By Nicholas Rigillo Jun 9, 2010, 11:12 GMT
Copenhagen - A couple of years before being elected United States president, Barack Obama said in a podcast that immigrants who entered his country illegally were only doing 'what any of us would do if we had an opportunity for a better life for our kids.'
In Europe, however, voters may more readily identify with what was said back in 1968 by Enoch Powell, a British conservative politician. In his notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech, Powell defied the zeitgeist by complaining about the number of 'negroes' settling in his country.
His overtly racist speech caused an uproar and cost him his job as shadow defence secretary.
But its underlying theme - what scholars refer to as 'cultural anxiety' spurred by the feeling that foreigners pose a threat to the national 'way of life' - no longer resonates only among right-wing extremists.
In fact, in the continent that once sent millions of its sons and daughters to Australia, Argentina and America, anti-immigration has gone mainstream.
'Immigration in this country has been too high for too long ... we will cut it substantially,' British Prime Minister David Cameron, a conservative, said ahead of his victory in last month's general election.
Many believe that Cameron's main rival, Gordon Brown of the Labour Party, lost the election for good after being overheard dismissing a voter - who had complained to him about Eastern Europeans - as 'that bigot woman.'
Experts agree that a combination of low birth rates and an ageing population means Europe will soon need many more immigrants to support its pensioners. And, yet, those who dare say so struggle to make themselves heard.
'Without migration, the European Union will not be able to meet future labour and skills shortages,' the EU's Reflection Group of wise men wrote in a largely ignored May report about Europe's future.
Migration towards Europe is not a new phenomenon - the first time in modern history that the continent saw more people come than go was in the 1960s. Yet, despite subsequent surges in arrivals, Europe's foreign-born residents still total only 43 million, or 8.5 per cent, of the overall population.
Nevertheless, academics say resentment towards foreigners, particularly during times of economic crisis, is on the rise.
Montserrat Guibernau, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, explains in a recent paper on Migration and the Rise of the Radical Right that this resentment is fuelled by the perception among many low- and medium-skilled workers that 'immigrants come to their countries to 'steal' their jobs' and that asylum-seekers receive 'greater social benefits than nationals.'
Unease at multiculturalism was certainly a powerful factor in explaining the strong gains made by extremists like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, Joerg Heider in Austria and Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, around the turn of the century.
But perceived 'softness' towards immigration is now being frequently cited for the unelectability of many of the continent's left-wing parties.
Equally worrying for advocates of an open-door policy, views that not so long ago were considered intolerant are now accepted as the norm.
In November, a referendum calling for the ban of Muslim minarets was backed by nearly 60 per cent of voters in Switzerland. Since then, few people in either France or Belgium have spoken out against plans to forbid Muslim women from wearing burqas.
In Italy, the Northern League has become a steadfast ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, despite the fact that the party's leader, Umberto Bossi, once suggested that the navy should open fire on boats full of 'bingo-bongo' migrants coming from Africa. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni is one of Bossi's closest associates.
And in once tolerant Denmark, the current centre-right administration would not be able to govern without the support in parliament of the virulently anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP).
In fact, immigration has become such a contentious issue that even progressive parties are now toughening their stance towards foreigners.
Denmark's Social Democrats, in opposition since 2001, no longer oppose a government policy that makes family reunifications among immigrants living in Denmark virtually impossible.
In Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, one of the few socialist prime ministers left in Europe, is busy lengthening detention periods for illegals. As recently as 2005, during his first stint in office, Zapatero made waves by legalizing hundreds of thousands of undocumented foreigners.
Were Obama ever to run for office in Europe, he might be better off not speaking so candidly about immigration on the campaign trail.
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