Hyderabad, Feb. 26 -- There seems to be a wave of anti-outsider sentiment sweeping across Europe. In the latest episode that was widely reported in the media a few months ago, a group of legally settled youths from the Indian subcontinent were forbidden from playing cricket in the town of Monfalcone in Northern Italy.

According to a BBC report, the ban on cricket has come to symbolise the deep-seated tensions that are flaring up in Monfalcone. The town has an ethnic make-up that is seldom found in other parts of Italy. Out of a population of just over 30,000, nearly a third are foreigners. Most of them are Indians and Bangladeshis who began to arrive in the 1990s to build Italy's giant cruise ships as well as aircraft carriers for the It...