{"id":8664,"date":"2015-09-17T05:38:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T12:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=8664"},"modified":"2015-09-17T23:49:06","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T06:49:06","slug":"why-do-migrants-always-flock-to-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-do-migrants-always-flock-to-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Migrants Always Flock to the West?"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\"Migrants
Migrants at a train station in Hegyeshalon, Hungary. (Jeff J. Mitchell\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>here is a tragic monotony to the latest massive human migration, this one involving Syrians fleeing their war-torn country.<\/p>\n

Whether the migrants are from Mexico, the Islamic world, or elsewhere, it is always the same: Migrants flock to the West.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mexicans who elect to leave their country do not hop trains to Guatemala. Fleeing Libyans do not head for the Congo. And Syrians do not go to Russia or China.<\/p>\n

Migrants \u2014 many of them young men \u2014 come in such numbers that Western immigration laws are often rendered null and void. Western nations tend to apply their exacting immigration laws only to the much smaller number of immigrants who obey the law.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the exoduses are due to endemic poverty, usually brought on by the utter failure of non-Western governments to provide jobs, security, and basic social services. Sometimes tribal, religious, or drug wars cause the exoduses.<\/p>\n

Yet neither the Latin American nor the Islamic world analyzes why millions of their own are fleeing to cultures that are usually criticized \u2014 other than an occasional half-hearted whine about the legacy of imperialism, colonialism, and a potpourri of other historical grievances.<\/p>\n

Nor does the deer-in-the-headlights American or European host dare to remind newcomers that its uniquely Western menu \u2014 free-market capitalism, private property, a free press, meritocracy, consensual government, religious tolerance, equality between the sexes, and individual freedom \u2014 draws in people, while the antitheses repel them.<\/p>\n

The mentalities of both the Western hosts and the non-Western migrants have become predictable.<\/p>\n

Many ordinary middle-class Westerners oppose massive influxes of immigrants. These citizens do not like seeing laws rendered null and void. They fear that their schools, health facilities, legal systems, and social services will be overwhelmed and left unable to effectively serve their own middle classes and poor.<\/p>\n

The masses in the West have learned such caution from experience. The sudden appearance of huge numbers of immigrants \u2014 when coupled with poverty, lack of language facility, and little education \u2014 for decades afterwards has impeded easy integration, assimilation, and intermarriage within Western society.<\/p>\n

As a result, a divisive, salad-bowl multicultural separatism often arises.<\/p>\n

Given the challenges of facing strange customs, traditions, and languages, guests naturally find it difficult to achieve rapid parity with hosts. It is soon forgotten in the first generation that being in the underclass in the West was once thought better than the alternative back home. That paradox is soon forgotten by the often disgruntled \u2014 and less desperate \u2014 children of migrants.<\/p>\n

Millions of immigrants to the West soon sense that their own lack of parity and sheer numbers can translate into a powerful political constituency \u2014 all the more so if it stays angry, unassimilated, and occasionally replenished by new waves of arrivals.<\/p>\n

Western elites in politics, journalism, academia, religion, and the arts snipe at their own supposedly illiberal majorities. How dare these cruel hearts question the wisdom of accepting legions of anonymous newcomers!<\/p>\n

Yet too many elites unfortunately are poseurs. These privileged Westerners assume that the real consequences of unchecked migration should always fall on others who are less sophisticated and who lack the elites\u2019 capital, education, and influence to find everyday exemption from the real-life consequences of their own idealism.<\/p>\n

Should Harvard or Oxford open their ample campuses to migrant tent cities, should the wealthy in Malibu and Monaco allow their beaches to become refugee campgrounds, should the Vatican turn its vast plaza into beds and soup kitchens for thousands, then a member of the elite might not be so jaded about the vast abyss between what is lectured and what is actually done.<\/p>\n

Non-Western countries are even more two-faced about immigration. Saudi Arabia, for example, has not used its trillions of petrodollars to take in fellow Muslims from neighboring countries. But it has offered to build 200 mosques in Germany. The Saudis logically assume that unassimilated young male Muslim immigrants in Europe will be ripe for the Saudis\u2019 own brand of extremist Islamic chauvinism and resistance to Western modernism.<\/p>\n

