National suicide in fifth gear

The British press has had many stories on the staggeringly huge Eastern European immigration into Britain that was unleashed by the expansion of the EU. But it seems that the immigration is larger—much larger—than anyone imagined. The previous estimate of the number of Eastern Europeans who have come to live in Britain since the EU’s borders were opened to them three years ago is 600,000. But according to a new government study, six million Eastern Europeans have traveled to Britain in that time, and it is now thought that far more than one out of ten of them stayed permanently; hence the number of immigrants is much higher than 600,000, though precisely how much no one seems to know.

Imagine, Britain has no idea of how many immigrants from Eastern Europe it has taken in during the last three years. And why should it? How can there even be such a thing as an immigrant—indeed, how can there be such a thing as Britain—when all of Europe is one borderless continent?

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David H. writes:

The effects of the borderless EU have been exactly as I predicted several years ago. In frequent conversations with my best of friends, a Romanian gentleman as fervently anti-EU as I am, we both realized early on that many persons would leave Eastern Europe for Western Europe, and that many if not most would not return. We both recognized the EU as a Soviet Union—lite (with the “lite” becoming increasingly heavier) and predicted disaster for both East and West. There are sane, sensible, indeed wonderful people in Eastern Europe, yet the majority of these highly desirable people will remain in their countries (they are the patriots!) while many of those who leave will be criminals, opportunists, defrauders and welfare leeches, who when pressed to protect their “new homes” will not hesitate to flee yet again.

LA replies:

In my view the absolutely central factor in the suicide of the West is the Western people’s loss of their sense of themselves as members of concrete particular societies. Once you’ve lost your primary identity as something in particular, you are open to anything that comes through the door, because you lack the fundamental basis on which to resist any intrusion.

Imagine two families. One family has a normal sense of itself as a family, with everything that that implies. The other family thinks the most important things in life are equality, freedom, and diversity. The first family will protect its own home and homestead. The second family will open itself to the world and go out of existence. It’s as simple as that.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 07, 2007 11:55 PM | Send