Tellner, forgive me if I'm way off the mark but I'm sensing that there is a greater than usual intensity to your erudite posting on this issue?
Do you think that perhaps a focus on the supposedly (because I do not accept the view) racist aspects of expecting immigrants to learn the language and adopt the mores of the country they're entering, is hiding the more important issues that lie behind a refusal to integrate?
I apologise for using it as an introduction of the broader concepts of the problems that are lurking at the heart of much of the developed world right now. In my defense, it was only because of the quality of your posts that I picked out the topic bifurcation - feel free to PM me with much scorning for doing so because, in the end, it is overly personal to open a post the way I did (it's only because I'm a couple of paragraphs in that I don't delete the lot and start again
).
In past migration scenarios, the numbers involved were much smaller and thus the impact on the host country much less than what is occurring now.
For example, in the past year or so, nearly a
million Poles have entered England - that's bordering on 2% of our population (and most of them seem to have ended up at a local town called Crewe, forming that most poisonous of cliques, an enclave).
A society cannot absorb that rate of influx and remain stable, especially when the new members do not want to 'join'. They are here for economic reasons and are actually detrimental to the economy, despite the fact that they are doing jobs that overly-aspirational 'natives' will not take, because they siphon their earnings out of the local money supply and into that of their country of origin.
However, at least the Poles make a passing attempt at speaking 'the language'. But because they are, in essence, a massive migrant workforce, a huge proportion do
not attempt to integrate - after all they intend to leave after a few years.
That is the central issue - integration. If you relocate to another country and that relocation is intended to be permanent or multi-generational, then not to adjust to be become part of the culture you're joining is not acceptable. As I said earlier, that leads to Balkanisation and the fracturing of host society. This is not a problem to be underestimated (ask Yugoslavia for references as to the effects, tho' theirs had a religious as well as an ethnic component).
It is not racist to expect immigrants to alter their own mores and codes and language to fit in with where they migrate to; it is common sense. In fact to argue that it is wrong to expect it is a triumph of Political Correctness over practicality. The only two countries to suffer from this excess of PC zeal that I can see are America and Britain.
Even such countries that are regarded as very 'liberal' and open, such as Canada are not as daft as we are on this issue. I looked into emigrating to Canada a few years ago.
Everything about me they loved. I was in the right age range, I had a skill set very much in demand, I had enough money to support myself for a while until I found employment ... you get the picture. Two things they didn't like. The lesser was that I wasn't married. The major stumbling block was that my
French wasn't good enough - I am not kidding, that was the sole reason that my application did not 'win' enough points, despite the fact that I wanted to move to the 'English' side of the country.
I'm sounding a bit like a one-note-song now but learning the language is a pivotal part of becoming part of the society. If you don't want to be part of the society then don't go there. That sounds selfish and it is. I have seen my country become fragmented because of unbridled immigration and it irks me terribly. We had a culture and a heritage to be proud of - to be 'British' was iconic. That is no more.
The West Indian wave, the Indian wave, the Pakistani wave, the Polack wave ... all have played their part in erasing important parts of our culture. The major motivator of that has been a refusal to integrate. Blending is good, it strengthens the whole and that is what used to happen in the gradual flows of population. What made Britain 'Great' was that we were a mongrel nation of all kinds mixed together. What is happening now is the reverse of that - fragility is the consequence of PC driven Enclavism.
What is the primary sign of Enclavism? Refusing to learn the language. Now that is just the first step and there are other consequences that afflict subsequent non-integrating generations(who
do speak the language but I've rattled on too long and need to shush
).
Anyone want to rent my soapbox :lol:.
