Tuscany — Northern and central Italy are not on the southern Mediterr-anean. But somehow thousands of refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are everywhere here — as is true of much of the European Union. Some sleep on park benches. Many peddle knock-off electronic goods and counterfeit watches. Angry Italians shoo away refugee beggars from tour groups.
The Greek islands near the coast of Turkey are likewise flooded this summer with dispossessed refugees from countries such as Afghanistan and Syria. Apparently a bankrupt Greek government lacks the resources to patrol its vast coastline. Some beleaguered Greeks assume that thousands of boat people and homeless refugees will eventually leave their makeshift camps and head northward to the wealthier homelands of Greece’s Northern European creditors.
A similar rush has overwhelmed America’s southern border. In the last two years, tens of thousands of Central American and Mexican citizens have sensed that the Obama administration has suspended border enforcement. Illegal entry into the United States won’t result in punishment, but instead in an array of social services unimaginable in Latin America.
So, what explains this constant rush of the world’s poor families into the West? And why aren’t China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, for example, flooded with illegal entrants?
The human exodus to Western countries is not always explained by a lack of natural wealth elsewhere. Iraq and Venezuela, for example, are awash in oil. Mexico has lots of oil, minerals, and fertile soil.
Wars may have driven scores of Afghans, North Africans, and Syrians from their homelands to the West, but most of Latin America is at relative peace.
The allure of the West is certainly not due to Europeans’ and Americans’ constantly brainwashing the world about their supposedly superior culture. Just the opposite is true. American media and universities constantly harangue about the race, class, and gender shortcomings of Western civilization. President Obama has retold countless Western historical sins and offered apologies for them while abroad.
Nor are Western economies currently booming and thus short of labor. The European Union faces massive debt. America never quite recovered from the Great Recession of 2008–09 and is currently experiencing negative economic growth. Many immigrants arrive without expectation of joining the labor force.
Nor do millions of refugees hear nice things about the West from their own governments.
Refuges flood the West not just for economic opportunity but also for Western-style freedom.
State media throughout Latin America routinely trash Yanqui neo-imperialism and arrogance. The Middle East is one big anti-American megaphone that constantly ridicules Western decadence as the antithesis of Islamic decorum.
So why, then, do millions risk their lives to get into America, Europe, and other Western nations by hook or by crook?
The Western poor enjoy a level of state support and access to technology, health care, and security that would make them relatively rich in the Third World. Even a poor foreign-born peddler in Florence, Italy, has access to clean water and is safe in a way unknown to most residents of Syria or Afghanistan.
In the West, sexism means something like the glass ceiling that makes it harder for professional women with children to match the career trajectories of their alpha corporate male counterparts. Not so in the non-West, where women are not always even guaranteed a right to vote or to divorce. At worst, gender bias is a matter of genital mutilation, arranged marriages, and sexual slavery.
Gays demonstrate over the right to marry in the West; in Iran they can be stoned to death.
There may be riots in Baltimore and soccer thuggery in Britain. But that is child’s play in comparison to the medieval environment elsewhere in the world. Boko Haram has carried out massacres and other atrocities in North Africa. The Islamic State films its near-daily prehistoric beheadings. Critics of the North Korean government end up dead.
Refuges flood the West not just for economic opportunity but also for Western-style freedom. The state restricts free speech in China and in much of the Middle East.
Academics in the West may preach past U.S. sins to impressionable 18-year-old students. But refugees from Latin America assume that once they cross the border into the U.S., they will have freedoms, legal protections, compassionate social services — and respect — of the sort that is impossible at home.
Millions have decided that it is far better to be immigrants of illegal status in America than native-born citizens inside Mexico.
What, then, explains the magnetic attraction of the often-criticized West?
Add up the right to free expression, human rights, religious tolerance, constitutional government, an independent judiciary, separation of church and state, free-market economics and the protection of private property — and everyday life becomes simply far better.
There is one final irony.
The richer, freer, and more technologically pampering that life becomes for self-critical native Westerners, the whinier they become — as if their West is not good because it is not perfect.
© 2015 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
The refugees and migrants come to the west, at least America, for free stuff. You can’t have a welfare state and an open border which what Obama wants to ensure a perpetual lockhold on the White House. Kiss the Republican Party good bye.
We’re on our way to becoming a one party nation, in fact, I think it’s already too late to turn back. Most of the people flooding into America know nothing about our history or Constitution — that’s not why they’re here. The most recent generations born here also know little about our history and Constitution, but are more concerned about extravagant electronic toys, clothes and cars they can buy. Rome is burning.
Whining in the West? No physically demanding labor day in and day out. If it exists it is shunned. Grab one of any mind altering chemicals and bath one’s eyes in a virtual reality 24/7. Behave as a god making pronouncements of ideal virtues that others need to follow.
