Foreign-born -- United States vs. Europe

From
Europe Needs a New Identity
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/112105.html

Western Europe today has almost as many foreign-born citizens as does the United States. But its countries don't think of themselves as immigrant nations. The centers of society remain tightly knit, insular and largely homogenous.

Theory and practice diverge sharply. Europeans claim to have given up their old national identities, but have they really? France speaks of a republic of values, but scratch beneath the surface and it is a republic of cloistered communities. Other European countries speak of postreligious, postnational identities, but at heart they remain countries where identity is defined by family, community and territory. This is, after all, what so many of us find admirable about Europe. Its communities are rooted in specific places-terroir. People don't move; they give a place a sense of historical continuity. The ties to the land remain deep. But these very traits-seen in those wonderful French movies about the countryside-become deeply oppressive to outsiders struggling to find a place at the table. A recent French study showed that job applicants with "French-sounding names" had 50 times the chance of being interviewed as those with Arab- or African-sounding names.