Satellite dishes and foreigners

An article I read a while back in "352" (an English language periodical in Luxembourg) about the difficulties some people experience in getting their neighbours to let them mount satellite dishes on their balconies prompted me to write a letter about the underlying causes for the problems. Here, in slightly changed form, are the contents of that letter.

The most-used argument against satellite dishes is aesthetic. I agree that they make city streets even more cluttered than they already are, but I do think that within 10 or 20 years they will cease to bother most of us, much in the same way we have learned to ignore other things that were once reviled as eye-sores (such as trains and cars at some point in the past).

I think, however, that their perceived ugliness is just the surface of the problem, and that if you dig just a little deeper, you will very quickly come up against a more general resistance to change, and the desire of most people to control their own environment. Both are very human and understandable traits, and as such of course very difficult to do anything about.

But matters become even more difficult (and emotional) when you add the link between satellite dishes and foreigners. This is a touchy subject, but an important one. Where I come from (the Netherlands), you can easily identify big-city lower-class neighbourhoods with high numbers of non-Dutch inhabitants by the number of satellite dishes. Here in Luxembourg, satellite dishes are not linked to class, but they are definitely more popular amongst foreigners than amongst locals.

The problem, in such cases, is not only the fact that satellite dishes call more attention to the presence of foreigners (a cause of concern or irritation for some), but also that these satellite dishes - being a direct link to their respective countries of origin - can be seen as an indication of their not wanting to integrate. Irrespective of whether this is true, I can say from personal experience that having access to sources of information in my own language certainly diminishes the need to integrate. During my 13 years here in Luxembourg, I have only reached a limited degree of proficiency in French, but know virtually no Luxembourgish, mainly because I did not need it in my professional life, and because I know I will not be here forever. But I completely understand Luxembourgers (and especially the older generation) who are less than happy with the increasing numbers of foreigners who cannot really communicate in any of the languages of the Grand Duchy, and would not want to do anything that would maintain that situation, or even make it worse.