Since “Western Enlightenment’s Tragic-Liberty Worldview” fixes tough problems, let’s let it do so:
a) All “Progressive-Retarded Worldview” pedagogy must be defunded from public K-12 or universities.
b) Public K-12 education shall reinstate the La Sierra High School JFK fitness format, 35 min./day each day.
c) Religious orgs shall be vouchsafed unlimited free political speech. Pastors will then preach civic sanity.
Why? A healthy and wise body rejects alien or suicidal evils, like “Progressive-Retarded Worldview” thinking.
Further, “Western Enlightenment’s Tragic-Liberty Worldview” can make what seems like problems… and turn them into boons. How, in the case of immigration inundation?
Virtually all Western Nations have begun declining in population, but the US immigration… is a fix! (After all, “Progressive-Retarded Worldview” hates, loathes, fears increasing population… so that indicates dumb error!)
Bottom line, “Western Enlightenment’s Tragic-Liberty Worldview” is an extremely high expression of love, and we can be fairly certain: Love conquers all. Given strength of body and mind to our new friends, all is well!
Excellent points. Personal safety is a big item, and another one would be that these people are mostly treated by the general public as individuals with innate worth and due at least a minimum level of respect. These things are natural parts of Western culture even while acknowledging obvious shortcomings of random biases.
Re: ‘Add up the right to free expression, human rights, religious tolerance, constitutional government, an independent judiciary, separation of church and state, free-market economics and the protection of private property — and everyday life becomes simply far better’
And no matter how the United States of America continues to get battered and pummeled on with constant lickings and kickings, the country sure seems to keep on ticking. Let us hope that the ‘democratic’ dna inherent in our structure will always exist to counter all the poisons that try to destroy us. It’s the best political helix to overcome ideas of tyranny, hate and injustice around the world which undoubtedly never sleep..
Excellent column. But it is not only freedom that makes the U.S. especially desirable.It’s also the fact that in the U.S. immigrants are such a large part of the population–and that, for the most part, Americans welcome them. Few people try to immigrate to Japan, which has political freedom but a long tradition of being hostile to immigrants. Another point (very minor): I read recently that immigration from Mexico has declined dramatically in the last two years–mainly because the Mexican economy has improved.
Not only the relative easy life in the west, but as the majority of the “immigrants” are Muslim, there is the Islamic tenet of Hijrah (colonization) that must also be considered and addressed….
This is the liberal progressives perpetual Achilles heel; the belief that human nature can be shoe horned into their Utopian ideal if only the intellectual elite can seize, by whatever means necessary, complete control over all human knowledge and behavior.
The west is imperfect because human nature is imperfect and the American Constitutional Republic, individual freedom, equal opportunity, free markets, competition, Capitalism, with all its many faults, is the most successful organization of society because it accommodates and utilizes that innate human imperfection better than any other system devised by well meaning but imperfect humans, intellectuals included. No perfect system of societal organization has ever been found on this earth and that will likely always be true but incremental improvements on the best system devised by men, as yet, are much more likely to succeed and be beneficial to its populous than radical transformations created in institutions of higher learning that produce ideological zealotry and theoretical solutions that bear no allegiance or resemblance to reality and require the elimination or suppression of individual freedoms. Socialism, Communism, and other Utopian constructs have been tried and failed but, according to those who believe in Utopian ideals, failure is always the result of not being given the time and competent leadership, the latter always touted as that which sets the latest proponents apart and immune from the inevitable failure, and that failure is always assured by the innate vagaries of human nature.
Good article Victor.
I suggest you also consider that many people in third world societies are living a paleolithic hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
In that lifestyle, people moved to where there was a source of food, consumed that while it was available and then moved to a new source of food. If there was a drought or a disaster and therefore insufficient food, the weaker members starved. This is a pattern of life or lifestyle which has been widely used throughout history and is still extant in most places.
Public welfare can be considered similar to a good fruit season or a good rabbit season. Everyone gets enough to eat and doesn’t starve.
This is the root cause of the dysfunctional remote aboriginal settlements in Australia and also of many long-lasting refugee camps. For people living a hunter-gather lifestyle sufficient nourishment and shelter is all that is required. There is no reason for movement to another place or for additional activity.
It is logical for people who are living in that mind-set to move to the place with the best welfare system which is a major cause of the current great migrations from 3rd world countries to 1st world countries.
If a person’s ambition doesn’t extend beyond avoiding starvation, then this is a completely satisfactory lifestyle, and many will settle for it. I suspect that as long as public welfare exists, there will be a large cohort content to stay on it.
It isn’t about ‘free’ stuff.
It is part of the socialist plan called “CLOWARD-PIVEN.”
Overload the democratic systems! The socialists are now importing the help and no one is turning them back to whence they came from.
