What the Best World Cup Teams Say About Immigration
Immigrants may win at soccer, but they face a handicap in more ordinary endeavors.
Level playing field.
Photographer: Francis Demange/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Three of the four national teams in the World Cup semifinals — France, Belgium and England — are, one might think, icons of European diversity. Immigrants and sons of immigrants are overrepresented on these squads compared with the demographics of these countries as a whole. But one could also see this diversity as a sign that integration isn’t working too well in much of Europe.
France’s starting lineup in Tuesday’s semifinal against Belgium contained five players born overseas or to immigrant parents: Cameroonian-born Samuel Umtiti; N’Golo Kante, whose parents came from Mali; son of Guinean parents Paul Pogba; Kylian Mbappe, whose father is Cameroonian and mother Algerian; and Blaise Matuidi, son of an Angolan father and a Congolese mother. That’s 45 percent of the starting 11. Non-European Union immigrants and their children make up only 13.5 percent of France’s population, according to Eurostat.