In the case of Mexico, it expects that the United States would never treat immigrants in the manner that Mexico deals with migrants.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, the Mexican government printed comic-book-style manuals on how to enter the U.S. illegally. Apparently, Mexico does not want to retain its own citizens. It assumes that they cannot read and are in need of pictographic instruction. And it advises them to break its neighbor\u2019s immigration laws. How else to ensure that an estimated $30 billion in remittances each year are sent home to Mexico from its expatriates?<\/p>\n

We all lie to ourselves about immigration. The world over seems to want what often-complacent, affluent Westerners take for granted. But no one dares to say why this is so, or why some are driving out \u2014 and others are drawing in \u2014 millions on the move.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Tribune Media Services, Inc.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online There is a tragic monotony to the latest massive human migration, this one involving Syrians fleeing their war-torn country. Whether the migrants are from Mexico, the Islamic world, or elsewhere, it is always the same: Migrants flock to the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[220,282,168,294,28,127,167,102],"tags":[501,1085,1041,1030],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2fK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8460,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/whats-driving-the-influx-of-migrants-and-refugees-to-the-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":0},"title":"What\u2019s Driving the Influx of Migrants and Refugees to the West?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Tuscany \u2014 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 \u2014 as is true of much of the European Union. Some sleep on park benches. Many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rescued Migrants in Augusta, Italy, Sicily April 2015. (Alberto Pizzoli\/AFP\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Migrants-Come-to-West-060415-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9332,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/walls-and-immigration-ancient-and-modern\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":1},"title":"Walls and Immigration \u2014 Ancient and Modern","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Roman empire faced a challenge similar to what the EU faces. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online When standing today at Hadrian\u2019s Wall in\u00a0northern England, everything appears indistinguishably affluent and serene on both sides. It was not nearly as calm some 1,900 years ago. In A.D. 122,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "UK"","block_context":{"text":"UK","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/uk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8681,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-three-crucial-factors-to-maintaining-the-peace-in-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":2},"title":"The Three Crucial Factors to Maintaining the Peace in Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online The bailed-out Greeks are still broke. Now their islands are flooded with a horde of migrants from the Middle East and Africa. Spain, Portugal, and Italy are almost in the same boat. Their shared Mediterranean traditions \u2014 and vulnerabilities \u2014 are far different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The World"","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via NRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/european-culture-in-danger-from-migrants-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8698,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/pope-franciss-hypocritical-politicking\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":3},"title":"Pope Francis\u2019s Hypocritical Politicking","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Unpopular though it may be to say so, I, for one, grew exhausted by the non-stop pronouncements \/commentaries of Pope Francis. The spiritual leader of 1 billion Catholics \u2014 roughly half of the world\u2019s Christians \u2014 Francis just completed a high-profile, endlessly publicized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via usnews.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/download-32-500x358.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8370,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-strange-case-of-modern-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":4},"title":"The Strange Case of Modern Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The West is too cowed by guilt to look honestly at immigration. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Is immigrating from less-developed countries to the West a good or a bad thing, for host and guest? Is the immigrant angry at, or nostalgic for, the country he left?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mexico"","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"JUCHITAN, MEXICO - AUGUST 06: Central American immigrants ride north on top of a freight train on August 6, 2013 near Juchitan, Mexico. Thousands of Central American migrants ride the trains, known as 'la bestia', or the beast, during their long and perilous journey through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Some of the immigrants are robbed and assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey in Central America will traverse Mexico completely unscathed - and all this before illegally entering the United States and facing the considerable U.S. border security apparatus designed to track, detain and deport them. (Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/175876859-500x328.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7161,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/turkeys-latest-jihad-on-christian-armenians\/","url_meta":{"origin":8664,"position":5},"title":"Turkey’s Latest Jihad on Christian Armenians","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Far from being repentant of the\u00a0Armenian Genocide, Turkey, under the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan, is again targeting Armenians; is again causing their death and dislocation. In the early morning hours of March 21, al-Qaeda linked Islamic jihadis crossed into Syrian territory from the Turkish border\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Turkey"","block_context":{"text":"Turkey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/turkey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/998287_10152343516494083_267260017_n-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8666,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664\/revisions\/8666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}