REFLECTIONS ON IMMIGRATION TO EUROPE IN LIGHT OF UNITED-STATES IMMIGRATION HISTORY

Recent immigration from the south and the east has undermined the popular belief that Europe is a set of ethnically and culturally unchanging states. In response, Europeans have turned to American history for insights into managing diversity. Extrapolating from America's experience, however, requires careful analysis. The success of the United States in integrating peoples rested partly in political and socioeconomic conditions that may not hold in all places at all times. Moreover, current discussions of "multiculturalism" may be misleading in regard both to the connotations of the term and to the history of immigrant group assimilation in the United States.