America’s Immigration Advantage

Europe and the US have different perspectives on immigration and therefore different problems, according to immigration scholar Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco. Immigrants typically receive good educations on both sides of the Atlantic, but immigrants in Europe face intense discrimination in the labor market. European immigration is driven by asylum-seeking and marriage, so ethnic groups tend to endure, whereas US immigrants rarely hesitate to marry outside their own ethnicity. Finally, unlike Europe, the US history centers on immigration, with the contributions of immigrants widely recognized and celebrated. As legislators in the US and the EU legislators ponder new proposals, US angst centers narrowly on illegal immigration, while Europeans fret about all matters of assimilation. Suarez-Orozco suggests that the broad nature of European concerns over immigration tend to complicate resolution. – YaleGlobal