The primary driver of support for the Right, all throughout the West, seems to be opposition to immigration. Within that, there are basically two groups: white supremacists, and people who have been conned into seeing migration, rather than economics, as the fundamental cause of their declining living standards.
It seems like this is a wedge issue that any successful populist left movement would need to confront. I guess what I’m wondering is whether it’s possible to resolve in a way that doesn’t abandon leftist values entirely.
Whilst we on the left regard multiculturalism as an inherent good, the reality is, in a democratic sense, it was something imposed from above - and largely as a means of growing the bullshit neoliberal service economy whilst simultaneously undermining working class power. That it was utilised in this way is partly why so many working class people have been able to be led by the media into blaming immigration, rather than economic policy, for declining living standards.
I’m not sure about the US, but in most Western countries the vast majority of immigrants are not refugees. For example, in the UK only 10% are refugees. It is actually nearly impossible for the poor of the developing world to immigrate to most Western countries.
Would it be possible for leftist parties to advocate for reductions in immigration, if that came within the context of increasing refugee intake? Of course there is no necessity for such a policy, nor is it desirable, nor ethical - I’m talking purely in terms of strategic necessity. Or is any kind of kowtowing to anti-immigrant sentiment too great and too dangerous a betrayal of our values? Would any retreat here only be aiding the resurgence of fascism?
I guess I’m thinking about this lately because of whats happening in France - I feel like most Western countries either are or soon will be following that direction. It seems we’re already running out of time, and still nowhere near ready. And I feel like all this anti-immigrant sentiment is the backbone of it, and yet it’s something that people who aren’t far-right are loathe to address. And maybe they’re right not too, maybe their is no possible compromise here. I really don’t know, so just wondering what other people think
I am going to say something as an immigrant that sounds like I am pulling the ladder up from behind me, but it is something the left needs to hear: it is wrong and harmful to our civil rights and pluralistic cohesion to expect zero assimilation from immigrants and enable them and their kids to exclusively huddle in homogenous enclaves.
My parents moved here from China and took me to many corners of the US to try a bit of everything, they even took me to a pride parade when I was 9 even though they did not personally agree with the “gay lifestyle,” and they had anti-Hispanic and anti-Black prejudices but encouraged me to learn about and appreciate other cultures.
My parents and their immigrant friends came here with the understanding that they were not here to replicate way of life in China and that their kids would not inherit most of their values. Over time as they worked with people of all different backgrounds they grew more tolerant, and upon obtaining their citizenship they took ownership of preserving America as a “melting pot.” One time when my aunt visiting from China said she was scared by black people, my mom cut her off and spoke defensively about how great her black coworkers were.
The Indian friends I grew up with who immigrated at an earlier time also “assimilated” along with their parents; they would be the ones who introduced me to things they discovered like Oaxacan food, and would go on to volunteer as doctors at Planned Parenthood or pro bono lawyers for the marginalized. A Muslim friend of mine who was super conservative and homophobic growing up got way into metal/alt music and its crowd is now an ardent champion of and fundraiser for trans rights.
In growing up in an America that demanded some assimilation, my immigrant friends and I became more liberal and sometimes even outright radical. And when the left talks about “countering anti-immigrant sentiment” the underlying assumption is that it is mainly white people they have to reach, or maybe spoiled and self-hating immigrants.
But check it, it is my Muslim and Indian friends who disdain the Visa mill immigrants coming in who have no expectation of ever going outside the bounds of their enclaves, who carry with them redpill views and behaviors that are not respectful of the common social good like littering and ogling people uncomfortably. It is me who grits my teeth when I see a bunch of Chinese people, some of them my own family, buy up an Ontario neighborhood and vote against allowing the local public schools to teach LGBT history. It is my Vietnamese, Korean, Hispanic, and Persian friends–a few of whom were only able to freely come out because they were immersed in American culture–who view the newer waves of immigrants from their home countries, given little pressure to do any sort of assimilation, as a sort of regression to the backwardness and colorist/racist/sexist/homophobic prejudices of their parents’ generation.
If the left wants to counter anti-immigrant sentiment, we need to honestly confront where all of it comes from and acknowledge that at least some of the pushback is more than just racism, nativism or classicism. The white liberals, and some of the very vocal second gen identitarian outcasts in our groups speak about multiculturalism as if it is almost like segregation, and have very un-nuanced HR-like rules about things like cultural appropriation or respecting others’ cultures.
But in actuality the edges bleeding a bit between the many cultures in America, the occasional misunderstandings resolved through honest if sometimes indelicate questions, being made to engage with cultures and beliefs antithetical to the ones you were raised on, has been a blessing for me and for the march toward progress in America. And I can’t help but feel like the liberals and occasionally leftists of today are fighting tooth and nail to exempt newer waves of immigrants from undergoing this process, while prompting my second gen friends and their first-gen parents to begin souring on more immigration, even if it is from their homelands.