By By: Sujata Dand
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-580043.mp3
Dallas, TX –
(Natural sound - kids)
Sujata Dand, Reporter: Everyday hundreds of children overwhelm the Museum Square in Flanders, Belgium. Their joyful play drowns out the tragic memories that haunt this village. The museum guide grips his hands together tightly. He grew up playing in the same trenches that his great-grandfather fought in.
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| Sujata Dand/KERA |
Tour Guide: It's history We have hundreds and thousands of Brits coming over here to find the roots of their families because every British family has a soldier in line somewhere.
Dand: During WWI, Flanders was the site of sustained battle between Germany and Britain. More than a million were wounded, half a million killed, and at least 100 thousand bodies never identified.
Jim Hollyfield, SMU Professor: The Europeans have had to put it mildly a horrendous experiences with war.
Dand: As the director of the SMU International Tower Studies Program, Jim Hollyfield is a world renowned expert on US - European relations. He's spent the last few years researching the impact of the United State's invasion of Iraq on transatlantic relations.
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| Sujata Dand/KERA |
Hollyfield: I think for this generation of Europeans the looking back at what happened on the first world war, and the second world war with their parents, grandparents and great grandparents dying in the millions, they have a much more skeptical idea about the use of force as a way resolving conflicts and were shocked to see that the Americans were so quick to opt for force and there was very little they could do to restrain that.
Dand: Hollyfield quickly points out, though, that European criticism is relatively cheap considering for decades they have been what he calls free-riding on American power. Without America's military commitment, communism might still rule parts of Europe.
Hollyfield: They can snipe they can sort of throw eggs at the Americans that are out there trying to lead, trying to manage international security, but they don't have to step up to the plate themselves. What would happen in the Middle East if the US were not there? Because the Europeans for example are even more dependent on Middle East oil then we are.
Dand: And, maybe that's why most European leaders tacitly support American foreign policy despite vocal opposition from France and Germany and the European people, who still choose to see us in the image of the gun-slinging American cowboy - independent and spirited, young and hasty.
Gary Weaver, Professor, American University: Very often, Europeans feel like they know everything about Americans because they watch our movies or the they watch CNN and yet they don't realize they get a very distorted image of the US
Dand: Gary Weaver is a professor of International Communications at American University in Washington, D.C.
Weaver: Where we emphasize things like individualism, action, often mellow drama - good against evil, and so forth. And, therefore, they think all Americans are like this and we're not.
Dand: But, Americans don't exactly view Europeans accurately either. It's not uncommon for our cousins across the Atlantic to be characterized as a bunch of pessimistic intellectuals who choose to spend their time analyzing but not acting.
Weaver: The most popular movies in Europe are tragedies. And the most popular novels are tragic novels. There's much more tendency to focus on the past not so much on the future and to see a lot of the gray area in between good and bad. It's a historical-cultural difference.
Dand: And, Weaver says there's some truth in these descriptions especially when you compare American and European immigration policies. Unlike the US, Europe has never thought of itself as a place for immigrants. It was only after WWII, and the continent needed rebuilding - that countries implemented guest worker programs opening the door to mass Muslim immigration. The effect of which is still being felt today
(nats bell rings)
Dand: In between classes, students at Ernst-Abbe Gymnasium fill the halls, rushing to catch up with friends and hurriedly finishing last minute assignments. The majority of teenagers at this top Berlin high school have immigrant parents with little or no education. But, that's not keeping them from going to University.
Funda, student: I, of course, want to study.
Dand: Funda is in her last year of school at Ernst-Abbe.
Funda: And, I don't want that only my husband earn money and I have to sit at home and cook for him and grow up the children.
Dand: Surprisingly, Funda is not planning on living in Germany. Like more than half of her classmates, she wants to leave the country she was born in. This doesn't happen very often in the United States. Experts say that's because the US has strong policies of naturalization which helps most legal immigrants develop a sense of national identity. In Europe, immigrants face much greater resistance.
(nats girls laughing)
Dand: Gunal who was also born in Berlin plan on moving to her parents' home country of Turkey.
Gunal, student: I want to study there or work there. I have a better chance there because I like Turkey. It's my country and I can adapt to the role of to work there, I think.
Dand: Popular German filmmakers Andrea and Thomas Grube want Muslims to feel more at home in Germany. And, they truly believe they can use the media to change the way immigrants are perceived.
(natural sound)
Dand: As they kick back in their art deco flat in Berlin, Andrea describes how their documentaries have given Muslims a voice in German culture.
Andrea Grobe, German filmmaker: How often do we talk about documentaries that are really restructuring a thought or an idea of society, pushing a discussion - it doesn't happen often.
Dand: But, when the conversation gets personal, the couple confesses they're not prepared to send their two young daughters to a school where there will be a majority of Muslim children. Despite economic similarities, the cultural differences are just too great.
Andrea: I don't know what is the right way - in a sense, we follow the paths of our ancestors, in a different way: In a sense of tradition, and learning and curriculum. It's difficult to leave this all behind, and really deep down - I speak honest because I'm not happy about what I say.
Dand: Andrea and Thomas expect it will take decades for Europeans to embrace Muslim integration. But they will continue making German films that show in their words the American dream is possible in Germany. Even if - for now - perception is more important than the reality. For KERA 90.1 I'm Sujata Dand.
Read and listen to the rest of Sujata Dand's immigration series:
A View from the Other Side: The US and Europe
A View from the Other Side: Immigration in Denmark
A View from the Other Side: Philanthropy in Europe
A View from the Other Side: Smoking in Europe
For more information, go to these Web sites:
GMF: The German Marshall Fund of the United States
ELIAMEP (Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy) article