We all know that immigration, especially illegal immigration, is a big issue these days. This is true not just in the U.S. but in Europe as well. Further, similar to the heated debates and intensifying anti-immigrant sentiment that many have developed, so too is this happening in Europe, where xenophobic politicians have now become mainstream:

Across Europe, immigration policy -- whether devised to control legal or illegal flows or the separate issue of political asylum -- is no longer seen as a marshy reservoir where far-right fringe parties toss cheap rhetoric to xenophobes. That changed after Sept. 11, and particularly after Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, having suggested that the Netherlands was “full,” was murdered [by an extremist Muslim] in May 2002. . . .

Even so, for a Continent whose demographic growth depends increasingly on immigration, creating more obstacles for immigrants may bear heavy costs in the future. And demonstrators who gathered on the weekend in France to protest the new immigration law, and in Britain at London’s Trafalgar Square for a concert to show solidarity against the ever-bolder presence of the British Nationalist Party (BNP), indicated that even as an electoral strategy, a crackdown on immigrants can be risky.

I can’t say that I’m completely surprised but still rather disappointed nonetheless to see how immigrants (legal and illegal) are increasingly being used as scapegoats all around the world. Whatever happened to the world embracing diversity and multiculturalism? Apparently 9/11 has changed the world that much.

In other words, the culture wars are raging, with no end in sight, unfortunately.