Is the U.S. a largely xenophobic nation?

[Feenix]

That's not true. They don't have the same opportunities as citizens to achieve success. Asians here (in US) do a lot better than those in Europe.

Sure they do, they just don't bother learning the language. It's harder to set up successful businesses when there is a language barrier. You move to another country, you learn the language. Ignorance is not a defense.

Plus, the immigrants in Europe have much better social welfare programs to get into. Where's the motivation to be "successful"?

 

[chamber-music]

The U.S and Europe have different cultures and educational institutions so comparing them does't give a clear indication of anything. Population sizes are also vastly different.

The main difference in education is the U.S doesn't have the centuries old class dominated private school monopoly Britain has.

Your 55 more likely to attend one of the top universities in the UK if your educated at a fee paying private school in the UK. Privately educated children end up taking the majority of top jobs in the UK. Even the British Conservative government cabinet is made up of people who mostly attended £30,000 a year school and whose parents were multimillionaires.

There isn't as big or even much of a scholarship culture in many UK educational schools and Universities.

Education has less to do with where you were born and more to do with who you were born to in the UK.

Almost 65 per cent of privately-educated students who started university in 2006 went on to gain a first or upper-second class degree, against 52.7 per cent of classmates from the state system.

It also emerged that 60.4 per cent of students from fee-paying schools gained a graduate job – a skilled career – compared with just 46.8 per cent of other graduates.

The findings follow a study published earlier this week that warned of a “social chasm” between students from private and state schools on university campuses.

The study – led by researchers at Bristol University and the University of the West of England – found that wealthier students were “far more able to draw upon family resources and had access to influential social networks” to help get work experience or internships during their degree

 

[Lord]

You seriously think that Europe is more tolerant of their immigrants? French society pretty much expects their immigrants to drop their cultural identity in conform to French ideals completely. The situations in European slums of immigrants has become so bad that they have had riots in recent years. Muslims in Europe are far more likely to be radicalized than Muslims in the United States because they feel alienated. And when I talked to Europeans when I was in Europe, they pretty much don't like their immigrants because they see them as moochers of the system.

America's problems with race come more from the fact that our populace is either too afraid or too immature to have a direct and honest talk about race relations. Europe really has no right to criticize the United States when it comes to immigration issues IMO.

The thing is that in Europe we have a different problem with immigrants, or certain minorities for that matter, here there's a big problem with Gypsy comunities, not to generalise them but people's problems with them comes from the fact that they get money for doing nothing depending on the number of kids they have, many assaults are done by gypsies and most (not all of them, mind you) don't try to follow the rules extablished by the country they live in.

Go to any Gypsy colony around here and you will find pirated cable, and most don't work. Certain problems around here in Europe aren't easy to explain, you have to live there to understand why certain problems exist. In my country for example education has gone to the toilet, where students and their parents dictate the rules and no matter what the Teacher allways gets the fault, no matter how much they try, while in the USA people seem to be happy a certain student rebeled against his teacher.

Europeans talking about the USA being xenophobic also comes from the fact that many times the USA acused them of being xenophobic due to issues they don't understand because they don't live there.

 

[American_Hobo]

You seriously think that Europe is more tolerant of their immigrants? French society pretty much expects their immigrants to drop their cultural identity in conform to French ideals completely. The situations in European slums of immigrants has become so bad that they have had riots in recent years. Muslims in Europe are far more likely to be radicalized than Muslims in the United States because they feel alienated. And when I talked to Europeans when I was in Europe, they pretty much don't like their immigrants because they see them as moochers of the system.

America's problems with race come more from the fact that our populace is either too afraid or too immature to have a direct and honest talk about race relations. Europe really has no right to criticize the United States when it comes to immigration issues IMO.

That's actually normal thing to do. So do you want immigrants to do exactly same as they were doing in their old countries and never bother to learn the language or adapt to European cultures? lol

I live in NYC and I almost never even see immigrant parents talking to their children in English. And a lot of them get mad when their kids start talking to them in English. So this is supposed to be a good thing, right?

