The Future of European Immigration

You may have noticed this story coming out of Switzerland: the Swiss just voted to ban minarets in their country. While this has very little actual impact (there are only four minarets in the entire country), it seems to represent just the latest development in Europe demonstrating a pervasive backlash against liberal immigration policies. From Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, to the British National Party in the UK, groups and individuals in Europe are challenging the "Immigrationist" policies that have been in place since the end of WWII.

The one thing that unites the various parties seems to be an aversion to Islam, or more precisely Islamism in Europe. Islamism is defined as "a popular reform movement advocating the reordering of government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam[www.m-w.com]."

Let's look at Britain as an example. Perhaps the most glaring example of widespread malaise over this issue happened in elections held for European Parliament in June. The British National Party (BNP) won seats in the European Parliament for the first time ever. This is especially alarming, given that the BNP voted just this month as to amend the party's charter and allow non-whites into the group [there is a Sikh who is lined up to be the first non-white member, based on their anti-Islamist platform.].

If you want more evidence that this is a grass roots movement, the last few months have witnessed demonstrations all over Britain by a group calling itself the English Defense League (EDL). Several hundred people have shown up to drink alcohol, wave English flags, sing "God Save the Queen," and spar with counter-protesters. If you visit their website, the EDL are quick to portray themselves as anything but the "racists" and "hooligans" the British press makes them out to be.

And finally, more evidence of a popular uprising against immigration comes in the form of results of a survey, conducted by Angus Reid, from November in which 68% of Britons would like to see a decrease in immigration (read the report here). This is up 5% since August.

What's to blame for this trend? I would attribute it to a natural human tendency to distrust the "other," along with some terrorist bombings in Europe, firebrand clerics that don't know when to shut up, assassinations of public figures (Theo Van Gogh), and flagrant expressions of antipathy towards native populations by immigrants.

I'm sure I'll post more about this topic in the future. I predict that immigration will play an important part in coming elections throughout Europe. Don't be surprised to see parties with anti-immigration policies make significant gains, despite the repeated charged of "racism," "xenophobia," and "fascism" that will certainly be hurled at them relentlessly.