assimilation

https://candobetter.net/sites/default/files/Frank Bainimarama.jpg" vspace="3" hspace="3" align="left">Nationalism is a domestic reaction to foreign invasion (be it militarily or by mass immigration) and the consequential displacement of the local population - real or perceived.

Foreigners visiting are guests and are welcome. But foreigners arriving as permanent settlers threaten to compete with the territory and rights of the local ancestral population - again, real or perceived. So any immigration program warrants prior approval by the local population, and sensitive and respectful settling, adjustment, communication and time and space for assimilation to integrate.

Immigrants rejecting cultural assimilation with the local population are unwelcome invaders by definition. Newcomers by rejecting adoption of the local culture, are disrespectfully asserting an unjustified claim to establish and impose a foreign culture. Such is an invasion, albeit short of armed conflict or what colonists euphemistically term 'annexing', but that is only difference.

Immigrants seeking 'a new life' in Australia or New Zealand have a moral obligation to respect and adopt the ways of life of the local inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand respectively, not to impose their previous ways of life upon their new hosts. It is for the host country to facilitate and support that assimilation, not to abandon people.

It has been said that the latest influx of immigrants is of different mentality than those who preceded them. Immigrants of an earlier generation, according to this sentiment, were anxious to join in and fuse with the mainstream culture, but immigrants now feel no such impulse. Rather, it is argued, they wish to nestle in the warm bosom of a neighbourhood or enclave of those of similar ethnicity and remain distinct and seperate from the mainstream culture. This is a perilous assumption.

Thursday 9th August readers of the Italian papers were awakening to wonderful news: the crisis of the empty cradles is coming to an end, at least in the industrial areas of Lombardia, north/west of Italy.

This commentary on Mark Krikorian's latest book on immigration is typical of James Schipper's fresh and independent outlook. He shows the problem of assimilation from a different angle. It is not simply a matter of "too many too soon". Other factors come into play as well. Why is integration of newcomers important from an environmental perspective? Dr. William Rees, co-author of Our Ecological Footprint, said that social cohesion will be necessary to meet the upcoming ecological challenges that will face us.