Mass Immigration and Racism

In Are We All Racist Now?, "Allison Pearson argues that the political elite's desire to advance multiculturalism with mass immigration has backfired." Her look back at the immigration policies in Great Britain over the past 13 years — and the consequences in terms of overwhelmed social services — offers a cautionary note to U.S. politicians considering comprehensive immigration reform.

I wish I were more surprised to learn that a new British Social Attitudes survey has found that more than a third of Britons admit they are racially prejudiced. Prejudice fell to an all-time low in 2001, but the latest figures show that the problem has returned to the level of 30 years ago. More than 90 per cent of those who say they are racist want to see immigration halted. More interestingly, 72 per cent of those who do not consider themselves racist also want to see immigration cut drastically.

As shell-shocked politicians from the main parties struggle to discern the causes of Ukip’s deafening electoral success, here’s a tip: look in the mirror, chaps!

It is politicians, not the British people, who are to blame for a resurgence in racism; politicians who have ignored public opinion and created the conditions in which resentments fester and grow. Specifically, though not exclusively, it is New Labour who welcomed workers from the new, accession countries of the EU at a time when countries such as France and Germany wisely exercised their right to keep them out for another seven years.

According to Jack Straw, this was a “spectacular” error. And Jack should know, because he was Home Secretary at the time. The plan of Tony Blair’s government, as laid bare by Andrew Neather, then a Blair speechwriter, was to banish that old, hideously white, retrograde England and usher in a new, vibrant, multicultural country which, rather conveniently, would vote Labour. Mr Blair now works in international conflict resolution, having stored up enough conflict in his homeland to keep future generations busy for centuries. [snip]

Constantly decried as racists by a bien-pensant elite, the overwhelming evidence is that, until recently, Britons have absorbed seismic shifts in this country’s ethnic make-up with remarkable patience and good humour ... And now we are going backwards, with more than a third of British people admitting they have racist feelings. If there had been a proper outlet for public disquiet over mass immigration, that would never have happened. Even settled immigrants, who have been here for more than two generations, say they are fed up with the level of immigration. Are they racist as well? [snip].

Well, they’re all talking about immigration now. Ukip has given them no choice. In his recent party political broadcast, Ed Miliband conceded that Labour would now address the issue it had tried to shut down for so long. Overnight, “racism” had stopped being racism or bigotry and become “people’s legitimate concerns about immigration”.

The deeply distressing and rapid rise in racial prejudice among the British people over the past 13 years maps on to a period of uncontrolled mass immigration. Cause and effect could not be clearer. Nor could the solution.

Read the full article at the UK Telegraph.