On other issues like immigration or racism, they are on a MAGA-level. There is no big controversy because it is widely taken for granted that European nations are ethno-states. This is less so in the former colonial powers Britain and France. But they have their own baggage that gnaws at them from within, just like the history of racial segregation undermines the USA.
My passing understanding is that they’d really prefer if the people from their former colonies remained an ocean or two away. Portugal recently passed a new law that made it harder for immigrants (the vast majority are Brazilians) to get a worker visa and full citizenship
Somewhat better but not great. In Spain there seems to be a strong regional divide as well. Northern Spain is having a lot of racism too. Southern Spain has its problems too, but it seems to be less strong and is quite absurd as people look more like Arabs than like White Europeans. I also find this silly with Italians and how they are strong on Fascism again. In Germany they are also considered more as part of the “brown people” than of the “Europeans”.
(I didn’t mean for that to be read as a leading question, BTW. I wasn’t necessarily expecting Spain or Portugal to be different from Britain and France; I just asked about them because they were the other major colonial powers but weren’t mentioned.)
What about Spain and Portugal?
In short: IDK.
My passing understanding is that they’d really prefer if the people from their former colonies remained an ocean or two away. Portugal recently passed a new law that made it harder for immigrants (the vast majority are Brazilians) to get a worker visa and full citizenship
Somewhat better but not great. In Spain there seems to be a strong regional divide as well. Northern Spain is having a lot of racism too. Southern Spain has its problems too, but it seems to be less strong and is quite absurd as people look more like Arabs than like White Europeans. I also find this silly with Italians and how they are strong on Fascism again. In Germany they are also considered more as part of the “brown people” than of the “Europeans”.
Exceptions that prove the rule. Also, just like Greece, tons of migration over millennia because of the Mediterranean sea.
Are they exceptions?
(I didn’t mean for that to be read as a leading question, BTW. I wasn’t necessarily expecting Spain or Portugal to be different from Britain and France; I just asked about them because they were the other major colonial powers but weren’t mentioned.)