How Widespread is this Point of View?

[Occhidiangela]

I guess this is partially why reading this thread, I con't really understand the "culture" issues.  I read this and think "languages may be a problem, but what's wrong with having a few food or small religious differences and such?  Unless they tend to blow things up more, doesn't seem like a big deal".  Could someone actually explain how the culture differences become important?   I've never really been someone who cares much about group identities and such.
About the immigration/assimilation issue, seems from an outside point of view that the problem is more about whether people will be able to mix with the economy, and crime and such than anything else.
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Culture is inextricably tied to language, though not wholly dependent on it, norms and beliefs, and shared experiences, to include shared legends and myths. Another powerful facet of culture is its symbology. Ass I understand it icons (as the term seems to be used nowadays, are a subset of symbols, while religion is a subset of the greater heading of belief.)

Which brings us back to language and stories. Tolkein understood this at a visceral level. A powerful cultural binding force is the stories that we share, that we have in common.

I will stop there, recommending Balkan Ghosts as a short read that well illustrates how the stories and legends of a culture impact day to day life. Culture is a bit too complex for me to fully explain, I am not that smart and I dno't think I understand it fully, and certainly not in one post. :D

Which links back to the rather loose term the original author used "European Culture" a piece of imprecise terminology that Kyleran answered so beautifully.

Occhi