BBC News : Bush unveils immigration reforms
Bush also plans to build a 1,130km (700 mile) hi-tech fence along part of its 3,200km (2,000 miles) long border with Mexico. This is like the Berlin Wall on a 25x scale.
My question is, do you think it is a good idea for developed countries to put more money into protecting their borders from illegal immigration ? Europe has the same problem, with illegal immigrants from Africa crossing the Mediterranean (usually at Gibraltar or Malta), and others from Asia arriving by ship or roads (hidden in trucks) from Russia and Eastern Europe. There has even been cases of Black Africans hiding in the storage room of airplanes.
Although it is far from North Africa and Eastern Europe, Belgium alone has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants - and over 1 million (10% of the population) of legal ones who haven't taken Belgian citizenship. In other words, there are as many illegal immigrant in Belgium as in Canada ! (for the record, Canada is 330x bigger than Belgium). If every EU country had the same proportion of illegal immigrants as Belgium, there would be 15 million of them in the EU, about the same percentage as in the USA.
The difference is that most of then illegals in Europe are from African and Muslim countries, while most of those in the USA are from Latin America. It goes without saying that Latin America is much closer culturally (European language, Christian background, Western system) to the USA or Europe than Muslim and Black African countries are. That is why Latino immigrants adapt more easily in the US than Muslim or Black African immigrants do in Europe. So, I see the illegal immigration problem as more dangerous and problematic and Europe.
In the US, some "natives" complain that illegal immigrant take the jobs of Americans, because they cost less. In Western Europe, the same complaints are directed at legal Eastern European workers. Culturally and economically, I think that Eastern Europeans are about as different to Western Europeans as Latinos are from Anglo-Saxons. Again, it's easier for Latinos to adapt in the US given the large Latino community already present there (especially in southern states).
So I would compare the illegal immigration problem in the USA with the situation of legal immigration in the EU. In other words, the USA doesn't really have a problem. When Western Europeans complain about immigration, in most cases they care less about cheap labour "stealing" their jobs than real culture-clash problems and safety issues that happen when poor Muslim immigrants come, create ghettos (often against the government's attempts to integrate them), and end up attacking any European that enter "their territory". They recreate the exact lifestyle of the country they have left, wear the same clothes, speak their language without caring much about learning the local language, warn their daughters not to even date (let alone marry) a local European, and still managed to get paid by their host country's government very generous living allowances because they don't have a job !
Now that is the kind of problem that doesn't really exist in the US. Such "ethnic" ghettos where white people are unwelcome may exist (e.g. Black ghettoes), but they are rarely caused by recent immigrants, and even less by illegal ones. So I believe that if the US is right to build their fence along the Mexican border, then as much (and certainly more) should be done in Europe. Legal, educated and willing-to-adapt immigrants are welcome. Others are not !
BBC said:
Bush also plans to build a 1,130km (700 mile) hi-tech fence along part of its 3,200km (2,000 miles) long border with Mexico. This is like the Berlin Wall on a 25x scale.
My question is, do you think it is a good idea for developed countries to put more money into protecting their borders from illegal immigration ? Europe has the same problem, with illegal immigrants from Africa crossing the Mediterranean (usually at Gibraltar or Malta), and others from Asia arriving by ship or roads (hidden in trucks) from Russia and Eastern Europe. There has even been cases of Black Africans hiding in the storage room of airplanes.
Although it is far from North Africa and Eastern Europe, Belgium alone has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants - and over 1 million (10% of the population) of legal ones who haven't taken Belgian citizenship. In other words, there are as many illegal immigrant in Belgium as in Canada ! (for the record, Canada is 330x bigger than Belgium). If every EU country had the same proportion of illegal immigrants as Belgium, there would be 15 million of them in the EU, about the same percentage as in the USA.
The difference is that most of then illegals in Europe are from African and Muslim countries, while most of those in the USA are from Latin America. It goes without saying that Latin America is much closer culturally (European language, Christian background, Western system) to the USA or Europe than Muslim and Black African countries are. That is why Latino immigrants adapt more easily in the US than Muslim or Black African immigrants do in Europe. So, I see the illegal immigration problem as more dangerous and problematic and Europe.
In the US, some "natives" complain that illegal immigrant take the jobs of Americans, because they cost less. In Western Europe, the same complaints are directed at legal Eastern European workers. Culturally and economically, I think that Eastern Europeans are about as different to Western Europeans as Latinos are from Anglo-Saxons. Again, it's easier for Latinos to adapt in the US given the large Latino community already present there (especially in southern states).
So I would compare the illegal immigration problem in the USA with the situation of legal immigration in the EU. In other words, the USA doesn't really have a problem. When Western Europeans complain about immigration, in most cases they care less about cheap labour "stealing" their jobs than real culture-clash problems and safety issues that happen when poor Muslim immigrants come, create ghettos (often against the government's attempts to integrate them), and end up attacking any European that enter "their territory". They recreate the exact lifestyle of the country they have left, wear the same clothes, speak their language without caring much about learning the local language, warn their daughters not to even date (let alone marry) a local European, and still managed to get paid by their host country's government very generous living allowances because they don't have a job !
Now that is the kind of problem that doesn't really exist in the US. Such "ethnic" ghettos where white people are unwelcome may exist (e.g. Black ghettoes), but they are rarely caused by recent immigrants, and even less by illegal ones. So I believe that if the US is right to build their fence along the Mexican border, then as much (and certainly more) should be done in Europe. Legal, educated and willing-to-adapt immigrants are welcome. Others are not !
