Looking at immigration in Europe, focus on Belgium

One of Donald Trump's main platforms is his conservative stance against immigration, primarily focusing on those emigrating from Mexico and Muslim countries. His views have incited heightened feelings of reducing Muslim immigration with many right-wing parties. I have found the topic of Muslim immigration rather interesting while perusing the streets of Paris, and also during my trip to Brussels this past weekend. 

While exploring Brussels, I was not fully prepared to witness the number of homeless refugees lining the streets, begging for money. On multiple occasions, we would walk back to our hotel at night and would pass by mothers with multiple kids, trying to comfort them to sleep against the brisk wind chill, while she continued to ask for passers' spare change. This was a very sobering experience for me, one that I did not expect to get from visiting Brussels. 

After talking with several waiters, tour guides, and others native to Brussels, I came to realize that the citizens of Belgium are very kind, welcoming people. I did some research on immigration in Belgium and found that in the 1960's Belgium welcomed immigrants with open arms, offering them work. Although many still hold this viewpoint, other Belgians are turning more conservative to immigration because they find that many immigrants come for life and never learn French or Dutch, the two most spoken languages in Belgium. This sentiment is also a popular point for those against immigration in America.

Immigration is a very popular topic in almost all western countries and I plan to dig deeper into the subject as I travel to other European cities. 

Here is a National Geographic article showing "haunting" images of child Syrian refugees throughout Europe, I believe it is a very interesting article that everyone should look at, no matter their viewpoints on Syrian immigration.

Belgium, Seat of the European Union

This past weekend, I travelled to Brussels and Bruges.  Brussels was very much a trans-European city.  Being one of the younger nations in Europe, Belgium seemed to be an amalgamation of European culture.  It is not surprising that the European Parliament is seated there.  It was also interesting visiting my first bi-lingual country, with every sign in both French and Dutch.

I found that a surprisingly large amount of people spoke English and were happy to do so.  There was no hesitation and everyone was happy to help us, whether it were directions or attractions to see.  I figure the large influence of English might have to do European Union's presence.  This was not isolated to Brussels, I noticed it in Bruges as well.

One thing that has remained constant in my travels have been the presence of refugees.  They are everywhere, with signs reading "S.V.P." or "Por favor."  Sometimes, they have children.  This weekend, I saw one with an infant.  It did not look very old.  It is heartbreaking to witness, but it is undeniable that the prevalence of this problem throughout Europe has no doubt created a political strain in each nation.  There is not a black and white answer to the influx of displaced people.

I did not see one homeless individual or refugee in Bruges.  My guess is that it is too expensive to stay there, as it was a bit pricy for me.  It will be interesting to see how European nations address this problem in the future, especially after their elections and new administrations in the coming months.

A very interesting article on the far-right in Germany.

Blog Post 2 for Feb 23 Class

I find the subject of Brexit and its possible implications quite interesting. When I initially heard the news that Britain had officially voted to leave the European Union, I was shocked because it was such a drastic change from the status-quo. However, we have discussed in class how the geographic situation of the country has shaped its attitudes. Since Britain has always been an island separated from Europe, it is not surprising that many of the citizens feel isolated from Europe. Also, the fact that Britain continued to use the Pound after they became an EU member shows that they never fully integrated with the union economically. However, these divides are only some of the reasons behind the anti-EU sentiments in Britain.

The anti-immigration attitudes behind Brexit are very reminiscent of the anti-immigration attitudes in America that helped Trump rise to power. I find this comparison interesting because not only are these two countries far apart geographically, but they also contain quite different political systems. Despite this, the two countries seem to have felt the same anti-establishment wave at the same time.

One uncertainty created by Brexit is the question of what will happen to European Union citizens that are living and working in Britain. Personally, I have seen this when I was talking to a girl from Italy who was working in advertising in Britain because she was very concerned about the future. 

Personally, I think that Brexit will have more negative effects than positive. Not only may this decision hurt the economy of Britain by adding obstacles to travel that are not present when traveling within countries in the EU, but this decision could also led to the movement of multinational corporations away from Britain- and these companies would be taking thousands of jobs with them.

I am interested to see how Brexit will affect the borders of the country. If Scotland has another referendum on independence, I wonder if the outcome will be different than it was in 2014.

