From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: POPULATION: European racism seen as
Originator: @gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 17:10:54 GMT

Title: POPULATION: European racism seen as a harsh reality


an inter press service feature

by marcel garces

madrid, aug 19 (ips) -- millions of russians and north africans
might invade europe in the next few years owing to the political
instability and misery in their own countries resulting in
unpredictable consequences, emigration specialists have warned.

this avalanche of displaced people could increase present
xenophobic (showing extremely strong dislike of people from other
countries) and racist tendencies which already exist in the 12
european community countries, says the vice rector of the
complutense university of madrid, rafael puyol.

lecturing on 'immigration, xenophobia and racism' to a summer
seminary in el escorial, near madrid, puyol said the question is
taking on dramatic dimensions because russia and the former soviet
republics alone may have as many as 40 million people eager to
leave their countries.

puyol said that unless the five maghreb countries -- morocco,
algeria, tunis, libya and mauritania -- created jobs and improved
living standards for 25 million people up to the year 2000, masses
of arabs will end up in europe, spain in particular.

about half of the 379 million inhabitants of the ec believe the
number of immigrants is ''excessive'', though they only account
for 2.2 percent of the total population of the community, he
noted.

some 80 percent of the immigrants live in the richest ec
countries like germany, france, britain and italy. the numbers
have already caused alarm especially in big urban centres because
of the problem of unemployment and the lack of adequate housing.

puyol said one factor that was worrying those in some political
and social circles was the demographic growth of the maghrebians
in contrast to the europeans whose deaths virtually exceed births.
by the year 2000, the majority of europeans will be over 60.

''racist and xenophobic movements feed on people's fear of losing
their high standard of living, their fear that immigrants will
take over their jobs, and on the general ignorance and prejudice
against other cultures,'' he emphasised.

''what is worrying is that every day xenophobia is becoming more
deeply rooted among the youth,'' lamented puyol.
(more/ips)

population: european racism seen as a harsh reality(2-e)

population: european (2)

for example, he said, french young people are agreeing more and
more with the ultra-rightist national front led by jean marie le
pen, who advocates ''the right of blood, that is, the priority of
the french when it comes to hiring people''.

''in spain we still haven't reached the level of some other
european countries where racism and xenophobia are concerned, but
both are on the increase, and the intolerance of the spaniards is
becoming more obvious,'' warned puyol.

juan salcedo, professor of sociology at the complutense, who is
also participating in the seminar on ''immigration, xenophobia and
racism'', said that segregationist theories have prevailed in
europe since the start of the century.

he said there were two broad currents of ''racist opinion'' in
europe, the anglo-dutch and the central european.

the first led to apartheid, still in force in segregationist
south africa where it is institutionalised, with whites ruling
over blacks.

the second marginalises ethnic minorities and proposes creating
ghettos. it goes as far as killing those judged as ''inferior'' in
contrast to apartheid which stops at domination.

''what identifies all european racists is a belief that the
perfect race is a white, anglo-saxon and protestant,'' noted
salcedo.

the book 'on the social origins of the europeans', dedicated to
proving the racial 'purity' of citizens of member countries of the
ec is now enjoying a big ''nationalist'' success in libraries in
central europe.

spain too has carried out studies on racial purity from as early
as the historic dispute known as the ''debate of valladolid,'' on
whether american indians had a soul and could be considered
''human''.

when father bartolome de las casas won the debate that those
indians had a soul, emperor charles v decreed that the indians in
the spanish colonies too had souls and could become christians.

in 1908 the ''anthropological society'' was founded in spain, but
shortly after was dissolved by the authorities. one of its aims
was to demonstrate that the ''spanish race'', the descendants of
the iberos, was superior to the rest of the world.

the present wave of xenophobia and racism in several european
countries is closely linked to socio-economic problems, according
to salcedo.

''these old ghosts began to re-emerge in the 1960s and 1970s when
there was mass immigration of workers by european countries for
cheap labour,'' he said. (end/ips/pr/trd/mg/ego/tt/cdm/92)



-- 
Mr. Aaron (Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us) -- posting from Evanston, Illinois


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