The present crisis started when refugees began fleeing Tunisia by boat in the wake of January’s revolution. Italy was a natural destination: its island of Lampedusa lies south of Tunis and just 70 miles off the African coast. These refugees were joined by others from Libya, and by late May almost 40,000 had arrived. (NY Times - Immigration in the EU)EU nations are talking of reestablishing border controls because they don't know what to do about their immigrant problem. I guess, "stop letting them in," is too unsophisticated for the European mind.
The issue has been simmering for years, but unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and fears of a new wave of migrants have brought it to a boil. Of course, closing off Europe to newcomers violates the cosmopolitan vision on which the European Union was built... (NY Times - Immigration in the EU)
A liberal democracy will not survive being swamped by people bringing ancient hatreds and intolerant ideologies with them. Especially when these immigrants are well-versed in agitprop jujitsu, using a state's liberties against itself to stifle free speech and criticism and to enshrine special status for themselves and their abhorrent cultural practices.
All of this is eerily reminiscent of a gripping novel French author Jean Raspail wrote back in the early 1970's. Entitled Camp of the Saints, it remains controversial to this day. He describes a sagging third-world flotilla bringing millions of benighted poor to the shores of Europe, and the liberal powers that talked a good game about the brotherhood of man don't know what to do. They cannot appear as hypocrites, so they dither and talk, acquiescing by inaction to the invasion.
Raspail has been branded a hateful racist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and was unsuccessfully sued in Europe for writing an anti-immigrant article in Le Figaro. It is unfortunate that the multiculturalists have succeeded in equating defending your culture with racism. Like most progressive ideas, the very notion of multiculturalism goes against human nature. For better or worse, we are tribal:
That scorn of a people for other races, the knowledge that one’s own is best, the triumphant joy at feeling oneself to be part of humanity’s finest—none of that had ever filled these youngsters’ addled brains, or at least so little that the monstrous cancer implanted in the Western conscience had quashed it in no time at all. (Raspail - Camp of the Saints)Loving your culture and wanting to preserve it against newcomers who would turn it all upside down is not hateful
Especially the way Raspail expresses it. Yes, he employs dark-skinned people as the protagonists, but his pointed and sustained scorn is aimed at squishy western elites, not immigrants. Indeed, he understands why they are sailing to Europe and he is sympathetic.
The novel is dark. While employing unflattering terms for the immigrants and the elites who pretend to care for them, the author displays a marked Christian sympathy for the poor of the world. It is a complex novel, but his simple message seems to be that we can and should help them, but not by inviting them all here.
Jean Raspail speaks of eternal realities...
Man never has really loved humanity all of a piece—all its races, its peoples, its religions—but only those creatures he feels are his kin, a part of his clan, no matter how vast. As far as the rest are concerned, he forces himself, and lets the world force him. And then, when he does, when the damage is done, he himself falls apart. (Raspail - Camp of the Saints)Western Christendom is falling apart. We are ashamed of our culture and our elites caution us to tone down the flag waving and displays of cultural pride. Meanwhile, those who immigrate but refuse to assimilate despise us for our weakness.
Related: Western Hero - Angry Islam Incompatible with European Liberalism
NY Times - Immigration in the EU
Islam vs Europe
