pick up on local customs such as not liking whichever neighbours it's traditional not to like.
This is a fact of human existence. Different groups (religious, racial etc.) come into conflict when they occupy the same space. They compete for power and resources. This is not, contrary to your glib assumption, unique to Europe.
In Iraq, Sunni, Shia, and Kurd compete. In Africa Tutsi and Hutu slaughter each other with machetes. In South America the European elite is right-wing and the indigenous people embrace socialism and Communism. They struggle against each other. Tibetans and Chinese oppose each other in the East.
Welcome to reality.
In Europe there are serious gulfs between the native, indigenous people and many Islamic immigrants. The more homogeneous a country, the less fighting there is. Look at Japan, Finland, and, until recently, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. All homogeneous nations with almost ZERO crime. When was the last time any of these countries had a civil war, or any serious internal conflict?
The more racial, religious, and linguistic differences there are in a country the more potential there is for conflict. That's why Europe doesn't need Africans, Chinese, Indians, etc. Europe is already populated. It already has a culture.
This house is occupied. Sorry.Przemas, as I understand it, Germany is firmly against Turkish membership, and Sarkozy in France seems to be more open to Turkey, but still negative. Only the United States is aggressively pushing for Turkish membership in the EU. Europeans don't want it.
Funny about the US government backing Turkey's bid to join the EU...the last time I checked a map the United States was
NOT a part of Europe. Let's hope the Europeans have the guts to tell the US government to "[censored] off."