MORE ON IMMIGRATION

Defenders of recent American immigration practices like to defend them in terms of 'multi-culturalism' and 'diversity'. But as Samuel Huntington points out, the diversity argument backfires. "...the new immigration intake is much less diverse than the immigrants in earlier periods. In brief, one half of new legal immigrants come from Latin America-- and 25 percent of them from a single national source, namely Mexico."

The Australian electorate was once somewhat welcoming of immigration, something polls show has hardened up in recent years. Just compare the 1951 results listed here to these 1996 results here. 48% wanted to reduce immigration in 1951 but this had risen to 65% in 1996. Nothing to do with the welfare price-tag now attached to each newcomer courtesy of the multiculturalism industry, of course. Migrants were once left to sink or swim so it was clear to all that they deserved their success and were not leeches on the taxpayer.

Hispanic kids NOT assimilating: "Before immigration optimists issue another rosy prognosis for America's multicultural future, they might visit Belmont High School in Los Angeles's overwhelmingly Hispanic, gang-ridden Rampart district. "Upward and onward" is not a phrase that comes to mind when speaking to the first- and second-generation immigrant teens milling around the school this January. "Most of the people I used to hang out with when I first came to the school have dropped out," observes Jackie, a vivacious illegal alien from Guatemala. "Others got kicked out or got into drugs. Five graduated, and four home girls got pregnant." Certainly, none of the older teens I met outside Belmont was on track to graduate.... Debate has recently heated up over whether Mexican immigration-unique in its scale and in other important ways-will defeat the American tradition of assimilation. The rise of underclass behavior among the progeny of Mexicans and other Central Americans must be part of that debate. There may be assimilation going on, but a significant portion of it is assimilation downward to the worst elements of American life."

Surprise, surprise! "More than nine out of 10 white Britons have no or hardly any ethnic minority friends, according to a poll that reveals the continuing gulf between races and religions more than 40 years after the UK became a multicultural society."

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