A Sensible Immigration Policy

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island

Many problems are solved if we accept one basic truth: culture is not race; race is not cultu. Culture is not genetic. To suppose cultural behaviour is hard-wired is the essence of racism. Yet that seems to be the common notionu on the left.

Second premise: cultures can be judged, and determined to be better or worse. “Cultural relativism,” popular on the left, the idea that cultures are free to determine truth itself, is the core idea of fascism, if not Nazism,

A culture is a set of tools for living. Like any set of tools, one culture can be better than another—or better at one thing, and worse at another.

A better life, in material and in spiritual terms, shows a better culture. And of course, we should all want a better culture, for a better life.

The cultures we currently call “indigenous” or “aboriginal” are essentially failed cultures. They provide at best a meagre material existence. They have produced little in terms of artifacts or technology or social cohesion or art. While they might retain elements out of sentimentality, given the choice, no moderns purportedly of these cultures actually prefer to live in their traditional way.

An immigrant nation, like Canada, the US, Australia, or Singapore, has the golden opportunity to select immigrants for the quality of their culture, in order to add it to their own. 

This is the secret of the relative success of these immigrant nations: cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is how cultures advance.

However, such nations should select immigrants on the basis of the potential added value of their original culture. What skills can they bring, and what can they teach us?

Most obviously, we want all the Jews we can get. Twenty-five percent of all Nobel Prize holders are Jewish, despite their being only 0.2% of the world’s population. Even a small proportion of Jews vastly enriched any culture. Better yet, they are often persecuted, and so might want to emigrate. Any sane nation ought to open their doors wide, and actively oppose antisemitism.

Any European culture is, in world terms, a good bargain. Europe brought us science, human rights, democracy, and most of the best of the arts. Barely a century ago, Europe ruled the world. The downside is that we already have the best of Europe, and Europe is doing so well that fewer might want to emigrate. Luckily for us, the Jews in Europe are now feeling increasingly insecure. And we have a golden opportunity to take in more Ukrainians.

We should also look to the European diaspora. Many South Africans of European ancestry might currently want to emigrate. 

Along with a rich cultural heritage, Japan in the last century or two has shown itself to be highly capable. And we do not have many Japanese Canadians or Americans, comparatively speaking. They should be welcomed in.

We do not want to import the Communist ideology, but immigration from the Chinese diaspora sounds promising: from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau. Chinese or Confucian culture led the world several centuries ago, and seems recently to have regained its footing.

Muslim lands, leaving aside the occasional accident of oil, have been lacking in cultural accomplishments over the past few centuries. This is especially striking since they are the inheritors of some of the most productive cultures of the ancient world: Egypt, Lebanon, Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor. This suggests there is something in Islam that actively inhibits cultural development, and we should not want to import it.

And the problem is not hard to identify: Islam is a holistic ideology, setting down rules with divine sanction for all aspects of society and life. This stifles innovation. Yes, it had a golden era. The Muslim world did well for several centuries after the great Muslim conquests. But this can be explained by their first conquests being these rich ancient cultures. They fuelled continuing creativity for a time, until Islam gradually converted the populace and shut innovation down. To get a sense of what Islamic culture is in the absence of this influence, visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the U.A.E. There is much there that is shiny and new, from oil money. But look past that, look for older traditions. A Muslim life is limited and tribal.

However, this still presents an opportunity. We should welcome members of non-Muslim minorities from Muslim lands: the Maronites, the Yazidis, the Zoroastrians, the Copts, the Indonesian Christians. These groups are likely to have much to contribute in a new milieu, just as they were able to fuel the Muslim Golden Age. And this would be, for us in Canada, largely a new contribution to our culture.

India has also, despite an ancient and rich culture, been in a stall for centuries. I suspect the caste system has curbed development, and is not something we should want to import. Granted that caste has been legally abolished in modern India; nevertheless, it is embedded in the culture, and has religious sanction. There are, again religious minorities that have proven themselves productive within this milieu: the Parsees, Jains, and the Christians of South India all outperform the Indian national averages in education and in income, rather like the Jews.

The worst possible sources for immigrants would be areas that are still highly tribal in nature, and at war among themselves: places like Somalia, Yemen, and most of sub-saharan Africa. This is asking for trouble, probably importing trouble.

It is all simple once we ditch the false lens of race.