The Many Faces of Europe

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Push People Up
The biggest source of conflict in a multicultural society isn't segregation, race or religion — it's money. "The areas where there is the biggest tension in Britain are not the most diverse areas," says the Young Foundation's Mulgan, "but areas where a particular model of male, usually full-time, well-paid employment, has disappeared and been replaced with much less secure employment." Europe's minorities suffer, on average, more than double the rate of unemployment as whites. But a blanket affirmative-action policy like the kind in place in the U.S. is a nonstarter in Europe. "There is such diversity among different minorities, with some greatly outperforming even the white majority, that to have laws that just benefit you because of the color of your skin is mad," says Mulgan. In Britain, the average salary for an Indian is almost double that of a Pakistani and, across Europe, the Chinese do better at work and at school than native whites. So an employer could fill its antidiscrimination quota and still do nothing to help minorities at the bottom of the ladder.

The best way to make minorities more upwardly mobile is to get specific — and creative. The French are teaching Chinese to schoolchildren in deprived neighborhoods so they can get into the global economy. Meanwhile, in Britain, research shows that the biggest hurdle for young Pakistani and Bangladeshi males isn't a lack of skills, but a mix of discrimination and trouble getting access to networks. So job centers in predominantly Asian neighborhoods are trying to convince employers to offer more entry-level jobs or take in more provisional employees for some workplace experience. Instead of relying on sweeping national policies and laws aimed at all minorities, schemes tailored to groups within groups can better match the right people with the right jobs.

In schools, too, the best way to make sure everyone gets to the same place may be to treat them differently. An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (o.e.c.d.) study showed that, when tested on their math skills, 15-year-old first-generation immigrants score on average more than one grade level behind their native peers — this despite surveys that show immigrants are more enthusiastic about school than nonimmigrants. Part of the reason, says Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis for the o.e.c.d.'s Directorate for Education, is that many countries put their immigrant students through the same system as everyone else. "Equality has to do with equality of outcomes, not with equality of input," he says. "Nordic countries are highly sensitive to this. Their question is not, How do we do the same thing for all students? but, How do we do the right thing that enables all students to reach their potential?"

Sweden is top of the class when it comes to bridging the learning gap between its immigrants and native Swedes, and some of the reason for that turns on how it handles language. While some countries expect their immigrant students to learn in classes taught in the host language, others combine regular classes with supplementary host-language lessons. Sweden does one better. By law, if there are at least five students from the same country in one district, they have the right to be taught in their native tongue. "And that is a very powerful way to have children value their own cultures, rather than just being confronted with complete novelty," says Schleicher. The effects are subtle but promising. While unemployment among foreign-born citizens in Sweden is still high (around 10%), it's lower than in Germany, France or Belgium. And the proportion of immigrants enrolled in Swedish universities is higher than it was five years ago.