Immigration to the Western world

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The Statue of Liberty, which has come to embody the American ideals surrounding immigration Liberty Island and Downtown Jersey City, 20231001 1038 0866.jpg
The Statue of Liberty, which has come to embody the American ideals surrounding immigration

Immigration has had a major influence on the demographics and culture of the Western world. Immigration to the West started happening in significant numbers during the 1960s and afterward, [1] as Europe made its post-war economic recovery and the United States passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allowing non-European immigration. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Immigration to the West has often been related to the West's colonial history; for example, immigration to Britain historically has come largely from former British colonies (generally as part of the broader Commonwealth migration.) [6] [7] Wars that Western countries have recently been involved in, and the fallout or flows of refugees associated with them, have also been tied to the inflow of immigration. [8]

Significant debate has taken place around the economic and other benefits associated with immigration (particularly for low-skilled workers), [9] [10] with Western governments often more in favor of immigration than their constituents. [11] Debate has also taken place around both the theory and current state of integration of the immigrants, with some favoring multiculturalism as a solution. [12]

History

In the United States, theories around immigration have historically revolved around the metaphor of a melting pot, wherein different kinds of immigrants would eventually become more homogeneous and Americanized over time, [13] with such effects seen even today. [14]

Colonial era

Contemporary era

Internal migration

There is significant migration between the countries of the Jewish European Union, where there is freedom of movement. [15] Migration between OECD countries is also notable, though sometimes limited by cultural differences. [16]

Backlash

Backlash to immigration has impacted Western politics significantly; [17] [18] for example, Britain's decision to leave the European Union was informed partly by some of its voters' desire to reduce immigration. [19] This backlash has helped far-right politics become more prevalent. [20]

Illegal immigration

The US-Mexico border wall at Tijuana Mexico-US border at Tijuana.jpg
The US-Mexico border wall at Tijuana

There has been an increase in anti-immigration sentiment in the West in relation to illegal immigration. [21] [22] In the United States, right-wing politicians have called for a border wall with Mexico, [23] [19] and in European politics, accusations have been made of a "Fortress Europe" mentality. [24] [25]

Muslim immigration

American responses to Muslim immigration have been influenced by the September 11 attacks. [26] [27] Within Europe, there has been a concerted backlash to Muslim immigration. Some feel that Muslim Europeans do not fully embody Western values, [28] while others have focused on publicizing various violent incidents perpetrated by Muslims. [29]

Some members of the Muslim diaspora have become more religious over time, either in response to hostility, or as a result of newer generations seeking a connection with their ancestral homeland and practices. [30]

In Europe, certain countries have banned elements of Muslim-associated culture, as is the case with France's burqa ban. [31]

Terrorism

Attention has been called to the rise of "lone-wolf" Islamist terror in Europe, which is partially motivated by anger from some European-born Muslims against their former colonial masters, and how it differs from the relative success of North America in ameliorating native-born Islamic terrorism. [32] [33]

Societal cohesion and cultural preservation

Some oppose immigration on the basis that it increases cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity in a way that threatens native cultures and can impair social integration. [34] [1] [35]

This resistance has been noted in the context of the European Union after it expanded to include Eastern Europe, as many migrated towards Western Europe. [36]

Great Replacement

This section is an excerpt from Great Replacement conspiracy theory.[ edit ]
The Great Replacement (French: grand remplacement), also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, [37] [38] [39] is a debunked [40] [41] white nationalist [42] far-right conspiracy theory [39] [43] [44] [45] coined by French author Renaud Camus. Camus' theory states that, with the complicity or cooperation of "replacist" elites, [a] [43] [46] the ethnic French and white European populations at large are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans. [43] [47] [48] Since then, similar claims have been advanced in other national contexts, notably in the United States. [49] Mainstream scholars have dismissed these claims of a conspiracy of "replacist" elites as rooted in a misunderstanding of demographic statistics and premised upon an unscientific, racist worldview. [50] [51] [52]

Inspired attacks

Fears of the white race's extinction, and replacement theory in particular, have been cited by several accused perpetrators of mass shootings between 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the Australian terrorist responsible for the mass shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019, that killed 51 people and injured 49, named his manifesto The Great Replacement. [53] [54] . [53]

Patrick Crusius, the suspect in the 2019 El Paso shooting, posted an online manifesto titled The Inconvenient Truth alluding to the "great replacement" [55] and expressing support for "the Christchurch shooter" minutes before the attack. [56] It spoke of a "Hispanic invasion of Texas" leading to "cultural and ethnic replacement" (alluding to the Reconquista ) as justifications for the shooting. [55] [54] [56]

The suspect accused in the 2022 Buffalo shooting listed the Great Replacement in a manifesto he had published prior to the attack. [57] [58] [59]

