Immigration

The French political response to the continuing riots has focused most on the need for more multicultural "understanding" of, and public spending on, the disenchanted mass in the country's grim banlieues (suburbs). What has been largely ignored has been the role of France's economic system in contributing to the current crisis. State-directed capitalism may seem ideal for such American admirers such as Jeremy Rifkin, author of The European Dream, and others on the left. Yet it is precisely this highly… more

Samuel Huntington has called it the Lippmann Gap, echoing the American journalist Walter Lippmann in 1943: "Foreign policy consists in bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation's commitments and the nation's power." The historian Paul Kennedy has another name for it: "Imperial overextension." Whatever you call this dangerous disease, the symptoms are clear in the US.

In early 2001, shortly after President George W. Bush was inaugurated and before 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency… more

In the absence of major policy differences between the candidates in this year's mayoral race, character has moved to center stage. The campaigns of Mayor James K. Hahn and his rival, Antonio Villaraigosa, are both out to prove who is more corrupt. But Villaraigosa has an advantage. His ethnicity has shielded him from tough questions about his character.

Four years ago, the councilman ran a high-minded mayoral campaign that eschewed a boogeyman to get his Latino voters to the polls.… more

When Europeans speak of integration, they are usually referring to nations, not immigrants; political entities, not individuals. Last Saturday, the European Union celebrated the integration of 10 new countries into what is now the largest trading bloc in the world. From Ljubljana to Lisbon, officials heralded a new era of peaceful and prosperous international cooperation. But if Europe is to continue to thrive, Europeans must begin to understand integration in a whole new way.

In a word, Europe is imploding.… more

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, U.S. policymakers looked for new ways to understand America's place in the new world. What would be the primary focus of U.S. foreign policy? Who would be our greatest threats? Some academics, among them Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, feared that the absence of an "undesirable other" would weaken our national identity. The United States, Huntington contended, needed an enemy to serve as a foil… more

Race-based affirmative action is doomed. Not because of the Bush administration's recent maneuvering on the subject. Nor because the U.S. Supreme Court may reverse its 1978 Bakke decision allowing universities and colleges to consider race as a factor in admitting students. Rather, its demise is more the consequence of last week's historic announcement by the Census Bureau that Latinos have officially surpassed African Americans as the nation's largest minority.

Just as the civil rights movement derived its moral… more

A generation of large-scale Latin American immigration has turned Spanish into the unofficial second language of the United States.

In early March, Texas held the nation's first-ever gubernatorial debate in Spanish. President Bush never misses an opportunity to show that he, too, can speak the language of Cervantes. Meanwhile, with the press of a button, most automated teller machines can communicate with customers in digital Spanish. From the streets of Miami to Los Angeles, it sometimes feels as if… more

Debates about race, immigration politics, and battles about historical and national identity seem to be gaining momentum not only in the United States but also in many countries in the world. Sometimes it is extremely useful to look at similar cultural and identity tension in other contexts to reflect on our own circumstances -- and thus it pleases us to host one of Germany's most dynamic, young thinkers and politicians in this arena.

Cem Oezdemir has been a Member of… more

While visiting Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century, Henry James wondered how the sweeping tide of immigrants would ultimately affect… more

Even before his historic election to Mexico's presidency in July, Vicente Fox startled U.S. observers when he vowed to govern on behalf of 118 million Mexicans--the … more