If the immigration invasion of Europe—and the United States—is going to be halted, it may be in Italy that the line is finally drawn. There, new legislation ordering the expulsion of some 300,000 North African illegal aliens has the support of the government and is perhaps as close as a European government has ever come in recent history to ridding itself of the hordes that don't belong there.
Earlier this year the New York Times reported that a wave of popular opposition to the mass immigration of Third World aliens into European nations is driving the whole continent to the political right. Actually, the direction may not be so much to the "right" as simply towards positions that ought to be neither right nor left—controlling who enters the nation and whether the nation itself will continue to exist. If that's "right," then there's little doubt that the political future belongs to it.
As Pat Buchanan emphasizes in his recently published, best-selling Death of the West, Europeans are a dying breed. They're simply not having the children to replace themselves, and in Italy, the prospect of the Italian people actually becoming extinct is very real. "Italy's birthrate has been below replacement levels for 25 years and is down to 1.2 children per woman," Mr. Buchanan writes, and he quotes another journalist as commenting that the falling birthrate there "means that Italy will be a theme park in a few generations."
What exactly the theme will be isn't clear yet, but it probably won't be drawn from the glories of Italy's past from the Roman Republic to the Renaissance. Given the flood of non-European immigrants pouring into the country, the theme may more likely be the life and times of Mohammed and the miracles of the Muslim conquests.
The bill aimed at illegals doesn't really speak to what is essentially a cultural problem that arises wherever Third World immigration occurs, but it does suggest that a ball against immigration is starting to roll within establishment political circles. The bill, backed by the government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is moving through parliament. It would simply expel some 300,000 aliens who entered Italy illegally and lack the legally required work permits. What is driving the bill is not so much what is usually dubbed "anti-immigrant sentiment" but rather the aftermath of Sept. 11.
There was no massive terrorist attack in Italy, of course, but Italians no doubt have clear and unpleasant memories of the Red Brigade terrorism of the 1970s and '80s that murdered a good portion of the country's political elite. The Red Brigades are gone, but the Muslims have just arrived, and Italian authorities have already rounded up dozens of immigrants suspected of terrorist ties to Al Qaeda. Some are accused of forging false documents for Muslim terrorists to use in Europe, and the U.S. embassy has publicly warned that the Islamic Cultural Center in Milan is an actual base for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Despite the massive opposition of the political left and the immigrants themselves, the bill for expelling immigrants is likely to be enacted. That by itself doesn't mean that the government will follow it up with other measures to halt legal immigration, let alone that other nations will follow its example, but it might. So far immigration restriction has been mainly associated in Europe with fringe parties of the far right. Although some have gained large followings because of their positions, none has so far been able to break through into actually forming or controlling a government. The Italian bill against illegal immigrants may help make immigration restriction politically respectable—and politically irresistible.
Then again, it might have the opposite effect as well. It's possible the Berlusconi government supports it simply because the bill is a cheap and easy way of appearing to do something serious about immigration and of dealing with the least defensible aspects of it—the illegal kind that represents a criminal and security threat. Once a few illegals are rounded up and given the boot, the government and establishment can go back to sleep and continue to allow their country to be drowned in the immigrant flood.
Which ever course the government intends, those in Europe who wish to see their nations, their people and their civilization survive need to catch the wind that is now pushing the immigration reform boats in Italy and elsewhere. If they can keep the wind in those sails, they may make immigration control such a powerful current that nothing can stand against it. If they do, Europeans may still have a future, even if there won't be too many of them in it.
COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
February 25, 2002