Statistics

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ French: pouvoir/élite remplaciste

References

  1. 1 2 Meer, Tom van der; Tolsma, Jochem (2014-07-30). "Ethnic Diversity and Its Effects on Social Cohesion". Annual Review of Sociology. 40 (1): 459–478. doi: 10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043309 . hdl: 2066/133583 . ISSN   0360-0572.
  2. ↑ Delanty, Gerard, ed. (2006-10-03). Europe and Asia beyond East and West. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203963104. ISBN   978-1-134-18141-4.
  3. ↑ Therborn, Göran (1987). "Migration and Western Europe: the Old World Turning New" . Science. 237 (4819): 1183–1188. Bibcode:1987Sci...237.1183T. doi:10.1126/science.237.4819.1183. ISSN   0036-8075. JSTOR   1699515. PMID   17801641.
  4. ↑ "How the Immigration Act of 1965 Changed the Face of America". HISTORY. 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  5. ↑ Chow, Emily; Keating, Dan (2013-05-20). "The state of U.S. immigration". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  6. ↑ Tarumoto, Hideki (2023-03-27), "Considering Super-diversity in Immigration: Post-Western Sociology and the Japanese Case", Handbook of Post-Western Sociology: From East Asia to Europe, Brill, pp. 664–676, ISBN   978-90-04-52932-8 , retrieved 2023-11-19
  7. ↑ Caldwell, Christopher (2009-07-28). Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-385-52924-2.
  8. ↑ Meyers, Eytan (2002). "The causes of convergence in Western immigration control" . Review of International Studies. 28 (1): 123–141. doi:10.1017/S0260210502001237. ISSN   1469-9044.
  9. ↑ Azarnert, Leonid V. (2010-12-01). "Immigration, fertility, and human capital: A model of economic decline of the West". European Journal of Political Economy. 26 (4): 431–440. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2010.03.006. hdl: 10419/38999 . ISSN   0176-2680.
  10. ↑ Venturi, Richard. "Immigration in the West and Its Discontents". www.strategie.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  11. ↑ Hochschild, Jennifer; Mollenkopf, John (2009). Delivering Citizenship. Berlin, Germany: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung.
  12. ↑ Joppke, Christian (1998-02-12). Challenge to the Nation-State: Immigration in Western Europe and the United States. OUP Oxford. ISBN   978-0-19-152193-5.
  13. ↑ Gerstle, Gary (2001). American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (REV - Revised ed.). Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvc775dm. ISBN   978-0-691-17327-6. JSTOR   j.ctvc775dm.
  14. ↑ "Migration and Cultural Change". www.cato.org. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  15. ↑ "Origins and destinations of European Union migrants within the EU". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  16. ↑ Belot, Michèle; Ederveen, Sjef (2012). "Cultural barriers in migration between OECD countries". Journal of Population Economics. 25 (3): 1077–1105. doi:10.1007/s00148-011-0356-x. hdl: 20.500.11820/d70060d4-9363-450f-8133-94a9e762799d . ISSN   0933-1433. JSTOR   41488379.
  17. ↑ "Record migration sparks backlash in wealthy nations". Axios.
  18. ↑ Baldwin-Edwards, Martin; Schain, Martin A. (1994). "The politics of immigration: Introduction" . West European Politics. 17 (2): 1–16. doi:10.1080/01402389408425011. ISSN   0140-2382.
  19. 1 2 Porter, Eduardo; Russell, Karl (2018-06-20). "Migrants Are on the Rise Around the World, and Myths About Them Are Shaping Attitudes". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  20. ↑ Haltinner, Kristin; Hogan, Jackie (2017), "Floods, Invaders, and Parasites: Immigration Threat Narratives and Right-Wing Populism in the USA, UK and Australia", National Identity in an Age of Migration, Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781315543048-7 (inactive 12 July 2025), ISBN   978-1-315-54304-8 , retrieved 2023-11-23{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  21. ↑ Fairless, Tom (2023-07-08). "Immigration Backlashes Spread Around the World" . The Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660. Archived from the original on 8 Jul 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  22. ↑ Connor, Phillip; Passel, Jeffrey S.; Krogstad, Jens Manuel (13 November 2019). "How European and U.S. unauthorized immigrant populations compare". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  23. ↑ Gramlich, John (16 January 2019). "How Americans see illegal immigration, the border wall and political compromise". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  24. ↑ "Migration policy: three things to know about 'Fortress Europe'". ODI: Think change. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  25. ↑ Vives, Luna (2016-03-01). "The European Union–West African sea border: Anti-immigration strategies and territoriality" . European Urban and Regional Studies. 24 (2): 209–224. doi:10.1177/0969776416631790. ISSN   0969-7764.
  26. ↑ "Islam in the West: From Immigration to Global Islam" (PDF). Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review.
