The Rabid Paladin

Immigration in general is going to be something that gets a lot of attention in the coming decade so I should probably take some time to articulate my position. The latest census shows that we had a record breaking decade in immigration growth, even when measured in terms of population percentages. Personally, I think that immigrants are what make this country so great. We keep skimming off the risk-takers of other countries and it has rebounded to our benefit a hundred fold. Frankly, immigration stands a good chance of off-setting a small population bomb scheduled to hit us in a few years—you know, when the boomers begin to retire. And I don't buy the whole degradation of society or xenophobic issues of race and culture. We're a richer culture for their additions.

I do have a concern, though, and I think it is an important one. In past generations, new immigrants were encouraged to adapt to the wider American culture. Not necessarily giving up their own, but learning to accommodate ours. This was, in my opinion, a good thing. Now, however, too many misguided intellectuals and well meaning advocates are trying to tell us that we are wrong (they use words like imperialistic or paternalistic) to push for accommodation. Apparently, these elites want to erect some kind of pen to hold new immigrants so that they can cling to the ideas and culture of their homeland—incidentally, the origins of the word and fact of "ghetto".

This policy stands on the foundation of relativism and the belief that no culture or idea is better than any other. This is a corrupt policy. America is great because of the ideals of freedom, responsibility, the rule of law, and private property. We should insist that new immigrants study our founding precepts, that they try to learn English, and that they accommodate our wider culture and not the other way around. I'm not saying that all our ideas are better than theirs, but some of them most definitely are. And I’m not saying that we make it harder for them any more than necessary. But what they are attempting is hard and we make it even harder if our attempts to make it easier mean that they never really do learn to accommodate the culture they now live in.

And really, my concern is that in moving here to find better opportunities, we'll end up adopting the corrupt ideals that caused the problems they are attempting to escape. It would be a bitter irony if they came here only to find that we have recreated the very problems they have attempted to leave behind.