Europe’s changing face

My own empirical observations have led me to conclude that, in America, those who are most PC are also those who are most likely to be Europhiles. That is, the political left loves Europe. (John Kerry would be Exhibit A in this category.) That’s why I was surprised to see how un-PC the Europeans are. They smoke like chimmneys, they swathe themselves in fur coats, their cars spew forth noxious emissions and, when you get them to speak honestly, they rail against illegal immigrants from Africa and Turkey. As to this last point, Europe’s changing face is something to note.

A train conversation with an unusually sweet lady in Switzerland resulted in my learning (correctly or not) that Switzerland, the country that was once the most rigorous in the world about protecting its national identity, is now made up of 25% immigrants, which a huge block having arrived illegally from Africa and Turkey. She says that these latter, illegal immigrants, are responsible for a dramatic increase in drugs and crime. Her report gained credibility in my mind when, the moment I got off the train and onto the street, I saw African immigrants selling drugs and counterfeit goods around the train station. (You’ll see precisely the same in Rome and Paris.)

This was not a one-off situation. A delightful Italian lady told me exactly the same thing. Her sense was that European countries are losing their unique identities. Between the official open borders of the EU and the unofficial open borders of the illegal immigrants, Italy is no longer as Italian as it once was, even a decade ago. She was a younger woman that the Swiss lady, and inclined to be more philosophical about it, but she was clearly no more happy with the situation.

As it is, Rome still seems to be pretty Italian. When you’re on the buses or subways, while their are many more non-Italians than there were, say, 10 years ago, the majority of the passengers are manifestly Italian. The same is not true for Paris, where the majority of subway and bus passengers on every ride we took were patently not of French origin. Some, of course, were tourists, but others were obviously immigrants from Africa and the Muslim bloc.

As regular readers of this blog know, while I’m incredibly hostile to illegal immigration in America, I have no problem with legal immigration. Indeed, I think a constant influx of immigrants, at numbers that allow integration and assimilation, is one of our country’s great strengths. It gives us a mutt-like vitality and energy that keeps America flexible and strong. European immigration, though, strikes me as having quite a different flavor.

Unlike America, European states have not been nations of immigrants in the last few hundred years. Their national characters have been fairly immobile. That means that the current influx of immigrants marks a sea change in the European make-up. That may be a good thing in the long run but, in the short run, it’s such a dramatic population rejiggering that it bears noting and watching.

One of the most significant aspects of Europe’s changing population, of course, is the increase in the number of Muslim immigrants, a much discussed topic in the blogosphere and among writers and thinkers. (Mark Steyn, of course, springs to mind, with his recent book on the subject and his sharp focus on demographics as destiny.) Riots in Paris, murders in Amsterdam, and terrorism in London, highlight the fact that Muslim immigrants may be different from all other immigrants in that significant numbers do not want to assimilate with and benefit from their new countries. In this, they join an increasing number of illegal Mexican immigrants in America who don’t embrace American values but want to impose their own values on America.

These new immigrant groups, having escaped from oppressive economic and social regimes to the greater freedom of the West are now bound and determined to impose on their new countries the inequities and limitations of their old countries. This immigrant trend bears more relationship to the Goths and Vandals pecking away at the degenerating Roman Empire than it does to the 100 year norm of tired, huddled masses yearning to breath free. And, reactionary that I am, I don’t like it — and those Europeans who spoke openly with me don’t like it either.

Those same disgruntled Europeans, though, seemed passively resigned to their fate. That is, while they complained, there was no fire, no sense that the situation could be changed. This is their future and they accept that they’re stuck with it. I don’t know if this is the result of 50 years of relying on government, a habit that saps individual thought and energy, or a real-politik outlook that acknowledges that, as long as Europeans are failing to have babies, their future is inevitably going to reflect demographic changes.

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15 Responses

  1. “I have no problem with legal immigration”

    While I agree, I would also add that I do not believe in giving preference to immigrants from a country just because the country shares a common border with the U.S. (i.e., Mexico.) I would insist that legal immigrants from other countries have an equal opportunity.

  2. yeh, right! 🙂

  3. Book, I agree with you 100% – the Europeans will submit weakly to their colonization by their future Islamic masters because decades (if not centuries) of conditioning by the welfare state has rendered them wards of the State. They have lost the will to resist because they don’t even know what they (or their countries) stand for, anymore. It’s a disasterous consequence of Liberal/socialist utopianism and one that we Americans must resist at all cost. Did you ask any of the Europeans you met what it means to be a European (or Frenchpeson, or Englishperson?). I suspect that you would get few tangible responses but a plethora of vague bumper-sticker slogans. Europe is what we risk becoming if we don’t draw the appropriate lessons of History.

