Comment by lgbr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lgbr | Hacker News Reader

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Create a culture of migration. The United States and Canada are examples of countries where integration is wonderfully successful [1][2][3]. New citizens to the United States and Canada are welcomed in huge stadiums adorned with flags, families celebrate by making signs, and most everyone would agree that a new citizen is just as much a member of the country as any native born person. Attitudes among native born persons really make a difference, where even the United States' fairly conservative Republican party touts its immigrant supporters at their conventions.

Leaders in Europe have recognized the need for this attitude in the past, but they've acknowledged that it hasn't quite worked out [4][5]. Making the transition from a country with very long family lineages just requires a lot more convincing of the local population.

1: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/assimil... 2: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-near-to... 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/international/fo... 4: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-12371994 5: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-...

> most everyone would agree that a new citizen is just as much a member of the country as any native born person

This is already the case in Europe though; if anything, the racism/discrimination situation seems better than the US, since you don't have to fear for your life if you're black and see a cop.

I'm not sure there is a "nice" solution when some people immigrate for the sole reason of freeloading on the welfare system. I've noticed that in France where some people do not even wish to integrate (the tools are there if you want it), and prefer to stay within their community, relying either on welfare, or will often transition to living off crime (drugs, etc).

>> have to fear for your life if you're black and see a cop.

I am not sure black people in France are not afraid of police. If you exclude ugly episodes like this one:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-polic...

Being black nevertheless means that police stops you very often, speaks at you with some rudness ("tutoiement") and police in general is white and close to far-right mindsets:

https://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=...

With all due respect blacks are afraid even in their own native land of africa, and similarly muslim in many muslim countries. That along with economical betterment is one of the key reasons why ppl immigrate in first place.

You cannot create a culture in other countries.

USA partly managed this internally but it started from migrants not received them. Even then there are major ghettos and cultural differences there.

It is not at all about local populations being welcoming or not but about migrants not wanting or being able to assimilate. Clustering together exacerbates the problem.

You can't compare to USA migration (esp. what happened in the past). Because there was no social security for the immigrants. So you were quite free to enter the country and work, but you had to take care of yourself.

Contrast to eg. Denmark where immigrants can enter the country and do absolutely nothing, and get a full upkeep with free housing, schools and health care.

And here the problem is that some of these people like it that way and don't even try to get a work and teach their children how to get work (eg. by learning the local language and other social norms, like that women are considered equal).

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