Assimilation, amnesty and the coming GOP break up
There's a lesson here for America:
AMSTERDAM -- Paul Hiltemann had already noticed a darkening mood in the Netherlands. He runs an agency for people wanting to emigrate and his client list had surged.
But he was still taken aback in November when a Dutch filmmaker was shot and his throat was slit, execution style, on an Amsterdam street.
In the weeks that followed, Mr. Hiltemann was inundated by e-mail messages and telephone calls. "There was a big panic," he said, "a flood of people saying they wanted to leave the country."
Leave this stable and prosperous corner of Europe? Leave this land with its generous social benefits and ample salaries, a place of fine schools, museums, sports grounds and bicycle paths, all set in a lively democracy?
The answer, increasingly, is yes. This small nation is a magnet for immigrants, but statistics suggest there is a quickening flight of the white middle class. Dutch people pulling up roots said they felt a general pessimism about their small and crowded country and about the social tensions that had grown along with the waves of newcomers, most of them Muslims."The Dutch are living in a kind of pressure cooker atmosphere," Mr. Hiltemann said.
Chilling, no?
Meanwhile, Polipundit writes:
The president risks destroying the entire Republican coalition unless he comes out in favor of a plan ... which would end illegal immigration.
As I understand it, Europe's problem isn't so much one of illegal immigration, but, as Mark Steyn puts it, one of " ... dependence on immigration numbers that no stable nation (not even America in the Ellis Island era) has ever successfully absorbed ..." But if the problem is, at least in part, one of assimilation (or, more precisely, the lack thereof, as appears to be the case in the Netherlands), America is probably doing a poor job assimilating the 10 to 12 million illegals now here, all of whom live outside the law and in the shadows.
Mr. Bush has proposed an immigration plan that, in outline at least, is mostly sensible. (You can read a full-throated defense of it here.) Among other things, the president proposes to give priority for citizenship to legal immigrants, which is as it should be. Respect for the rule of law doesn't guarantee assimilation, but it's still a necessary element of it. The president also proposes, quite rightly, to bring the supply of unskilled labor into line with the demands of our economy. To these things, I have no objection.
But here's the part that roils many Republicans and that threatens to split the GOP's coalition: amnesty for illegal aliens. From whitehouse.gov:
President Bush does not support amnesty because individuals who violate America's laws should not be rewarded for illegal behavior and because amnesty perpetuates illegal immigration. The President proposes that the Federal Government offer temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here.
Notice, yes, how the statement denies support for amnesty before then proceeding to call for amnesty? Nice trick, huh?
The Orwellian doublespeak notwithstanding, granting legal status to people who arrived here illegally is amnesty. After all, what does amnesty mean, if not the excusing of people from the consequences of their criminal conduct?
Although other principles of Republican governance -- for example, federalism and fiscal restraint -- are now in tatters, respect for the rule of law is still strong in most quarters of the GOP. Most rank and file Republicans will not support amnesty, and the party will pay a heavy political price if it grants it.
Of course, some Republicans do support the president, which is why this issue threatens to divide us. For example, over The Hedgehog Blog, which defends the Mr. Bush's call for amnesty, we're asked:
Do you really think the American public has the stomach to see 10 million people deported, many of whom have been here all their lives?
Although the answer to that question is, in fact, probaby "yes" -- as it is, we arrest or deport about 1 million a year -- I think the answer is also moot. We don't have to deport them. If we're smart, we can get them to deport themselves. As others have suggested -- I forget where I read it originally, or else I'd link to the source -- any illegal alien who wants one of Mr. Bush's "guest worker" permits should be required to apply for it in his native country. The worker can then re-enter the United States legally.
And in the meantime, as Polipundit suggests, let's crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens by sending some of their executives to prison. A few high-profile prosecutions have a way of concentrating the mind.