on Europe

Martin Varsavsky has a great post on Immigration in Europe.  He's got some great things to say but this was the most telling:

I am a Spaniard. I have the same rights as all the Spaniards. Still Spanish newspapers keep referring to me as the Argentine entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky. Indeed in some cases I have been even called the Jewish entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky. I still have to find one article that refers to me as a Spaniard or even as a Spaniard of Argentine origin. Now don’t get me wrong, I am proud of being Argentine and proud of being Jewish, but now I am a Spanish citizen building businesses in Spain and elsewhere. Why does the American press write about me as a Spanish entrepreneur and the Spanish press as an Argentine entrepreneur? 

I have a friend who is French who is a great Silicon Valley entrepreneur.   He was born in France but his parents were from Tunisia (he's Jewish).    He was born in France so he has no accent.   But he told me that he ultimately left France because everyone he met treated him as a Tunisian and not French.   Even though he was born in France, the French still felt he was an immigrant.   Now, he says is his very strong French accent, people in Silicon Valley treat him as an American.