They already cannot afford their socialist governments which are kept afloat by debt and this is the straw that will break the camel’s, he he, back. Or tip the canoe. Do you really think all these people suddenly scampered to available boats on their own mind? Instead of using money for military means and fighting war, this is war by other means. Does anyone really expect the righteous West to fire upon defenseless ‘poor’ people?
It is simply war by other means being orchestrated by Muslim/Socialist minds who seek the downfall of western culture democracy/economies.
Why is that so hard to see?
There’s another reason to explain the current influx: the West is already flooded with inmigrants.
A woman in the swedish TV gave the clue recently. She said “I like Malmo, it feels like being in Syria”. Of course, like being in Syria but with west welfare and west freedom.
There’s UK-born inmigrants that barely speak english, french-born inmigrants that don’t even speak french. The thing is that many inmigrants don’t feel like they’re migrating. They’re just moving to Little Syria or Little Pakistan in the west. They live inside of the boundaries of their community in the west. It’s impossible for them to integrate because they’re not really living in the west, they’re just living under the west protection and welfare.
The are 7 billion people in the world. 6 of the 7 billion people are poorer than Mexicans. Yet, Mexico sends us their rejects, in many cases. At some point the West is going to have to stop this invasion or native born Westerners are going to watch, as their homelands are turned into 3rd World Hell Holes. Just looks at parts of California, Texas and big city ghettoes of these tens of millions that began arriving after 1970.
I was in Belgium, Holland, Germany, France and Switzerland in April and saw large numbers of Africans, Arabs and Asians of different varieties. I’ve also seen the same in Spain. Western social welfare nations can’t afford to allow the flood to continue and either can the US. The problem is that we are all ruled by elites that want the poor uneducated illegals to replace the traditional people, because the illegals are much easier to manipulate and are more subservient to government. The elites have no allegiance to their own people or nations and don’t seem to care that they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.
Many come here for all those good reasons that Dr. Hanson cites; many others, to take us down. But, once the economy collapses, as it must by Obama’s design, those who are coming and have come here, as well as citizens of this country already here for generations, will mostly become slaves, also by Obama’s design.
Many come here for all those good reasons that Dr. Hanson cites; many others, to take us down. But, once the economy collapses, as it must by Obama’s policies, those who are coming and have come here, as well as the citizens of this country already here for generations, will mostly become slaves, also by Obama’s policies.
That was a good essay.
Dr. Hanson describes an old, but recurring problem, that if not forcefully addressed will destroy the West. Can anyone imagine for a moment what the world would be like if, like the Roman Empire, the Western world is eventually overrun by its neighbors? The enemies of a free civilization – ie: Putin’s Russia, totalitarian China, nuclear armed Iran, and, of course, the modern US Democrat party – would quickly fill the vacuum left behind and usher in a new dark age that humanity may never recover from.
I agree with Dr. Hanson’s previous ideas of a merit based immigration system which would admit people only on the basis of education, language skills and capital investment, instead of proximity to the Southern border. This would ensure that “an engineer in Korea” or “a bilingual dentist in Colombia” instead of legions of poorly educated, semi-literate Oaxacan natives, will be the next generation of Americans.
I find it very interesting that our media is flooded with stories about Gay culture despite Gay’s being a very small portion of our society, and all the Muslims immigrating here hate Gays, yet they still come.
If they knew that America was overrun with people they hate, why would they come?
And what is the deal with Isis openly recruiting in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area? I realize we are already spending 10’s of billions of dollars tracking immigrants who may harm us, but can ‘t we do something about the Isis soldiers recruiting young Muslims on the streets of America? Like stop it and deport the fanatics?
Could it just be the “things” that one can get/buy? I have friends in Mexico and Central America, living on farms, that didn’t even know they were poor until they made contact with “wealth”; be it through tourism, or through “the media”. We all know that the food is abundant in Mexico and Central America, and there is no lack of work. But, my “poorer” farm friends complain that their children don’t want to work, and they all want iPhones, PS4, XBOXone, cars, brand-name clothes and cosmetics, ect. These luxury items, which Americans and Europeans take for granted, are very expensive, if available, in these poorer countries. People have been leaving their agricultural environments and moving to urban centers for centuries for the same reasons.
Did the white man “trick” the indigenous with his trinkets, mirrors, hats, and alcohol? Or was it that man has always been avaricious by nature?
(I am not commenting on refugees from war or terror stricken environments!)
I think this was what Jeb was trying to say with his “they come because they love us” speech, with a great deal less eloquence.
Personally, it seems to be getting the cart before the horse to worry about motives when we have no control over the borders to the degree “undocumented immigrants” have become a political force.
I saw somewhere else what I thought a great plan. Freeze ALL immigration for ten years, and use the time to straighten out the mess we have now by as securing the border, integrate or deport the immigrants here now, and come up with a just and beneficial (to the USA) immigration policy that doesn’t preference those in walking distance.