In VDARE.com, Edwin S. Rubenstein forecasts the number of post-2010 births to illegal immigrants and to the post-2010 children of illegal immigrants. By 2050, it would be 28 million. By 2100, it would 132 million.
I don't know about you, but 132 million strikes me as a big number.
Switzerland has a lot of immigrants, but it rarely lets them or their descendants vote. The Swiss were happy to host, for example, Vladimir Nabokov in a fancy hotel for two decades, but they didn't feel anymore compulsion to extend him the franchise than they felt it wise to extend the vote to his immigrant bellhop.
We Americans like to pat ourselves on the back about what political geniuses we are, but it's easy to look good when you own the best part of a big continent. In contrast, three major historically warring cultures -- Germany, France, and Italy -- meet up in little Switzerland, yet the Swiss have contrived to enjoy peace and prosperity for generations. Maybe the Swiss know a thing or two about organizing their political affairs prudently?
I don't know about you, but 132 million strikes me as a big number.
Switzerland has a lot of immigrants, but it rarely lets them or their descendants vote. The Swiss were happy to host, for example, Vladimir Nabokov in a fancy hotel for two decades, but they didn't feel anymore compulsion to extend him the franchise than they felt it wise to extend the vote to his immigrant bellhop.
We Americans like to pat ourselves on the back about what political geniuses we are, but it's easy to look good when you own the best part of a big continent. In contrast, three major historically warring cultures -- Germany, France, and Italy -- meet up in little Switzerland, yet the Swiss have contrived to enjoy peace and prosperity for generations. Maybe the Swiss know a thing or two about organizing their political affairs prudently?
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14 comments:
I think the Swiss even vote locally on who to grant citizenship to.
do you ever find yourself conflicted on immmigration?
one the one hand, you certainly understand why they want to come.
You also understand that you were lucky to born here. You didn't deserve to be here. Not really. You were lucky to be born'd here.
and can you really blame people for wanting to enjoy the fruits of this country? to have what you have by default?
but this country can't allow everyone here, can it? no. it can't.
it's not really a question of DESERVE, is it?
thinking is, you're here and if you let them in, they'll change this country for the worse.
Maybe the Swiss know a thing or two about organizing their political affairs prudently?
Perhaps the main reason we will never do this is because of all the patriotic, religious zealots who believe that God is on our side and is looking out for us no matter what we do, so long as our motives are pure. Mormons are especially guilty of this attitude, which is why Utah, despite being so conservative, is one of the states most welcoming to illegal immigrants.
Europeans have been around the block a few times, and know that God doesn't care (Isaiah 40:17). Southerners have been dealing with a blacks for a while, and are less inclined to this naivety as well.
anonymous, you're horribly confused.
Speaking for myself, of course nationality is a luck of the draw question. But just because some people want something does not mean they have a right to just take it.
I'd like to live in a villa on the coast of Spain. That doesn't mean I can go and just move into one arguing that I'm not taking away anything from the owners (who still have the run of the rest of the place since I just took over one bedroom and a balcony and am very willing to share the kitchen and swimming pool).
The same principle should apply to immigration. The country is the home and the citizens are the owners, they should have the last word on who they let in the front door and should not feel compelled to suffer the presence of people crawling through the windows.
Saying "I want X" does not necessarily give a person a right to X.
Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.
You also understand that you were lucky to born here. You didn't deserve to be here. Not really. You were lucky to be born'd here.
Since when does "luck" invalidate one's claim to a country, or to anything for that matter?
I don't think that much luck was involved. Our northern European forebears cultivated a genetic and cultural heritage that gave America its greatness. We would do well to do the hard work that carries such forward.
Anon,
Do you really deserve to have two functioning kidneys? Wasn't it all just luck? Can't you understand why a person with kidney failure would want one (how about both?) of yours? What right do you have to deny him when you don't really deserve your kidneys?
josh said..."Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful."
Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we?
Anonymous, Try a little light reading for your confusion - The Camp of the Saints.
Divide the world into 3 zones.
Zone A: Developed Nations
Zone B: Developing Nations
Zone C: Frontier Markets
Within each zone there should be (ideally) freedom of trade, capital and labour (in that order).
Also each elevated Zone should have rights above the lower Zone. So people from Zone A can settle in B & C (indeed they should be encouraged to) but limited migration from the latter Zones. Zone B can settle in Zone C but not vice versa.
The world has inequitable balances and this would smooth them out. At the moment because of national pride (a silly thing) there exists sovereign arbitrage, which only the rich and the smart exploit.
This way the West & Japan have unlimited "Lebensraum" (living space) but at the same time the Developing world benefits by importing people.
A major reason why the developing world is poor is because they don't have Western business practices and savvy. It's all about equalizing the balances.
Turns out that Switzerland resisted all calls for universal female suffrage until ... 1990 (when the last holdout among the cantons, Appenzell Innerrhoden, granted it). My kinda country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenzell_Innerrhoden
}josh said...
Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly."
It's worth remembering that, in the movie, the guy who says that end up being shot to death in a sewer.
"Anonymous said...
You also understand that you were lucky to born here. You didn't deserve to be here. Not really. You were lucky to be born'd here."
Luck had nothing to do with it, unless you believe that we exist in some nascent form as pods, into which our personalities are inserted. That I am the descendant of my ancestors is not a matter of luck - it is a matter of genetics.
Alps, bro
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