American vs European Immigration

 

Syrian refugees rest onboard a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel after being rescued in the Mediterranean sea, off the coast of Lesvos, Greece. (McConnell, 2016)

There are many similarities and differences between immigration patterns in the EU and the US. 

The biggest difference lies in demographics and the causation of immigration. In the European Union, the majority of immigrants are fleeing wars in areas that neighbor Europe - namely the Middle East (ie. Iraq and Syria) and Muslim South Asia (ie. Afghanistan), the locus of the now decades long "War on Terror" and subsequent occupations of these countries (Burnett, 2018). More recently, Ukrainian and Belarusian migrants have been added to this list, with the recent Russian incursions into these two countries. In the United States, however, immigrants are largely fleeing internal problems in their home countries such as gang violence or governmental corruption, or poverty, as seen in asylum-seekers from Central America (Burnett, 2018). 

However, it should be noted that this difference - the fleeing war vs the fleeing domestic issues - are not so different. The War on Terror in the Middle East is an imperial endeavor, and the poverty, violence, and governmental corruption of Central America are all the result of former imperial endeavors by the US in the region, as seen in the support of the Contras in Nicaragua.

Another similarity between the US and EU lies in reactions to immigration influxes. Both the US and the EU have witnessed rises in right-wing populism with a particular fixation on immigration in recent years. Perhaps the paragons of this sentiment are former US president Donald Trump, who expanded the use of immigrant detainment centers and the powers of ICE during his presidency (Gramlich, 2020), and French politicians Marie Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, the latter of which has branded himself "the protector of old France" and desires to "[equip] with airplanes to expedite the expulsions of what he says are undesirable migrants." (Ganley, 2022)


(EuroStat, 2022)


References

Asylum quarterly report. Asylum quarterly report - Statistics Explained. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Asylum_quarterly_report

Burnett, J. (2018, November 30). The differences between the European migration crisis and the influx to the U.S. NPR. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2018/11/30/672342426/the-differences-between-the-european-migration-crisis-and-the-influx-to-the-u-s

Ganley, E. (2022, April 3). French far-right leader Le pen softens image for election. AP NEWS. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/immigration-france-europe-religion-marine-le-pen-b90845d6b36d3e5de5120f52d2890d2a

Gramlich, J. (2020, September 8). How border apprehensions, ice arrests and deportations have changed under trump. Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/02/how-border-apprehensions-ice-arrests-and-deportations-have-changed-under-trump/

Leicester, J. (2021, October 25). In France, trump-like TV pundit rocks presidential campaign. AP NEWS. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/immigration-france-paris-europe-migration-a681f51a334fe7e2ccc680d2b52ab4b3

McConnell, A. (2016). Syrian refugees rest onboard a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel after being rescued in the Mediterranean sea, off the coast of Lesvos, Greece. . UNHR. United Nationshttps://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/9/57e12c564/300000-refugees-migrants-cross-med-far-2016.html. 

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