Immigration and Benefits
I was reminded this weekend after reading about the never ending immigration issue confronting America (and Europe) of the position argued by the wife of a Sometime Chairman of the John Adams Society. During theJohn Adams Society debate last year on immigration, after ten plus speakers had argued for and against Mexican immigration, the SC's wife argued that immigration is a problem because the state provides benefits to immigrants. In turn, she said that we can solve the immgration problem by ending benefits....ending benefits may not reduce the amount of immigrants, but it will guarantee assimilation as immigrants will be forced to work harder and therefore forced to assimilate to survive and succeed.
Whether or not you agree with the merits of SC's wife's argument, perhaps it can be used to explain the failure of European societies to assimilate Muslim immigrants. Rather than assimilation, Muslim immigrants are changing European culture to accomodate Muslims to the detriment of the existing culture. Consider this nugget from David Pryce Jones:
Commercial society has likewise rushed to accommodate real or imagined Muslim sensibilities: a British bank boasts that it will comply with shari’a prohibitions on the uses of money, and the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has become the first European body to issue a sukuk, or Islamic bond. Religious society is not far behind: even as bin Laden speaks of wresting Spain (“al-Andalus”) from the infidels by violence, the cathedral of Santiago has considered removing a statue of St. James Matamoros (“the Moor slayer”), lest it give offense to Muslims. For the same reason, the municipality of Seville has removed King Ferdinand III, hitherto the city’s patron saint, from fiesta celebrations because he fought the Moors for 27 years. In Italy, where Islamists have threatened to destroy the cathedral of Bologna because of a fresco illustrating the Prophet Muhammad in the inferno (where Dante placed him), thought has been given to deleting the art-work from the walls. Even the Pope has apologized for the Crusades. In secular Denmark, the Qur’an (but not the Bible) is now required reading for high-school students.
Has assimilation failed because Muslim immigrants have been guaranteed success through the welfare state. Without the welfare state, such immigrants may have been forced to abandon the culture of their homeland to be able to succeed in the culture of their new country.
Whether or not you agree with the merits of SC's wife's argument, perhaps it can be used to explain the failure of European societies to assimilate Muslim immigrants. Rather than assimilation, Muslim immigrants are changing European culture to accomodate Muslims to the detriment of the existing culture. Consider this nugget from David Pryce Jones:
Commercial society has likewise rushed to accommodate real or imagined Muslim sensibilities: a British bank boasts that it will comply with shari’a prohibitions on the uses of money, and the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has become the first European body to issue a sukuk, or Islamic bond. Religious society is not far behind: even as bin Laden speaks of wresting Spain (“al-Andalus”) from the infidels by violence, the cathedral of Santiago has considered removing a statue of St. James Matamoros (“the Moor slayer”), lest it give offense to Muslims. For the same reason, the municipality of Seville has removed King Ferdinand III, hitherto the city’s patron saint, from fiesta celebrations because he fought the Moors for 27 years. In Italy, where Islamists have threatened to destroy the cathedral of Bologna because of a fresco illustrating the Prophet Muhammad in the inferno (where Dante placed him), thought has been given to deleting the art-work from the walls. Even the Pope has apologized for the Crusades. In secular Denmark, the Qur’an (but not the Bible) is now required reading for high-school students.
Has assimilation failed because Muslim immigrants have been guaranteed success through the welfare state. Without the welfare state, such immigrants may have been forced to abandon the culture of their homeland to be able to succeed in the culture of their new country.
posted by Sloanasaurus | 12/04/2004 11:55:00 PM
Another factor that inhibits assimilation is sheer numbers. Having many other fellow immigrants from the same place simply makes it easier not to learn the language and customs, and, most likely, reduces the most forceful assimilation factor: intermarriage.
Post a Comment