February 19th, 2016

Before this semester I had never traveled outside of the country. I never understood when people told me that traveling changes your view of the world. I believed I could find out everything I needed to know about the world from a book or the internet. Although I thought I had all the information at my fingertips, I never utilized it. I took several world history classes in high school but never saw the implications of what I was learning. It was hard for me to grasp the relevance and importance of the history of countries like France and Italy when they were so far away.

Now that I am here in Europe and have had the opportunity to visit several different cities, I am much more interested in the history behind the buildings, memorials, and culture that I am surrounded by. It astounds me that many of the monuments I have visited are hundreds of years older than the United States itself. Understanding facts like this has given me a much greater appreciation for my home country and also for my host country. America has become a dominant world power in a very short time and now impacts many European countries that have been around for hundreds of years before.


I have only been living here a month and a half but I have already realized that traveling does change your view of the world. Before this trip I did not enjoy learning history, but visiting different European cities has made me want to find my old history textbooks in order to understand the history behind the streets I am walking on and the city I am living in. I have quickly gained an appreciation of all the history that lies here in Europe and I have been intrigued to see how America is now helping to create more history for these countries.

Southern vs. Northern Europe - Grant

We have learned that there are several imaginary diving lines in Europe, such as the division between North and South along with the East and the West.  While studying in Paris, I have had the opportunity to travel to two major Southern European countries: Italy and Spain.  In January, I spent a weekend in Tuscany visiting Pisa and Florence.  At the end of this week, I have just returned after spending six days in Spain (Barcelona, Granada, and Madrid).

I had heard that Spain and Italy are very alike; I was finally able to witness this.  Other than the Mediterranean-inspired terrain, the people are similar.  Each person I met was nicer than the last: they were open, kind, helpful, and overly-apologetic when they were unable to assist us (one Pisa restaurant owner put the Canadians to shame).  I have not had much time to travel throughout Northern Europe, only having been to Paris and Lyon, but the French tend to be much more standoffish and cold.  This is not to say that they have not been welcoming, but there was a noticeable difference between the cheery demeanors of the Spanish and those of the French.

Despite these cultural differences, I have noticed strong nationalism in all of these nations.  The French culture seems to embody nationalism, they are proud to be French and will defend it no matter the circumstance; they are French and proud.  I witnessed a comparative example of this in Barcelona:  I saw more Catalonia independence flags than I could have ever expected to see.  I understood their was a strong independence movement in the region, but was unaware of its traction.  As European nations lean more nationalistic, I am intrigued to see what will happen to regions such as Catalonia in Spain.

Admittedly, politics and history have never been my thing. As such, my knowledge of Europe and the EU, prior to this semester, was limited to remnants of a semester years ago that left me recognizing words like Charlemagne and the Ottoman Empire but not much else. Additionally, economics is another subject that I have little background knowledge in. I’ve always naively assumed the Euro (and by extension, Europe) was strong simply because a dollar is less than a Euro. I think this semester is going to be enlightening, to say the least.

I live with a host-mom here, an older Lyonnaise woman, and she asked me about this class at dinner last week. When I told her that we were examining the European Union, she suddenly had a lot more to say, beginning with:

 “The EU is well, but maybe, not so well, too.”

She continued by saying the unemployment in France was rising and that suicides were increasing in number. While a lot gets lost in translation between us, I am under the impression that while she doesn’t oppose the idea of the EU, she opposes the current consequences (or what she, at least, sees as consequences) of its state of being.

My host-mom is just one person here, though. I have yet to hear anything about Europe or the EU has a whole in any of my classes or from anyone in passing. But with that in mind, the idea of European pride versus national pride in one of our first reading assignments has stuck with me. I’ve noticed since coming here that the French very much identify with their home-town. They carry a lot of pride for their city, first, and their nation, second. The EU, from what I’ve witnessed so far, is not of drastic importance to anyone. 

I found the article entitled "Are Europeans Giving Up on Europe?" very interesting because it relates to my current situation of living in Spain, where it is very evident that the economy is suffering. There are positive and negative effects to this. For tourists, the poor economy of Spain is advantageous because everything is inexpensive. Illustrating this, all of the retail stores in Spain were having sales for the entire month of January in order to increase business. Furthermore, if a meal costs more than 6 euros, my friends and I are hesitant to buy it because there are countless restaurants with lower prices. 

