Customer Reviews

Unsettling Europe

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Most of these profiles are taken from Kramer's work as NYer correspondent in the 1970s, but they show the roots of a key issue still facing the continent: how to integrate and accept immigrants from other parts of the world. For North Americans, such immigration is the basis of our societies, but for Europeans it's a relatively new phenomonon and Kramer was intelligent enough to identify this when it started, in the 1970s. She introduces us to Algerian-French "pied-noir" who move to France, Turks in Sweden and two other cases. The pied-noir piece is especially interesting and illuminating, filling in a lot of gaps about my knowledge of France. The only thing missing is a piece on immigration in Germany, but Kramer covers that in subsequent books on Europe and Germany. All in all, well worth a read. Ahead of its time.

The book provokes mixed feelings. On one hand, a disturbing portrait of immigrants' isolation, but also a story of their courageous (sometimes out of desperation) perseverance in face of overwhelmingly difficult circumstances. You have to leave all your prejudices aside to understand what the author is trying to convey. If you can, you will gain an insight into the sometimes unbearable lives of the immigrants from their point of view: this you may find upsetting, even disturbing. The book also provides an interesting observation on the womens' roles in traditional societies.