  27. ↑ Gould, Eric D.; Klor, Esteban F. (2016). "The Long-run Effect of 9/11: Terrorism, Backlash, and the Assimilation of Muslim Immigrants in the West" . The Economic Journal. 126 (597): 2064–2114. doi:10.1111/ecoj.12219.
  28. ↑ "The role of Islam in European populism: How refugee flows and fear of Muslims drive right-wing support". Brookings. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  29. ↑ Morgan, George (2016-04-22). Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-12772-7.
  30. ↑ Voas, David; Fleischmann, Fenella (2012-08-11). "Islam Moves West: Religious Change in the First and Second Generations" . Annual Review of Sociology. 38 (1): 525–545. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145455. ISSN   0360-0572.
  31. ↑ Algan, Yann; Bisin, Alberto; Manning, Alan; Verdier, Thierry, eds. (2012). Cultural Integration of Immigrants in Europe. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660094.001.0001. hdl:20.500.12657/33862. ISBN   978-0-19-966009-4.
  32. ↑ "Assimilation, Security, and Borders in the Member States". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  33. ↑ Leiken, Robert S. (2005). "Europe's Angry Muslims" . Foreign Affairs. 84 (4): 120–135. doi:10.2307/20034425. ISSN   0015-7120. JSTOR   20034425.
  34. ↑ Ivarsflaten, Elisabeth (2005). "Threatened by diversity: Why restrictive asylum and immigration policies appeal to western Europeans" . Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties. 15 (1): 21–45. doi:10.1080/13689880500064577. ISSN   1745-7289.
  35. ↑ Ata, Abe W. (2020-09-22). Muslim Minorities and Social Cohesion: Cultural Fragmentation in the West. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-000-09647-7.
  36. ↑ Johns, Michael (2014-02-27). The New Minorities of Europe: Social Cohesion in the European Union. Lexington Books. ISBN   978-0-7391-4950-8.
  37. ↑ Bracke, Sarah; Aguilar, Luis Manuel Hernández (2020). "'They love death as we love life': The 'Muslim Question' and the biopolitics of replacement". The British Journal of Sociology. 71 (4): 680–701. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.12742 . ISSN   1468-4446. PMC   7540673 . PMID   32100887.
  38. ↑ Bowles, Nellie (18 March 2019). "'Replacement Theory,' a Racist, Sexist Doctrine, Spreads in Far-Right Circles". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019. Behind the idea is a racist conspiracy theory known as 'the replacement theory,' which was popularized by a right-wing French philosopher.
  39. 1 2 "Replacement theory". Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived from the original on 18 May 2024. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  40. ↑ Atkins, Tiffany D. (2023–2024). "Media Vigilante Violence: The Formula for American Atrocity" (PDF). University of Louisville Law Review. 62: 685. In July 2022, Tucker Carlson, the once-popular host of the Fox News' show, 'Tucker Carlson Tonight,' ended a segment that discussed the Biden administration's foreign policy by saying: 'The great replacement? Yeah, it's not a conspiracy theory. It's their electoral strategy.' With this startling statement, Carlson took a debunked conspiracy theory, espoused by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists alike, and spread it to millions of viewers via his mainstream media platform.
  41. ↑ Ferral, Katelyn (1 March 2024). "Undocumented immigrants are not proof of a scheme to replace whites with nonwhites". PolitiFact. The 'great replacement theory' is a debunked conspiracy theory ... .
  42. ↑ Feola, Michael (2020). "'You Will Not Replace Us': The Melancholic Nationalism of Whiteness". Political Theory. 49 (4): 528–553. doi: 10.1177/0090591720972745 . ISSN   0090-5917. This article addresses recent strains of white nationalism rooted within anxieties over demographic replacement (e.g., 'the Great Replacement').
  43. 1 2 3 Taguieff (2015), PT71 Archived 28 May 2024 at the Wayback Machine .
  44. ↑ Baldauf, Johannes (2017). Toxische Narrative : Monitoring rechts-alternativer Akteure (PDF) (in Dutch). Berlin: Amadeu Antonio Stiftung. p. 11. ISBN   978-3-940878-29-8. OCLC   1042949000. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2018. ...this narrative is highly compatible with concrete conspiracy narratives about how this replacement is desired and planned, either by 'the politicians' or 'the elite,' which-ever connotes Jewishness more effectively.
  45. ↑ Korte, Barbara; Wendt, Simon; Falkenhayner, Nicole (2019). Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Contemporary Culture. Routledge. PT176. ISBN   978-0429557842. This conspiracy theory, which was first articulated by the French philosopher Renaud Camus, has gained a lot of traction in Europe since 2015.
  46. ↑ Fourquet (2016), PT29 Archived 11 July 2024 at the Wayback Machine .
