By Jeff Davidson
The presumption that anybody who seeks to control immigration, and to maintain the vital facets of their culture, is xenophobic or racist is beyond inane. Since 2021, border states have faced horrendous conditions as a result of Joe Biden’s disasterous border policies.
Recent history tells us that violating one’s culture has consequences. In 2015, Europe received one million migrants on top of a massive influx that had already arrived. The 500 million population of Europe could, perhaps, absorb such waves but many communities were unduly impacted. One long-standing community in Germany, totaling 102 people, braced for 750 asylum seekers.
This bureaucratic blunder represented nothing less than the desecration of that town’s mini-culture. As The New York Times reported, “The influx is testing the limits of tolerance and hospitality.” In essence, those who don’t have the background, language, or customs of the long-standing villagers, or even any empathy for them, de facto were granted the capability to overrun the town.
Cultural Destruction, ‘Progressive’ Style
What terms are there for such cultural destruction? Who holds that seeking to keep things relatively the same is an evil human characteristic? Do the Indonesians not wish to maintain their culture? Or Somali’s, Dane’s, or Bolivian’s?
Turkish immigrants invited to Germany three generations ago as workers have not assimilated, and if anything, have grown more apart from the surrounding host culture. Did Germany seek this? Is anyone happy with the result? In massive enclaves both in North America and throughout Europe, particularly Denmark, Sweden, England, and France, little assimilation is occurring. Too many immigrants offer meager or no effort to learn the host language, or adhere to the even the basic values of the host culture.
In the United States, was it reasonable to go from 9.1 million Hispanics in 1970, to 35.3 million in 2000, to beyond 61.0 million today (of which at least 15.7 million are illegal)? Suppose they’re all good people and productive citizens who make a solid contribution to society: Their sheer numbers contort society. We never had a chance to vote on the issue.
With refugees flooding Maine, did the state’s citizens choose to have a mini-culture of Somalis? In controlled numbers, such immigrants can certainly add character and flavor to communities. In uncontrolled numbers, they swamp the host culture leading to cramped schools, higher crime, and bursting budgets.
Fast and Slow Assimilation,
You might make the argument as Arthur C. Clarke did in Childhood’s End, a science fiction book no less, that in the future all countries would be hosts to all sorts or immigrant populations: assimilation around the world was inevitable. When such assimilation occurs over the span of 200 to 300 years, existing norms and structures can endure. When assimilation is supposed to occur in a matter of weeks or months, and even years, it proves to be disaster. Ask the residents of Stockholm or Paris.
In California, where Hispanics now outnumber Caucasians, income and education levels have not significantly risen in 50 years. While California was not flooded overnight, still the larger culture has been irrevocably altered.
The zeal with which some people support uncontrolled, unbounded immigration prompts others to see them as insane. What nation on earth does not possess the right to protect its cultures, and to bar those who would neither assimilate nor respect the laws?
Brainless Bromides
The immigration zealots issue off-the-mark bromides about “melting pots” and “nation of immigrants.” They fail to understand the short as well as long-term ramifications of flooding societies with people from different cultures who, in many cases, will never assimilate. This, bluntly, is cultural suicide.
Some people, left and right, regard unfettered immigration as pure madness. As a U.S. citizen, if you have no say in preserving your local culture, as well as American culture in general, what exactly is the point or value of being a citizen?
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Jeff Davidson is “The Work-Life Balance Expert®” and the premier thought leader on work-life balance, integration, and harmony. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the effectiveness of their people. He is the author of Breathing Space, Simpler Living, Dial it Down, and Everyday Project Management.
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