A REAL WAKE-UP CALL

I read a very interesting article in "The Daily Telegraph" this past weekend regarding the phenomenal growth of Muslim immigration in the European Union countries, including the U.K., where, it is predicted, the Muslim population of the E.U. will be 20% by the year 2050---a startling growth from the current 5% in 2008. The current leaders in Muslim population in Europe are: (1) France at 9%, (2) Holland at 5.2%, (3) Sweden at 5%, (4) Austria at 4.8% and (5) Germany at 4.3%. The rest of Europe vary from 3.7% down to 1.7%.

I also saw on the internet a couple of months ago a video regarding the birth rates among the “white” populations as contrasted to Hispanics, Africans, Asian Indians, Chinese and other races which demonstrated that the birth rate among Caucasian nations was falling dramatically or, at the best, stagnant while the other races, excluding the Chinese who have had a strict population control program in effect for some years, are surging upwards.

We know, for example, in the United States the birth rate of Hispanics has shown sizeable increases with the result that California, the most populous state, has reached the point where the “minority” races outnumber the whites.

I am quoting these statistics not as a white racist but as a realist who thinks it is high time that America and Europe begin to make a priority of how best to integrate these growing minorities into our national life. Restrictive immigration policies are too late: Pandora is already out of the box. Historically, America has always relied on the “melting pot” theory where immigrants over many years slowly but surely become part of the mainstream of population. It has not always been easy, and many ethnic groups have suffered through humiliation and prejudice before acceptance; witness, the Jews, the Irish and the Italians, not to mention Afro-Americans who are still undergoing this process.

Now we have a new dilemma in the influx of Muslims in America and, particularly, in Europe. The major problems with certain ethnic groups in the past has been the language barrier with the need of the immigrants to learn the home language in order to become part of the country. Now, with the Muslims, we also face, in addition to the language problem, the religion difference. All countries with immigrants have historically had other world religions introduced into their cultures, but, unfortunately, within the Muslim world, there exists a lunatic fringe of extremists, under the guise of true believers, who declare the West, especially America and Britain, their mortal enemies to be fought and destroyed. I am not taking a broad brush and smearing all Muslims as extremists, for I am confident that the vast majority are people of true faith and good will seeking a peaceful and prosperous living when they emigrate.

What needs to be done by both America and Europe is to face up to this new problem and develop a policy of integrating these new arrivals in our respective countries. Make mandatory courses in learning the home language to accelerate the process of integration into the society. If you can’t speak or understand the language spoken in your country of choice, how can you possibly prosper and find economic opportunity? You are automatically relegated to the lower economic strata, it goes without saying. When you have improved your lot in life and are economically more secure, you are obviously less inclined to radical activities against that country.

You also need to stimulate the aspirations for growth by the integration process where you encourage breaking out of the nationalistic ghettos, those tight little islands set up in most major cities where new immigrants live only with other immigrants of the same or similar backgrounds. In these economic times, that is hard to accomplish, but some kind of economic stimuli packages must be developed for the purpose of encouraging the development of independence and striking out in new directions. For example, here in the U.S.A. in the reformation and rebuilding of out infrastructure, could some of these new workers be used as laborers and trained in new professions and be taught English at night. European countries could develop similar programs, as well.

You also need to practice more selective screening of immigrants to ensure their true desire for a better life. I know there is no foolproof means test to make such a determination, but closer scrutiny is necessary so that constructive and truly eager people, really seeking new lives and opportunities, would be the norm for acceptance as immigrants and not the "free ride" seekers.

Let me end with a quotation from Jerome Vignon, the director for employment and social affairs at the European Commission: “…social integration of migrants should be given as much importance as monitoring the inflow of migrants.” These are the facts, people---I think we better deal with them now or we may be planting the seeds for future discord and turmoil.