Laqueur (Harvest of a Decade: Disraelia and Other Essays, 2011, etc.), the chairman of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, draws on past history and current insight to present a profile of the current European crisis.
The author is more concerned with broader questions of demography and culture, assimilation of immigrants and new approaches to education and social policy than to questions of political and economic integration. Noting that the continent is at a turning point, he writes that an aging population is not reproducing in sufficient numbers to secure its future and has not been for most of the past century. The second- and third-generation immigrants are not sufficiently qualified to maintain the technical and scientific levels of expertise have characterized European production and living standards. Laqueur emphasizes the importance of finding new methods of assimilating immigrant populations, and he does not agree with the view that Islam is one of the principal problems. He specifies the circumstances of their immigration and provides detailed observations of current social activities to show the particular problems that immigrants bring with them from their countries of origin, and how current policies in education and religion have succeeded or failed. Given the reality that Russia is facing the same kinds of problems and that immigration is a concern in the U.S., whatever solutions are found will be globally significant.
A clear guide to understanding and solving a profound set of problems.
