lot.

Does Russia count as Europe? At least my city surely is supposed to.

 

We have many Muslim immigrants from neighboring post-USSR countries, and there's also Chechya, a Russian state, where are also Muslims. Most people generally despise immigrants and believe they only good for working at construction sites, selling vegetables, and cooking rats. They don't care about learning the language or our laws, at least. Crime rate is also very high in they neighborhoods. My friend was assigned to a department in a hood like this and he says 90% of crimes were connected to immigrants. 

 

Chechens however are a whole different story since they are extremely violent and often have some protection up high, so they despise the rest of the country. 

Does Russia count as Europe? At least my city surely is supposed to.

 

We have many Muslim immigrants from neighboring post-USSR countries, and there's also Chechya, a Russian state, where are also Muslims. Most people generally despise immigrants and believe they only good for working at construction sites, selling vegetables, and cooking rats. They don't care about learning the language or our laws, at least. Crime rate is also very high in they neighborhoods. My friend was assigned to a department in a hood like this and he says 90% of crimes were connected to immigrants. 

 

Chechens however are a whole different story since they are extremely violent and often have some protection up high, so they despise the rest of the country. 

Russia counts as Asia.  Because it is within the continent of Asia.

Russia counts as Asia.  Because it is within the continent of Asia.

I'm sorry, but 40% of Europe is Russia. 

Most people only see the bad side of immigration - not through their own ignorance but because the media portrays immigrants in a certain light, which more often than not is negative.

 

Chances are, for the UK at least, we wouldn't be so far out of the recession as we are now without immigration - it is vital for a country to keep a regular flow of both immigrants and migrants. Of course, the issue is, for those slightly 'better off' EU countries, they are receiving for more in, than are leaving the country, causing very icy relations between those two groups.

 

Ultimately, immigration is vital to a developed countries economic well being. However, when cultures are mixed into countries that aren't used to having them social tensions increase massively, indeed, in the Thames Valley we've seen a massive increase in honour-based crime carried out mostly by Muslim residents - something we wouldn't have seen as much of at the start of my career almost 10 years ago.

Immigration is the same as everywhere.

 

There are immigrants who are coming to have better lives, and do their best to blend into society, looking for a job, paying taxes, being respectful to the country that welcomed them.

 

And there are immigrants that are coming to have better lives, but don't give a single damn about the country they are getting into. For example, A couple years ago (let's say 20-30 years ago), immigrants from middle east were doing everything they could to speak french and look as much as they could like a french family, as well as following the western way of life. Today, they speak their language with no respect for people around, have no respect for the country and its rules and laws, and sometimes even impose their ways of life to other people. How many times I see people in the streets with flags from Algeria, Tunisia, Marocco.

 

But to be honest, the most important immigration nowadays in Europe doesn't come from the middle east, but from eastern Europe. Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, all those countries lost near Russia. They are immigrating in huge ammounts in the western Europe countries, and those people -really- have no respect at all for the country welcoming them. Or at least, I'm still waiting to see one who does show respect. They beg for money or cigarettes all the time, and insult you if you don't give some to them, barely speak french and don't bother learning to, and are really aggressive and destructive (check the situation in the North of the France, near the city of Calais where France and UK police passed bargains to try and control those people that try to pass oversea towards the UK).

 

Don't get me wrong, I believe that immigration is necessary for economy, but there are two kinds of immigration. The first one, I'm totally favorable, because they are respectful, like I'd be respectful if I immigrated to their country. The second one, definitely not.

I think it's different for every country. Over here, there are people who are against 'people from certain cultures and religions' all being criminals or [enter random accusation here], but it's only a small group. Most people just don't really care. Then again, for some reason said 'people from certain cultures and religions' do tend to have the crappier jobs, live in crappier neighborhoods and appear on crime statistics a bit more often, although that isn't very representative.

 

As for posting in the Dutch section, I don't really care too much. Just be adviced, translating from English to Dutch with Google Translate rapes your sentences quite a lot.

Thanks for the response. Do you think this is something specific to the Netherlands or is more universal?

 

Does Russia count as Europe? At least my city surely is supposed to.

 

We have many Muslim immigrants from neighboring post-USSR countries, and there's also Chechya, a Russian state, where are also Muslims. Most people generally despise immigrants and believe they only good for working at construction sites, selling vegetables, and cooking rats. They don't care about learning the language or our laws, at least. Crime rate is also very high in they neighborhoods. My friend was assigned to a department in a hood like this and he says 90% of crimes were connected to immigrants. 

 

Chechens however are a whole different story since they are extremely violent and often have some protection up high, so they despise the rest of the country. 

I'd say it counts. Definitely a different perspective from the other regions of Europe. Do you think there is an association with all Muslims because of the Chechens? 

 

Most people only see the bad side of immigration - not through their own ignorance but because the media portrays immigrants in a certain light, which more often than not is negative.

 

Chances are, for the UK at least, we wouldn't be so far out of the recession as we are now without immigration - it is vital for a country to keep a regular flow of both immigrants and migrants. Of course, the issue is, for those slightly 'better off' EU countries, they are receiving for more in, than are leaving the country, causing very icy relations between those two groups.

 

Ultimately, immigration is vital to a developed countries economic well being. However, when cultures are mixed into countries that aren't used to having them social tensions increase massively, indeed, in the Thames Valley we've seen a massive increase in honour-based crime carried out mostly by Muslim residents - something we wouldn't have seen as much of at the start of my career almost 10 years ago.

