“Dish cities” - cultural enclaves watching satellite television broadcasts from abroad - became a feature in many parts of Europe. Multiculturalism also meant that little effort was made to promote the cultural assimilation of immigrants and their children. Countries such as the Netherlands sought to atone for their insufficient resistance against German deportations of Dutch Jews during World War Two by relaxing immigration restrictions in a quest to realize a ‘multicultural society’. As part of the process of European integration, states began to relax border controls. The horrors of national socialism and fascism were used to discredit the idea of national borders and the nation-state itself. Meanwhile ideas of national sovereignty and national identity came under scrutiny. Jobs and welfare entitlements made Germany preferable to Turkey, France preferable to Algeria. But many workers preferred to stay in Europe and pursued family reunification. ‘Guest worker’ programs were created, notably in Germany, on the assumption that such workers would return home. This story has its origins in the decades of economic recovery after World War Two, when many European countries faced a growing worker shortage for industry work.

But a large influx of new migrants over the last decade, and a significant increase in harassment and sexual assault against women across multiple European countries, make it one that Europe can no longer avoid addressing. The challenge of integrating immigrants from the non-western world is not new to Europe.

Prey by Ayaan Hirsi Ali