Is Diversity Perversity?

Modern Western nations continue to absorb unassimilable people who flee their failed societies, treading water and clinging tightly to their cultural contagion and societal dysfunction. 

Diversity has become one more progressive shibboleth a person must bow down to in order to not be considered a closet klansman. But what's so great about diversity anyway? Here's Fred Reed's take:

"Diversity is a disaster. Why people cannot see this is a mystery. A country can ignore an unfortunate reality, but it cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring it. Why governments allow and even encourage immigration of incompatible populations is a greater mystery. Few things cause more misery, hatred, death, and destruction than does diversity. One may wish it were not so, but it is so." (Fred on Everything-Diversity)

Kneejerks on the left would rush to label Fred Reed a rightwing racist, without pausing to find out he was a beat reporter with liberal leanings and a big Pentagon skeptic. He also lives in Mexico and is married to a Mexican woman. Like Orwell, he unapologetically calls 'em like he sees 'em, admits his biases, can level criticisms at others without either demonizing them or apologizing for it, and can appreciate the good in something without idolizing it.

More on diversity from Fred:

Some examples of diversity: Chechens and Russians. Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Tamils and Sinhalese. French and Moslems. Dutch and Moslems. Swedes and Moslems. Germans and Moslems. Turks and Armenians. Whites and blacks in South Africans. Ugandans and Indians. Cambodians and Vietnamese. Blacks, whites, and browns in the United States. Jews and Germans. Jews and the rest almost everywhere. Hindus and Moslems. Sunnis and Shias. Turks and Kurds. Tutsis and Hutus. Moslems and Israelis in Palestine."

Indeed, even the Western diversity fetishists who enjoy token interaction with exotic peoples prefer hanging with their own kind...

"Distaste for diversity of almost any kind runs through societies. Liberals associate chiefly with liberals, conservatives with conservatives, military people with military people, the rich with the rich, the highly intelligent with the highly intelligent, the young with the young."

He continues by observing that examples of successful diversity are really due to assimilation: Jews, Italians and Irish here in America, for example. They blended into the melting pot. Same can be said of second- and third-generation Hispanics, and to a much greater extent, Asians. The better assimilated enjoy greater economic success and social mobility.

"We may tolerate others if the distinctions are not too great, or if we are not forced into excessive contact."

Same goes for Europe, which has never been a US-style melting pot. Europeans are insular, tradition-bound, and generally suspicious of outsiders.  They love traveling to distant lands and vacationing among the exotics, but they are much less joyful about a family of immigrants moving in next door. I over-generalize, but no one likes special snowflake outsiders moving in and loudly demanding a societal remodeling. The immigrants who succeed in Europe are the ones who dive in and adapt to the culture and its social mores instead of railing against them.  The nicest people in Seville, Spain are the Muslims.

What Can We Do?

Allowing unassimilable immigrants to squat down in cultural and linguistic ghettos carved out of a larger nation that is alien to them is harmful to them and to the host nation.  By studying successful immigrants, government should be able to develop methodologies to predict how well a prospective immigrant will adapt to her new surroundings.  If the prospect is low, reject the visa application.  Governments should demand that the applicant explain and demonstrate how he will fit into the society and contribute to it.

Education level, and what strata of society the immigrant is coming from are also good predictors. Asians thrive here because many arrive with college degrees, and people who hail from more advanced regions of their own nations are probably also more assimilable. Finally, if it appears likely that the immigrant knocking on our door will consider our national mode of life and popular culture a 24/7 stream of blasphemous filth that cannot be countenanced or compromised with, then we should deny the visa.

I don't want us to stop immigration. I want us to stop doing it stupidly. Inviting in Muslims with no experience living in a secular society is even dumber than beckoning rural poor from Central America who cannot even function in their own nations' capitals.  It's a bridge too far.

Also worth a read: 
Peter Skerry - Do We Really Want Immigrants to Assimilate?