  4. Helen,
    I gotta ask–are you agreeing with me or are you being sarcastic?

  5. This is great on the spot insight, Bookworm. We will all enjoy sharing your European travels. It, of course, represents the type of information no media outlet would ever disseminate!! Many thanks.

  6. It’s sarcasm, Kevin. If we ever agree, it won’t be on purpose. 🙂

  7. The United States (that is, until multi-culturalism took over) made Americans out of all the immigrants, no matter their country of origin or ethnicity. Not so the Europeans. An immigrant in Europe will always be the outsider. Think of your article about German anti-semitism. For heavens sake, the Jews had lived in Germany for more than a thousand years but the Germans refused to see them as anything but foreign, alien, usurpers. It saddens, but doesn’t surprise me, that the Europeans seem resigned to their fate. You have to stand for something more than nice restaurants, fashion, old museums and conversation to be able to fight against people who really believe in their mission- even if that mission is backward, bigoted and violent.

  8. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin(ring a bell)who said all “GREAT DEMOCRACIES last two hundred and fifty years”(Rome,Britain . . blah blah) and then . . hmm . . ? Hey folks, let us not forget the 1.4 billion in China and elsewhere.It’s “THE DEMOGRAPHICS STUPID” and the will( N. A.gentlemen&ladies are doing their share). Anyway,I hope we take our self serious(womb) but not to serious(bomb) if you know what I mean ? Of course, there is always hope, a more enlightened American education system that encourages utilitarian scholarship rather than commercial crass(don’t hold your breath).

  9. OK Helen,

    Then my next question is, what in my post (or previous posts) has instigated your sarcasm? In order to minimize the pulling teeth character of this thread, I’ll state my side so that you may rebut.

    I have no problem with nor have I ever had a problem with legal immigration. I take exception to giving favoritism to Mexico (just because we share a border)however because it so changes the demographics of many states that if a Governor (e.g., Pete Wilson) actually tries to enforce border laws, he can be voted out by a significant voting block that puts the interests of Mexico ahead of that of the United States. By requiring that legal immigrants from a broader spectrum of countries are allowed a path to citizenship, we end up with a more homogeneous society where no one group has the political power to sway the social direction towards any particular country or group (at least not without building a consensus first.)

    The government needs to set some total number of people the United States can assimilate on a yearly basis and divide it by regions or countries with applicants waiting patiently for permission to immigrate. Thus we now have a quota for individual countries/regions. There has to be limits because if we just throw open the door to any and all immigrants without restraint, the United States will end up like (for instance) Honduras where Hunter Thompson claimed to drive golf balls off the roof of his 5-star hotel into the adjacent slums of Tegucigalpa. (I’ve been there and have no reason to doubt the veracity of his claim–they actually have guards with shotguns guarding every grocery store.)

    And your point is?

  10. Kevin, I think you have an excellent point about broadening immigration. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of the fact that, decades ago, when there were waiting lists for different countries who had immigrants who wanted to enter America legally, my Dad, a Polish national (even though he was born in Germany), was placed on a 7 year list, while my Mom, a Dutch national, was told that there was no waiting list at all. It turned out that Dutch citizens immigrated in such low numbers, and were such desirable immigrants, the US was anxious to have them join the crowd!

  11. First, a belated welcome back. Missed ya.

    Those same disgruntled Europeans, though, seemed passively resigned to their fate. That is, while they complained, there was no fire, no sense that the situation could be changed. This is their future and they accept that they’re stuck with it.

    This made me think of one of my favorite movies, Serenity. The space crew lands on the distant planet Miranda, which has been erased from history by the interplanetary government. There they find a dead — quite literally dead — civilization. The authorities put an additive in the atmosphere designed to make everyone happy and peaceful — but it resulted in them losing all their will.

    Social democracy has had the same effect on Europe. The world they know is transforming (dying?) and they have folded themselves so completely into the state that they are standing by, watching, unable to act.

  12. Well Danny, if you asked a person in college right now what it meant to be an American, what other responses than “having sex, watching Girls Gone Wild, and going to parties” would you get to the question of “what does it mean to be an American”?

  13. YM, I think you sell your countrymen and (most) collegians short – ignore the shrill harpies of the Left, they are noisy, dangerous, unstable…but they are still a minority. And if in any doubt, pose your question randomly at a local bar, sports stadium or NASCAR race – you will get very clear replies.

  14. […] ago, when I returned from a European vacation, one of the things I blogged about was Switzerland as part of a larger post I did about Europe’s changing face: A train conversation with an unusually sweet lady in Switzerland resulted in my learning […]

  15. I definately see what you are talking about here

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