Social Exclusion Of Immigrants

With the influx of immigrants into the European Union over the past decade, one of the main areas of increasing concern has been over social exclusion which immigrants face. It is not just the most recent arrivals facing these issues either, this problem spans over the second and third generation as well. From legal policies to xenophobia, immigrants, especially ones of color, face discrimination from many sides and in some cases are unfairly grouped together with terrorism. This essay assesses the contributions of many scholars from various backgrounds on what social exclusion is and what factors are contributing to it in today’s Europe.

First off, a definition of what social exclusion is will be presented and the various factors that

In many instances immigrants are forced to city suburbs filled with low-income housing and few job opportunities. The banlieues that lay to the northeast of Paris, grew up around factories placed there to move the smell away from the city. Kids in the banlieues live in a perpetual presence of weed, girls, gangsters, and Islam. Not the ideal place for a young, confused child to grow up feeling like a true citizen of France. These children “have no sense of history, no sense of where they come from in North Africa, other than localized bits of Arabic that they don’t understand, bits of Islam that don’t really make sense.” (Packer, 2005) The same is seen within the schools in the banlieues. Often underfunded and understaffed, teachers at these school report most children have no sense of cultural identity or where they came from. Combining poverty, relativity low education level, and high employment, the banlieues have become a breeding ground for crime. (Packer, 2005) However in living in these areas, immigrants learn to cope with social exclusion which is explored more

Migration flows have always been managed through amnesties and there is an absence of effective and efficient integration policies. Even second and third generation immigrants to Italy are finding it difficult to finally be integrated into the society they have grown up in. (Rutherford, 2016) In order to favor integration, the Italian State established the “Patto per l’integrazione” (transl.: Integration Agreement) in 2010 (enacted in 2012). Once in Italy, immigrants have to sign an agreement at the moment of the receiving a resident permit and commit themselves to specific integration goals within two years. If the specifications are not met within the time frame, then the state has the right to extradite the immigrant. (Collett and Petrovic,