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Immigration, integration, and the problem of discrimination are topics which are often ignored on the stage of international relations and which are instead left to domestic policy makers. Unfortunately, this means that opportunities for collaboration and discussion between Europe and North America are limited in this arena. Yet from July 9-13, 2008, the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration (TFMI) will breathe new life into this subject. Established this year by the GMF and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, TFMI hopes to become "a leading platform for the convening of future decision-makers and an international forum for exchange on crucial immigration and integration issues." In this promising context, let us hope that the barriers which have thus far often stood in the way of transatlantic dialogue around immigration and integration will begin to disintegrate.

The differences between North America and Europe regarding experiences with immigration have often been used as an excuse to explain why strategies on one side of the Atlantic are not applicable on the other. Yet while important differences must not be overlooked, significant and meaningful cooperation should be pursued with more energy. In 2000, the Bertelsmann Foundation, Bertelsmann Group for Policy Research, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States worked collaboratively in the form of a Transatlantic Learning Community to publish a paper entitled Migration in the New Millennium in which they encouraged an exchange of best integration practices across the Atlantic. "Governments," they claimed, "should expand opportunities to share their experiences in facilitating the economic, civic and social integration of immigrants."

Since the publication of that document, September 11th and the bombings in London and Madrid have led the international community to focus on the security dimension of immigration. More often than not, this has meant that the other features of integration have not received the attention they merit. When they do come up, the myths which project America as a country of immigrants and Europe as a continent traditionally without significant immigration are rarely questioned, therefore little collaborative progress is made.

Rather than focusing on myths, Europeans and Americans need to critically examine their current policies and practices regarding how they incorporate difference into their societies. The question, as Hartmann and Gerteis (link requires JStor subscription) so aptly state, "is not whether or not difference is acceptable, but rather how difference will be dealt with in increasingly diverse, contemporary societies." In answering this question, a comparison between the experiences and similarities of Europe and the United States is quite constructive.

The majority of the policy recommendations made by the Transatlantic Learning Community are still very relevant, and especially given the vast sums currently being invested into security in the context of immigration, they should be reconsidered as a very effective way to minimize costs and ensure more effective integration policies.

When it comes to economic integration, particular attention needs to be placed on fostering immigrants' language acquisition, providing opportunities for immigrant children, providing immigrant entrepreneurs with knowledge about their host country's laws, combating discrimination, and reducing immigrant employment restriction. In the realm of civic incorporation, both facilitating citizenship and encouraging new citizens to engage in the civic and social aspects of their new countries are crucial. Finally, with regard to social and community relations, programs which promote tolerance, address conflict mediation, or foster positive police-immigrant relations are important. Additionally, the prosecution of hate crimes and discrimination against immigrants must be vigorously pursued.

All of these strategies to encourage integration are applicable in North America as well as Europe, and if a more regular exchange of information regarding best practices and integration of policies across the Atlantic were to take place, then creative solutions to immigration and integration problems could be shared and applied more widely. The native populations, as well as immigrants in both North America and Europe, would benefit.

IntegrationXchange, which is administered by CDS International and the Körber Foundation, is one of the few programs currently in place that is working in a truly transatlantic fashion to share ideas about integration. The program draws "on the historical immigration connection between Hamburg and New York and the common challenges posed by the presence in both cities of large immigrant communities." It offers exchange opportunities for immigrant service practitioners from either city and emphasizes many of the same areas which the Transatlantic Learning Community highlighted. Importantly, they pay special attention to local level issues. The larger European and American societies do not need to change in any way for programs such as IntegrationXchange to be successful. The issues which they address transcend borders and are applicable despite the significant differences which exist between Europe and North America, and it is possible to take immediate action in applying best practices regarding such things as education and language proficiency.

In the long run, it also makes sense to analyze the differences between the two societies and to assess whether, for example, Europe could learn from the American notion of inclusive patriotism or whether America's sink-or-swim approach to social support actually does pressure immigrants to integrate themselves. Yet even without tackling these larger issues, Europe and America could increase the level of wellbeing on both sides of the Atlantic by working more closely on the economic, civic, and social integration of immigrants. Hopefully, the 2008 Transatlantic Forum on Migration & Integration will both reinvigorate and further this debate.

Crystal Oswald-Herold is an editorial intern at atlantic-community.org. She studies international politics at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and has previously worked at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Washington, DC.