The prevailing liberal orthodoxy on mass immigration- its all wrong

[pete2]

Good article from the brit Guardian delving into the latest book by Christopher Caldwell titled Reflections on the Revolution in Europe.

Caldwell cuts to shreds the conventional wisdom of the "immigrationist" ideology - the view that mass immigration is inevitable and in any case a necessary injection of youth into our ageing continent. He shows, contrary to the immigrationists, that the flows of recent decades are unprecedented. He also demolishes the economic and welfare- state arguments for mass immigration and points out that in most countries there was no desperate need for extra workers in the 1950s - in Britain's case, Ireland still provided a reserve army of labour. One of the most startling figures in the book is that the number of foreign residents in Germany rose from 3 million to 7.5 million between 1971 and 2000 but the number of employed foreigners stayed the same at 2 million.

Caldwell is at his best describing the confused cultural and intellectual condition of much of Europe at the time the first waves of immigrants were arriving. It was hard, he points out, to follow Europe's rules and embrace its values when Europeans themselves were rewriting those rules and reassessing those values. After the brutal experiences of the first part of the 20th century - two world wars, the Holocaust and de-colonisation - European elites had embraced a liberal universalism that declared the moral equality of all people and implicitly questioned the legitimacy of most racial and gender hierarchies.Liberal universalism could, in theory, have been compatible with confident nation states and national identities, but in practice it seldom was. The idea of national traditions and solidarities came to be scorned by liberals in many European countries.

Caldwell reverses the conventional argument, which says that if immigration has been a relative failure it is because the host society has been too hostile and unaccommodating. On the contrary, he argues, it is because most of the host societies were too weak and insecure to make newcomers an offer that was sufficiently confident to secure their loyalty and integration. Most European countries, constrained by liberal universalism and the immigrationism ideology, were simply too laissez-faire towards migrants. For the first time in modern history, European societies were set up to allow a big group of citizens to lead their lives as if in a foreign culture..

And so on. Hopefully policy makers wondering how to drag Ireland and the EU out of the immigration nightmare they placed it in will consider taking a look at this book. A fair few on this board might consider looking at it too- you know who you are

[Muskerry Sportsman]

Interesting. Where can we get the book?

[FutureTaoiseach]

Caldwell is right. The elites want to impose a template that hasn't worked in the UK, France, the Netherlands etc. Their own intolerance of debate on this issue proves that whatever they may say, they are not liberals in the true sense of the word, which is why the term Left-Liberals is better to describe most of them. I think Enda Kenny's speech in 2007 on how immigrants with serious criminal-records should not be allowed into Ireland, and that foreign-national criminals should be deported after serving their sentences, was a positive contribution to the debate on the issue. 29,000 PPS nos have already been issued to foreign-nationals in 2009, despite the claims of them emigrating. We need a debate on these issues without hysteria and in a calm manner on both sides of the argument. In a democracy, the people must have the right to discuss whether they agree or not with open-door immigration policies. It isn't fascism to express such conncerns, so cut the PC-bull claiming otherwise.

[Ulster-Lad]

Caldwell is right. The elites want to impose a template that hasn't worked in the UK, France, the Netherlands etc. Their own intolerance of debate on this issue proves that whatever they may say, they are not liberals in the true sense of the word, which is why the term Left-Liberals is better to describe most of them. I think Enda Kenny's speech in 2007 on how immigrants with serious criminal-records should not be allowed into Ireland, and that foreign-national criminals should be deported after serving their sentences, was a positive contribution to the debate on the issue. 29,000 PPS nos have already been issued to foreign-nationals in 2009, despite the claims of them emigrating. We need a debate on these issues without hysteria and in a calm manner on both sides of the argument. In a democracy, the people must have the right to discuss whether they agree or not with open-door immigration policies. It isn't fascism to express such conncerns, so cut the PC-bull claiming otherwise.

I have never heard of "left liberals" but I have heard Neo-Liberal. Being liberal is always left.

[Paddylekker]

I have never heard of "left liberals" but I have heard Neo-Liberal. Being liberal is always left.

No it's not.

You can be liberal on social issues and right of centre on economic issues.

[OMahonyMunster]

Cuts both ways as we have seen Libertas want to deny Irish people the right to work abroad, is that what you people want/ all the Irish diaspora to be returned here, forcibly?

[Chrisco]

A nice selective quotation at the start there, omitting

Even if you disagree with his premises, Caldwell is worth persevering with because he is a bracing, clear-eyed analyst of European pieties. And that is partly because, as an American, he knows that mass immigration is not only compatible with a strong, confident, patriotic society, but may even require it. He can see Europe from the outside and has a genuinely pan-European view of the immigration issue, something rarely encountered in domestic commentary.

Review: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe by Christopher Caldwell | Books | The Observer

[FutureTaoiseach]

This thread is about the multiculturalist consensus among the elites - stop dragging every thread back to Libertas OMM.

[pete2]

Neg rep from the mass immigration profiteer and liar for Nice marmurr1916- good sign

[Horace Horse]

Another piece of incompetence on RTE on Mass Immigration and its effects.

This morning the dope sitting in for Pat Kenny on radio spent up to half an hour doing a piece on teaching English to foreigners.

In the entire 30 minutes or so, he never asked the question that a competent journalist should ask of any government program.

How much does it cost?

Well, Mr RTE Sloppy, I'll tell you.

It costs hundreds of millions.

And I'll tell you more.

Irish workers pay for it.

We're being phuccing crucified with taxes and levies, yet we spend hundreds of millions on teaching the world.

Truly Fianna Fail is the Mad Immigration party.