kenberg, on 2015-May-22, 05:53, said:
A further thought on immigration. It would be useful if advocaes of any particular course of action would include a statement pn the ultimate goal such as "This would be good for the country receiving, or not receiving, the immigrants" or "This will be a burden but I think it is our obligation to those I need".
I'll give my opinion:
It is a bit of all.
- I think each of us has an obligation to the society we live in. I think it is silly to limit this "society" at any imaginary line that someone drew on a map ages ago.
- I think that immigrants have value for a society. That value is, among others, economic and cultural.
- Immigration also comes at a cost (or burden) for society. Again, these costs are economic and cultural.
The cost and value of immigration should be shared. This is not the case now.
In addition both sides, immigrants and the local population, have duties.
For the immigrants:
Work on your integration into the new society. Learn the language, learn the culture, get a job, participate in what the locals do in their spare time, get a hobby. This does not mean that you loose your original identity. It means that you gain a second one! You can be a devout Muslim from Pakistan and play bridge on Wednesday evening.
Immigrants who choose voluntarily to come to my country need to realize these duties up front. They will get to play in a bridge club (or play soccer) where people drink beer (with alcohol!) despite the fact that this is forbidden according to the Quran. They will not be forced to drink any beer themselves, but they cannot forbid others from drinking it, no matter how bad it is to drink beer. If they can't live with that, they shouldn't come.
For refugees, the situation is different. They did not make a deliberate choice to come. They just ran. They are traumatized and need all the help we can give them and we should teach them how to live in their new place with this strange culture... and then we can ask them to live up to their new duties.
For the locals:
Welcome and accept the strangers. Help them out when they can't find their way in a very confusing society. Forgive them their cultural errors and realize how your behavior shocks the locals when you are on vacation in Marakech or Phuket. It is not a miracle that the immigrants will make mistakes. Give them a little breathing space. Accept their original identity and don't ask them to denounce it.
This just means that we need to help each other out.
An example of how not to do this:
A few years ago, the Dutch government, strongly influenced by an anti-immigration party, demanded of foreigners that they learn Dutch. I consider that an excellent requirement. Many foreigners thought the same since they already went to "Dutch for foreigners" classes. However, at the very same time that the government required foreigners to learn Dutch, they withdrew their support for these courses. This meant that those good willing foreigners that were actively working on their integration could not afford to go there anymore.
I think that is criminal. It is not working towards a solution. It is an example of knowingly and willingly increasing a social problem for future political gain.
Rik
I want my opponents to leave my table with a smile on their face and without matchpoints on their score card - in that order.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!), but “That’s funny…” – Isaac Asimov
The only reason God did not put "Thou shalt mind thine own business" in the Ten Commandments was that He thought that it was too obvious to need stating. - Kenberg