October 02, 2004

NOTE: PLEASE say if you DON'T want your name and/or email address published when sending VDARE email.

A Reader Says Time Has Flip-Flopped On Immigration

From: Michael Stahlberg, Tyreso, Sweden

[See also: Can It Happen Here? Sweden's Hate Crime Laws Hateful—And Unequally Enforced, by Jared Taylor]

It's really a strange situation. An elderly Turkish immigrant in the southern town of Malmö in Sweden co-writes an article in a Social Democratic evening paper, Aftonbladet, demanding a stop to all immigration until all immigrants, who have already arrived, are working and integrated. ["Rosengårds problem är hela Sveriges", September 9, 2004]

It should have been done long ago, he says. And considering a population of nine million, of which 12 percent are born in another country, and that 400 000-500 000 are Muslim (a very recent development), he has a point. Especially since the familiar problems of crime, gang rapes and the like are abundant in the big cities.

In these cities of course not only 12 percent but sometimes closer to 50 percent of the population is either born in another country or has one parent who is. At least, that's the case in Malmö. (I work in Stockholm, and think the statistics are a little less dramatic here, but when you walk around in downtown Stockholm the non-European faces sometimes outnumber the Europeans ones.)

Suad Cicek says he and friends are planning to start a one-issue-party demanding a stop to all immigration. The logic being that the present open borders-policies are a threat to both Swedes and immigrants.

Now what happens?

1) Not one Nationalist paper reports on this. (Well, they may, but in five days, not a word.)

2) Not one member of the pro-immigration Establishment either.

It looks like a conspiracy of silence to sweep the radical article of Mr. Suad Cicek under the rug. So why did that Social Democratic evening paper publish that article in the first place? A mole working within the Establishment?

Well, I'm certain there are such moles, considering that 50 percent in a survey conducted by the University of Gothenberg two years in a row agree with the proposition that fewer asylum seekers would be desirable (who can really think otherwise?). And that 67 percent of the voters of the so-called Conservative party, Moderata Samlingspartiet, want less immigrants as well.

This confirms what one can read in Professor Samuel Huntington's excellent book, "Who Are We?" of the divide between ruled and rulers on making English the official language of the American states and on  "affirmative action."

So how long can this situation last? Will it be changed, ironically, by immigrants demanding an end to immigration, like in the case of Mr. Cicek (since the subject is taboo among white Europeans) or will a radical nationalist movement or a populist one emerge and sweep all over Europe?  

Well, it almost already has.

The Dutch are about to deport 26 000 refugees. And within the European Union there's talk of establishing camps outside the EU, to handle the refugee problem, which Mr. Cicek boldly claims is not really a real refugee problem, but rather "welfare-immigration" caused by the rumor that you can live comfortably without working in Sweden and other European countries. And, he also stresses, the ones who come are to a large extent not that poor, since they have to pay a small fortune to refugee smugglers. The really poor and needy can't afford to come here at all.

To sum it up: the situation in continental Europe (and neighboring Denmark and Norway) is better than in the U.S. and Sweden when it comes to discussing the immigration issue openly. But perhaps Professor Huntington's book will change all that.

Sweden is funnily enough very much like the U.S. Or even worse, since our Pat Buchanan is a Turkish immigrant. On the other hand, both are my heroes.