I saw a thing on TV about a movement called "Britain First" or something like that. Are these kind of nationalistic groups gaining significant support? Obviously the remarks come with severe bias but a member interviewed expressed concern about immigrant Muslims winning seats in Parliament. 

 

Is the kind of situation you described in your region of England consistent throughout the country. For example, I know guys that live in Nottingham and Sunderland. Would they be observing similar effects?

 

Immigration is the same as everywhere.

 

There are immigrants who are coming to have better lives, and do their best to blend into society, looking for a job, paying taxes, being respectful to the country that welcomed them.

 

And there are immigrants that are coming to have better lives, but don't give a single damn about the country they are getting into. For example, A couple years ago (let's say 20-30 years ago), immigrants from middle east were doing everything they could to speak french and look as much as they could like a french family, as well as following the western way of life. Today, they speak their language with no respect for people around, have no respect for the country and its rules and laws, and sometimes even impose their ways of life to other people. How many times I see people in the streets with flags from Algeria, Tunisia, Marocco.

 

But to be honest, the most important immigration nowadays in Europe doesn't come from the middle east, but from eastern Europe. Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, all those countries lost near Russia. They are immigrating in huge ammounts in the western Europe countries, and those people -really- have no respect at all for the country welcoming them. Or at least, I'm still waiting to see one who does show respect. They beg for money or cigarettes all the time, and insult you if you don't give some to them, barely speak french and don't bother learning to, and are really aggressive and destructive (check the situation in the North of the France, near the city of Calais where France and UK police passed bargains to try and control those people that try to pass oversea towards the UK).

 

Don't get me wrong, I believe that immigration is necessary for economy, but there are two kinds of immigration. The first one, I'm totally favorable, because they are respectful, like I'd be respectful if I immigrated to their country. The second one, definitely not.

This seems to be the case in a lot of places. It puts a bad light on the entirety of immigrants when only some cause the problems. This was seen in America decades ago when it came to organized crime. Italians were stigmatized because of the Mafia but were on the whole hardworking, respectful people.

 

Which of the two types you described would you say makes up the majority? 

I'd say it counts. Definitely a different perspective from the other regions of Europe. Do you think there is an association with all Muslims because of the Chechens? 

You could say that. Recently their leader organized a public event to condemn journalists killed in France, saying they got that they deserved for mocking their god. People who never met any other Muslim would think they all are like this. 

This seems to be the case in a lot of places. It puts a bad light on the entirety of immigrants when only some cause the problems. This was seen in America decades ago when it came to organized crime. Italians were stigmatized because of the Mafia but were on the whole hardworking, respectful people.

 

Which of the two types you described would you say makes up the majority? 

 

To be honest, people not respecting our country and living their own way of life largely make up the majority. Almost no one amongst the newest immigrants actually wants to blend into our society, they make the country quite sectarian. To be honest, communautarism shouldn't exist within a same country, everyone should unify under the flag of their country, and not under the flag of another one, or a religion, or anything else.

You could say that. Recently their leader organized a public event to condemn journalists killed in France, saying they got that they deserved for mocking their god. People who never met any other Muslim would think they all are like this. 

I saw some videos of gatherings like that. Terrible stuff.

 

To be honest, people not respecting our country and living their own way of life largely make up the majority. Almost no one amongst the newest immigrants actually wants to blend into our society, they make the country quite sectarian. To be honest, communautarism shouldn't exist within a same country, everyone should unify under the flag of their country, and not under the flag of another one, or a religion, or anything else.

That's incredibly self-destructive for a country to experience. I'm not one for nationalism and overzealous patriotism but that kind of division within a nation definitely isn't good for it. 

I saw a thing on TV about a movement called "Britain First" or something like that. Are these kind of nationalistic groups gaining significant support? Obviously the remarks come with severe bias but a member interviewed expressed concern about immigrant Muslims winning seats in Parliament. 

 

Is the kind of situation you described in your region of England consistent throughout the country. For example, I know guys that live in Nottingham and Sunderland. Would they be observing similar effects?

 

As a proportionate number, those kind of movements don't gain too much support. We do, however, have a party called the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) whose main aim is to leave Europe and place crippling restrictions on immigrants. Their membership sits at around 40 000 compared to our incumbent Conservative party who have 224 000 members (both 2014 figures). So no, they are not gaining any significant support, and that support which they do have, generally struggle to organise since there is such a melting pot of powerful views. 

One of the most extreme parties would be the English Defence League (EDL) who commonly rally and protest against immigrants - mainly the Muslim population - which often end up with intervention from whichever police service is tasked with controlling them. They struggle to maintain one focus and tend to be 'football hooligans' who want to go out and feel the mob mentality and have a bit of a scrap with the police.

 

Generally it is the less affluent areas that are affected by a large influx of immigrants, this is purely because costs of houses are lower in areas that aren't filled with millionaires. Nottingham is a city that is quite well off, and won't have received the number of immigrants that somewhere like Bradford (Yorkshire) has, indeed Bradford is commonly Bradistan. So no, the situation I've described for my LPA won't be consistent, however, it will be existent in most cities in Britain.

Thanks for the response. Do you think this is something specific to the Netherlands or is more universal?

 

Don't know, I don't pay a lot of attention to what's going on in other countries :)

I'm sorry, but 40% of Europe is Russia. 

I believe they are both, in Asia and Europe