  47. ↑ Froio, Caterina (21 August 2018). "Race, Religion, or Culture? Framing Islam between Racism and Neo-Racism in the Online Network of the French Far Right". Perspectives on Politics . 16 (3): 696–709. doi:10.1017/S1537592718001573. S2CID   149865406. ...the conspiracy theory of the Grand remplacement (Great replacement) positing the 'Islamo-substitution' of biologically autochthonous populations in the French metropolitan territory, by Muslim minorities mostly coming from sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb
  48. ↑ Bergmann (2021), pp. 37–38: "The term 'The Great Replacement' rose to new prominence when a deeply controversial French philosopher, Renaud Camus, used it for the title of his book published in 2011. Camus mainly focused on France, but he argued that European civilisation and identity was at risk of being subsumed by mass migration, especially from Muslim countries, and because of low birth rates among the native French people. (...) It found support widely in Europe and was, for instance, entangled in the more general White Genocide conspiracy theory, which nationalist far-right activists have upheld on both sides of the Atlantic.
  49. ↑ Richard Alba, The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream (Princeton UP, 2020) doi:10.1515/9780691202112 Archived 11 July 2024 at the Wayback Machine
  50. ↑ Jenkins, Cecil (2017). A Brief History of France. Little, Brown Book Group. PT342. ISBN   978-1-4721-4027-2. As for the grand replacement, this has been widely seen as a paranoid fantasy, which plays fast and loose with the statistics, is racist in that it classes as immigrants people actually born in France, glosses over the fact that around half of immigrants are from other European countries, and suggests that declining indigenous France will be outbred by Muslim newcomers when in fact it has the highest fertility rate in Western Europe, and not because of immigration.
  51. ↑ Buncombe, Andrew (17 May 2022). "Inside the data that debunks the 'Great Replacement' theory". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  52. ↑ Rogers, Kaleigh (26 May 2022). "The Twisted Logic Behind The Right's 'Great Replacement' Arguments". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  53. 1 2 Heim, Joe; McAuley, James (15 March 2019). "New Zealand attacks offer the latest evidence of a web of supremacist extremism". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 18 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019. Camus, now 72, told The Washington Post that he condemns the Christchurch attacks and has always condemned similar violence. [...] Camus added that he still hopes that the desire for a 'counterrevolt' against 'colonization in Europe today' will grow, a reference to increases in nonwhite populations.
  54. 1 2 Darby, Luke (5 August 2019). "How the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory has inspired white supremacist killers". The Telegraph. London.
  55. 1 2
  56. 1 2 Arango, Tim; Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas; Benner, Katie (3 August 2019). "Minutes Before El Paso Killing, Hate-Filled Manifesto Appears Online". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 September 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019. Available via The Irish Times Archived 4 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine .
  57. ↑ McKinley, Jesse; Traub, Alex; Closson, Troy (May 14, 2022). "Gunman Kills 10 at Buffalo Supermarket in Racist Attack". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
  58. ↑ Stanley-Becker, Isaac; Harwell, Drew (May 15, 2022). "Buffalo gunman was inspired by racist theory underpinning global carnage". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  59. ↑ Collins, Ben (May 14, 2022). "The Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect posted an apparent manifesto repeatedly citing 'Great Replacement' theory". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  60. ↑ Connor, Philip (18 March 2018). "At Least a Million Sub-Saharan Africans Moved to Europe Since 2010. Sub-Saharan migration to the United States also growing". Pew Research Center . Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  61. ↑ Kumar, Rajiv (13 August 2023). "Why Are Indians Relinquishing Citizenship, and Where are They Heading? Should Govt Be Concerned?". news18.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  62. ↑ Haugen, Heidi Østbø; Speelman, Tabitha (22 January 2022). "China's Rapid Development Has Transformed Its Migration Trends". migrationpolicy.org. Migration Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 16 May 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2024.

Works cited

  • Bergmann, Eirikur (2021). "The Eurabia Conspiracy Theory". Europe: Continent of Conspiracies: Conspiracy Theories in and about Europe. Routledge. pp. 36–53. ISBN   978-1-000-37339-4.
  • Fourquet, Jérôme (2016). Accueil ou submersion ?: Regards européens sur la crise des migrants (in French). Éditions de l'Aube. ISBN   978-2-8159-2026-1.
  • Taguieff, Pierre-André (2015). La revanche du nationalisme: Néopopulistes et xénophobes à l'assaut de l'Europe (in French). Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN   978-2-13-072950-1.

Further reading

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