From what I have personally encountered in Seville, the negative economy does not seem to adversely affect the moods of the people. In one of my classes, the professor said that Spain has the lowest number of suicides out of all the countries in the European Union. He attributed that statistic to the ever-present sun in Spain. In Seville, the winter is short and mild. Almost every day is a sunny day and rainy days are rare. However, the north of Spain is much colder and frequently rains. I have not been there yet so I cannot speak of the culture and attitudes of the people there, but in Seville most of the people I have met have been extremely friendly and happy. I have not personally encountered an attitude of despair, but that does not mean that it does not exist. 

In the article about how the EU came together and why it's falling apart, I found the positive effects of having countries with better economies and countries with worse economies under the same currency system very intriguing. I had always viewed the EU in a negative sense economically because it seemed to me that the countries with better economies, such as Germany, were getting the short end of the stick as the euro was losing value due to the poor economies of other countries in the EU. I never knew that part of the reason that Germany was doing so well is because other countries in the EU had been doing so poorly. Not only were they a market for German products, but they also no longer had national currencies that they could devalue in order to compete with German prices. As an exporter, Germany relied on these other countries to purchase its goods in order to have the great economy and surpluses that resulted. In my conversations with Spaniards and in my classes, the EU has not come up once. For this reason, I cannot write about the attitudes of Spaniards towards the EU yet. However, I will bring up the topic this week so that I can discuss it in my next post.

This is a picture taken in the city center of Seville.

Blog Post 1 for Feb 16 Class

I never paid much attention to the European Union. Frankly, a complicated association an ocean away from my home simply did not impact my daily life enough for me to invest time and energy into understanding it. Brexit, therefore, took me totally by surprise; I had no idea of the depth of the anti-EU feelings brewing throughout Europe.

Now, however, I find myself in the middle of it all. The EU has been mentioned in every single one of my classes, even if it does not seem relevant to the subject material. Consequently, I cannot stop myself from trying to pinpoint exactly when it started to go wrong and what current events mean for its shaky and uncertain future.

One of my classes in Lyon has talked extensively about the various expansions of the EU, particularly the large 2004 absorption of many former Communist countries following the collapse of the Soviet Union. While this expansion is rightly heralded as a victory for democracy, I cannot help but think that this might have been a bad strategic move for the EU. It dramatically increased the number of votes needed to get things accomplished and pushed the center of the EU eastward, further from the former core situated between France and Germany. These newly absorbed countries also took funds away from already struggling economies such as Italy and Spain, and Germany was forced to become the primary monetary support for nearly an entire continent.

Craig Parsons discussed the issue of enlargement in “A Brief History of the EU,” questioning the possible acceptance of Turkey. I am inclined to agree with those that believe Turkish accession would be the “end of Europe,” primarily for the following reasons: (1) If accepted, Turkey’s rapidly growing population could make it the largest EU member, giving it an incredible amount of power and (2) Turkey’s geographic location is quite a bit removed from the center of the EU, meaning that its accession could trigger the end of a purely “European” union. As Parsons poses, would that make Morocco next?

Welcome to the blog for our course this semester. Each week, you're required to post an entry of at least 300 words. Sometimes I will provide a specific prompt; at other times, I'd just like you to reflect on the issues we're discussing in the class and how they relate to your own study abroad experiences. Blog entries are due each week by the beginning of class (8pm European time on Thursdays). 

There are two longer blogs due. One, due by March 30, should be a reflection on the London experience. I'm not looking for a review of what we saw and did, or comments on what you liked/didn't etc. (Happy to get these separately). Rather, please try to relate what we saw and did in London with the issues in the readings dealing with the Brexit and other issues. You will find many links, for example, between the history of London and the current situation regarding the EU and the UK. This blog entry should be appx. 1000 words.

The second longer entry will be due towards the end of the class. Details later.

I would also like you to comment thoughtfully on another student's blog entry at least twice during the semester, and more often if you'd like.

During the weeks when a longer blog entry is due, you are not required to submit your weekly blog entry, but you are free to do so if you wish.

Please remember that this blog should be used for professional/academic purposes only. It is not an appropriate place to share personal travel stories unless they directly relate to the issues you are discussing. Also remember that other members of the class, and perhaps others, will be reading your entries.

Pictures are welcome.

Please make sure you label your entries with your name (as an example, I've labeled this entry with my name). You can create a label by clicking on "Labels" to the right of the editing window. Thanks!