The European Union was conceived primarily to promote economic cooperation and free trade, but its programs have social implications as well. As population patterns change across Europe, attitudes toward immigration and gender roles are also evolving. Immigration, especially by people of the Muslim faith, is a source of apprehension, perhaps because these days few Europeans identify themselves as belonging to any religious faith and they are left uncomfortable by shows of religious fervor.

Until the mid-1950s, the net flow of migrants was out of Europe, to the Americas, Australia, and elsewhere. By the 1990s, the net flow was into Europe. In the 1990s, most of the European Union (plus Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) implemented the Schengen Accord, an agreement that allows free movement of people and goods across common borders. The accord has facilitated trade, employment, tourism, and most controversially, migration within the European Union. The Schengen Accord has also indirectly increased both the demand for immigrants from outside the European Union and their mobility once they are in the European Union (Figure 4.23). 92. AFTER 50 YEARS, EUROPE STILL COMING TOGETHER

Attitudes Toward Internal and International Migrants and Citizenship Like citizens of the United States, Europeans have ambivalent attitudes toward migrants. The internal flow of migration is mostly from Central Europe into North, West, and South Europe. These Central European migrants are mostly treated fairly, although prejudices against the supposed backwardness of Central Europe are still evident. Immigrants from outside Europe, so-called international immigrants, meet with varying levels of acceptance.

International immigrants often come both legally and illegally from Europe’s former colonies and protectorates across the globe. Many Turks and North Africans come legally as guest workers who are expected to stay for only a few years, fulfilling Europe’s need for temporary workers in certain sectors. Other immigrants are refugees from the world’s trouble spots, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, and Sudan. Many also come in illegally from all of these areas.

While some Europeans see international immigrants as important contributors to their economies—providing needed skills and labor and diminishing the impact of low birth rates—many oppose recent increases in immigration. Studies of public attitudes in Europe show that immigration is least tolerated in areas where incomes and education are low. Central and South Europe are the least tolerant of new immigrants, possibly because of fears that immigrants may drive down wages that are already relatively low. North and West Europe, with higher incomes and generally more stable economies, are the most tolerant. The European Union is increasing its efforts to curb illegal immigration from outside Europe while encouraging EU citizens to be more tolerant of legal migrants.

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The deepening alienation that has boiled over in recent years among some Muslim immigrants and their children—resulting in protests, riots, and sometimes even terrorism—relates primarily to the systematic exclusion of these less assimilated Muslims from meaningful employment, from some social services, and from higher education. In the wake of protests by Muslim residents, investigations by the French media revealed that the protestors’ complaints were indeed legitimate. However, many Europeans, unaware of the extent to which their own societies discriminate against and stigmatize Muslims, have come to view Muslim protesters as simple malcontents. Meanwhile, young Muslims born in Europe who have never known life in any other place and have been schooled in the lofty ideals of the European Union harbor the greatest resentment against the constricted opportunities they face.

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In some cases, conflicts have also arisen over European perceptions of cultural aspects of Islam, such as the hijab (one of several traditional coverings for women). For example, in France in 2004, wearing of the hijab by observant Muslim schoolgirls became the center of a national debate about civil liberties, religious freedom, and national identity. French authorities wanted to ban the hijab but were wary of charges of discrimination. Eventually all symbols of religious affiliation were declared illegal in French schools (including crosses and yarmulkes, the Jewish head covering for men).

102. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE FACING TEST IN BRITAIN

103. LONDON’S MEGA MOSQUE STIRS CONTROVERSY

Gender roles in Europe have changed significantly from the days when most women married young and worked in the home or on the family farm. Growing numbers of European women are working outside the home, and the percentage of women in professional and technical fields is rising rapidly (Figure 4.25). Nevertheless, European public opinion among both women and men largely holds that women are less able than men to perform the types of work typically done by men and that men are less skilled at domestic, caregiving, and nurturing duties. In most places, men have greater social status, hold more managerial positions, earn on average about 15 percent more pay for doing the same work, and have more autonomy in daily life than women—more freedom of movement, for example. These advantages for men retain a stronger hold in Central and South Europe today than they do in West and North Europe.

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Certainly, younger men now assume more domestic duties than did their fathers, but women who work outside the home usually still face what is called a double day in that they are expected to do most of the domestic work in the evening in addition to their job outside the home during the day. UN research shows that in most of Europe, women’s workdays, including time spent in housework and child care, are 3 to 5 hours longer than men’s. (Iceland and Sweden reported that women and men there share housework equally.) Women burdened by the double day generally operate with somewhat less efficiency in a paying job than do men. They also tend to choose employment that is closer to home and that offers more flexibility in the hours and skills required. These more flexible jobs (often erroneously classified as part time) almost always offer lower pay and less opportunity for advancement, though not necessarily fewer working hours.

Many EU policies encourage gender equality. Managerial posts in the EU bureaucracy are increasingly held by women, and well over half the university graduates in Europe are now women. Despite this, the political influence and economic well-being of European women lag behind those of European men. In most European national parliaments, women make up less than one-third of elected representatives. Only in North Europe, where several women have served as heads of government, do women come anywhere close to filling 50 percent of the seats in the legislature (Figure 4.26).

Numerous women have held high offices in the United Kingdom, but elsewhere in West Europe, this trend is only beginning. In 2009, Germany reelected Angela Merkel as its first woman chancellor (prime minister); in France, in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy defeated his female opponent Ségolène Royal but then appointed women to a number of French cabinet-level positions. In 2012, fully one-half of newly elected French President François Hollande’s cabinet was female. In 2013, Slovenia chose Alenka Bratušek as prime minister and for the first time elected a parliament that is nearly one-third women. Still, across Europe, women generally serve only in the lower ranks of government bureaucracies, where they implement policy but have limited power to formulate policy.

Although change is clearly underway in the European Union, economic empowerment for women has been slow on many fronts. For example, in 2006, unemployment was higher among women than among men in all but a few countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, the Baltic Republics, Ireland, Norway, and Romania), where the differences were slight—and 32 percent of women’s jobs were part time, as opposed to only 7 percent of men’s jobs. Throughout the European Union, women are paid less thanmen for equal work, despite the fact that young women tend to be more highly educated than young men.

Norway is a recognized global leader in redefining gender in society. It does this by directing much of its most innovative work on gender equality toward advancing men’s rights in traditional women’s arenas. For example, men and women are allowed to share the year of paid parental leave with a newborn or adopted child. This policy recognizes a father’s responsibility in child rearing and provides a chance for father and child to bond early in life.

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