Anyway, America is one of the least xenophobic countries in the world..along with other Anglophone countries.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think that there are certain things that immigrants should do like at the very least being tolerant of the culture and learning the language of the country you're planning the move to. But I think that it's totally wrong to expect an immigrant to completely drop their unique cultural identity in favor of what is "good" for society. I think it's wrong when the French government banned things like people being able to wear the burqa and cross in schools. I think it's a good thing when immigrants bring their culture to America. I love celebrating things like Cinco de Mayo and visiting Chinatown.

 

[JKKS085]

I think it's wrong when the French government banned things like people being able to wear the burqa and cross in schools.

It goes even further than that actually since burqa for instance is not allowed on any public places. However associating this to racism when its only asking people to keep their religious beliefs in the private sphere is a stretch in my opinion. The stance is pretty simple actually and it has nothing to do with politics. We as a nation think that religion should be contained to the private sphere and shouldn't interfere in your public activities, at all. That doesn't mean the country is not tolerant towards all religions just that when you decide to live in this country you have to accept its set of values. Religious neutrality in the public space being one of them. If you don't, Great Britain is just a channel away.

Honestly we had our fair shares of xenophobia outburts this past few years, particularly with our former conservative government which was an embarrassment on this particular issue and even recently with all the gay-marriage issues. That being said and it comes from a person who travels a lot, I haven't faced in my entire life an administration as hostile and prejudiced as the US administration. I think that people in the US have just no idea how difficult and humiliating the all process to immigrate in the US is. It's just unmatched by any other country in the world I know of.

I'm french, I have lived most of my life in this country. However none of my parents have the french nationality and I saw them throughout the years struggling with the french administration to get their visas (wich we call a "carte de séjour"), I witnessed them waiting in line for hours to get their paper work done but they never felt as humiliated as I did when I received this "special treatment" in 2010 when I was about to spend a semester in Columbia law school. I was roughly interviewed for 4 hours in Roissy by 3 Homeland Security agents, even before I could board my plane. This was a police interview, I was treated like a criminal, a potential terrorist threat just because I have a north african name (and for that matter my father is north african). I missed my plane, they never refunded my $1,300 ticket and I was just left there without any kind of apology when they were forced to admit that I was in fact an upstanding citizen. I've never been through anything like it in my life even with the french police (and I thought these guys were the worst).

That being said my semester in Columbia was awesome, the new yorkers are the best people I've met in my entire life and I probably met my dearest friends in the big apple. I love your police and I had a blast last summer with Miami Metro PD officers. The Boston folks are kinda cool too and very welcoming.

If some of you guys could just drop the cliches about french (and I know sometimes we're not helping) that would be great.

 

[terry78]

^Without the cliches you'd just be another country, man. You gotta leave us a few.

 

[JKKS085]

Granted. But you are setting yourselves for a dissapointment then.
I can't recall how many americans I have shocked when I confessed that I actually don't like cheese.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Oh I think everyone does stereotypes. But then there's a lot of truth in them I can safely say, having traveled the globe.

It's funny though, the rudest person I ever met was Canadian, and the politest person was French.

Smartest man I know is an American, though he does suck at geography, so at least that stereotype holds true.

 

[JKKS085]

It's funny though, the rudest person I ever met was Canadian, and the politest person was French.

^ THIS is shocking !!!

On a more serious note, I experienced exactly the opposite. All my travels allowed me to dispel prejudices and false stereotypes. I think that's the true beauty of the thing finally being able to see people for what they are and not what you expect them to be. That doesn't mean local distinctive features don't exist just that sometimes it's nice to dig a little deeper.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

Granted. But you are setting yourselves for a dissapointment then.
I can't recall how many americans I have shocked when I confessed that I actually don't like cheese.

If you say you don't like wine either, you should probably renounce you French citizenship.

 

[JKKS085]

If you say you don't like wine either, you should probably renounce you French citizenship.

Fortunately I'm quite the wine expert. That should make up for my distate of cheese. So I think I got to keep my citizenship after all

 

[Pink Ranger]

It's funny though, the rudest person I ever met was Canadian, and the politest person was French.

That was your fault, man. Cuttin' in front of me at Arby's ...

 

[terry78]

You people with your syrup and your hockey and your free health care. That extra u you put in your words is proof enough for me.