Cultural Differences And Immigration

Cultural Differences: France

Friend Jo mentioned recently that she found many of her French acquaintances very self-centred. Not selfish, indeed many are very generous, but self-centred, as though the world revolves around them. On reflection I decided that I had noticed the same, so was this one of the cultural differences between the French and the English I keep trying to tease out (always recognising the danger of generalising on the basis of a small sample)? Of course both cultures are changing all the time but I think there is a recognisable difference here.

In this respect the English culture taught, if not always practised, is one of abnegation, self-subordination to the goals of the group. It is a reason why the English, in general, have made good team players but been less successful at individualist sports. When I was young and playing football in France I noticed that indivudal technical ability seemed to be prized more than efforts directed at team play. A brass-band consultant friend, who does a lot of work in France, recently complained that his chief difficulty was turning a collection of very competent musicians who all considered their role to be soloists into a cooperating band. An American friend in Senegal, coaching basket ball teams, said that his main difficulty was trying to get players to use team play to get close to the basket before shooting rather than attempting highly speculative efforts from 30 metres (which were much more appreciated than team play if they succeeded). It is noticeable that conversations in shops are sacrosanct, however many people are waiting to be served; first, the server must finish his/her conversation. That is not difficult to accept in a small village environment but may explain also why service is so bad in large stores and chains: the idea that service to the customer, the third party, comes first is alien. So maybe Jo is on to something here although, as I have said, both cultures are changing.

Immigration

That led me to think about cultural differences in the wave of immigrants entering Europe. Let there be no doubt, once large numbers of African and Middle Eastern immigrants are installed in Europe there will be huge cultural differences to be overcome and, more worryingly, the potential for very destructive social unrest.

Two recent stories in the press caught my eye. One was of an adolescent Afghan, housed in a hostel in Germany, who was going hungry because he refused to eat at a table at which women were also sitting (which was normally the case). The other concerned African refugees (all men) housed in a villa in a small town in Italy who were becoming disruptive in the town. They had two major complaints; the first was that they had nothing to do all day, the second was that they needed a cleaner to clean the villa (African men couldn't be expected to clean it).

These are pretty trivial examples of what can be expected to follow. A survey of recent immigrants by a qualified agency in Germany found that around 50% were essentially unemployable, because of lack of skills and lack of understanding of the language. These are primarily young to middle-aged people, who may have escaped intolerable conditions, but what is to be their future? How can they earn any sort of living, for themselves and their families, particularly if benefits are curtailed, outside of illegal activities of one sort or another? Moreover they come from countries/cultures where corruption is endemic, a way of life. And what will the reaction of the indigenous population be to that? And what are the likely political consequences? “Simple” cultural differences have already resulted in numerous court cases in the UK with respect to forced marriages and so-called “honour” killings. Add to that kind of cultural mismatch a potent mix of unemployment, poverty and resultant desperation and what do you get? Syrian refugees may want to return to their original homeland if and when the conflict ends, dependent on the regime then in place, but refugees from other areas (the large majority) will not.

Those who have welcomed and promoted cultural diversity have focussed on the undoubted richness in cultural variety in narrative, song, dances and food. But those are minor, albeit significant, elements. Fundamental differences in terms of life expectations, assumptions on ways of living, acceptable behaviour towards other people of either sex and how society should be run seem to have been overlooked in previous considerations and now need very urgently to be addressed. True, such issues have existed before but never before in such quantity at one time. Will the European democracies be able to cope? There is as yet no sign of them even understanding the problems that lie ahead, let alone preparing to do anything about any of them other than the danger of importing terrorists. The English programme for induction into English culture has never been anything but a horribly bad joke but there is no reason to believe that any other European country recognises and is equipped to deal with these issues. The governmental humanitarian response to the influx of refugees has been mixed but not totally negative. However, the social response could easily become so and if, politically, Europe is to escape a lurch to the extreme right, possibly the disintegration of the EU and who knows what else, somebody had better come up with some answers very quickly. Political leaders are apparently already discussing possible futures for Syria and the surrounding region. They would do well to direct some of their attention homewards also on questions other than just benefits.