Octavio: Good afternoon everyone welcome to our today’s forum as sponsored by the Rumiforum on the topic of diversity as [an incest] for the 21st century comparing the United States and Europe’s experiences with this important topic my name is [Octavio Nohosamir] I’m the Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute CHILI as we call, we refer to it. CHILI is a non profit organization that which was founded in 2003. The same year that the United States census confirmed for the first time that the United States Hispanic community is now the second largest demographic group in the country and growing as you can appreciate one in six Americans today is of a Hispanic background. And organization was founded by members of Congress on both sides of the political spectrum to promote diversity of thoughts and that is, we believe that its important to have open discussions from different points of view in a very respectful manner on topics of interest now need to an important segment of the United States population, but also to the United States in general public and at large.

We are an organization that focuses on promoting leadership within Hispanic community and public service in the corporate sector as well as in international relations field so I’m delighted to be here today to serve you as your moderator and to take this opportunity to welcome our honored guest and speaker who will show us some thoughts on his, from his perspective not only being from Europe and also having had wide experience here in the United States and comparing the two; if you will models of diversity in two important segments of the world.

Doctor Michael Werz is a senior fellow at the American Centre for Progress in [IB]. And he is a renowned scholar on the Trans-Atlantic relations a forum. He has written extensively on the topic of climate migration as well as US, European relations and he brings with him extensive background and very insightful points of view, not only from the challenges that the United States is facing in terms of its growing diversity but also the challenges and opportunities that are facing Europe. So without further a do I take this turn to welcome Dr. Werz and perhaps you know open up and we are getting such just general comments on this important topic on diversity as a litmus test in the 21st Century why the United States and Europe are so different in this aspect.

Dr. Werz:    Thank you over this very opulent and kind introduction Octavio, it’s such a great pleasure to share the stage with you. Thank you for the invitation you had there Rumiforum it’s a, that’s a great opportunity for me to be here. What I thought I’d do is basically share some ideas with you that I’ve been grappling with for the last few years asking myself why the United States and Europe are so different when it comes to minority questions and diversity questions, and the common answer usually is the United States is so much better at dealing with diversity because it’s an immigration country, there is a [220] years towards immigration and it’s just, their mechanisms are better established and that’s why the United States is doing so much better, I think that’s only part of the explanation I think that’s not really what is at the core of the American experience. I think this issue is important because we are obviously nearing a situation where societies especially western industrialized societies but also other societies become more and more diverse because so many people are moving around and the United States of course again here is the most advanced example the newest census data show that probably somewhere in 2037 or 2038 this society will not have a majority anymore, whites won’t be the majority in the United States anymore and that actually has never happened before in world history that you, that there is a society where there is no ethnic or racial majority and that’s actually a fastening question of big combination of that big sociological field experiment that is the United States.