Immigration: Europe and the U.S.

An interesting perspective from a Dutch-born, US-based academic on a possible reason why Muslims may have a harder time succeeding and adjusting in Europe: the welfare state in most European countries is a lot more generous and less demanding, and immigrants get trapped in the system for extended periods of time. Interaction outside of one's immediate group tends to be limited to trips to a goverment agency, which doesn't help one's self-confidence. He acknowledges that the Muslim immigrants to the U.S. probably have a higher proportion of middle-class individuals and families.

I could add that an expansive welfare state depends on higher taxes (compared to the U.S.), less-flexible eomployment laws, which means less job creation, thus less opportunity. This is a blog post and not a study, so I have no data to support this!

All of this is anecdotal, and not based on data analysis. I wonder what Economic or Social Science Research has to say about his hypothesis. At this point, I have no feel for whether his hypothesis is true or not.

Listen to the full interview here. It is an interesting perspective on the state of Muslim immigration in the Netherlands (and Europe).