Racism among immigrants?

Sunday, June 11, 2006

This week, I found myself in the city of Antwerp for the first time ever, for a stopover on a Netherlands-Belgium book tour. This is a city with strong anti-immigrant leanings. The right-wing Flemish party, which positions itself openly against foreigners, has a strong bedrock of supporters here and is a city last spotlighted on the world stage for race-motivated murders.

  This week, I found myself in the city of Antwerp for the first time ever, for a stopover on a Netherlands-Belgium book tour. This is a city with strong anti-immigrant leanings. The right-wing Flemish party, which positions itself openly against foreigners, has a strong bedrock of supporters here and is a city last spotlighted on the world stage for race-motivated murders.

  In May of this year, an African woman and her child were injured in a racial attack in the middle of the street. Oddly, at first glance, the city seems quite peaceful. The streets are very calm, with cafes full of happy young people. It is precisely this appearance that is so misleading, though, for underneath the surface, tension is high. I head for a Turkish restaurant in Antwerp after an evening literary event to get myself a coban salad. The television is on inside, tuned to a Turkish channel. A group of Turkish youths are sitting at a table in front of me. Both they and the waiters are watching a Turkish television series. In the corner, a Belgian couple eats Adana kebabs and drinks ayran. The cook on duty has a smiling, happy face. We talk as he prepares my salad. "We used to be able to guess who would act racist towards us. You would be able to see it in the face of a Belgian... The man would be shooting you dirty looks, and you d understand he didn t want you here. But now everything is much more confusing. Now the immigrants themselves look at each other with hate." I ask him, "You mean the immigrants are racist towards each other?"

  He says: "Each immigrant group belittles the others. The Africans don t like the Romanians, the Romanians don t like the Turks and the Turks can t stand the Algerians. Each group accuses the other of ruining the place. And as for the Belgians, they don t like any of us. And now everyone has retreated into their own communities." I ask: "But this is a two-way street, isn t it? You have shut yourself up here in this Turkish restaurant, choosing not to mix with the rest of society. What about the children? Do they at least mix?" As I say this, I indicate the two Turkish children by the side of the cook. They smile at me, with big eyes untainted by judgment. I wonder how long those untainted looks will last. Until what age will they be able to smile at the world with such trust?

  This week, the Centre for European Reform in London published a striking report. It was a report indicating that upper-level education quality was dropping in Europe. It underlined that there was a "brain drain" away from European universities. These centers of learning appear to have lost their old level of attractiveness. These findings are important for the children of Muslim immigrants in Europe. Students are categorized from a very early age based on their abilities. Turkish children in Germany begin their educational journey at a disadvantage. Two-thirds of Turkish children receive only the most basic education here, and a large number of them leave school after a time. If opportunities are not presented to the children of these Muslim immigrants in Europe to climb upwards, the current impasse will only become more unbroachable.