Comment of the Week: Coddling Immigrants Is So Passe

This week’s comment of the week goes to Zbird’s response to my post about Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and his new anti-multiculturalism book.

My second paragraph was saying that you have no evidence to support your statement that the problems Sacks attributes to multiculturalism are actually the fault of a bureaucracy that somehow mistreats immigrants.

I'm not saying that anyone should be mistreated, but I question your knee-jerk liberal belief that what immigrants need is more/better bureaucratic (I assume you mean "taxpayer-funded") support to make them feel at home–as if they were children in their first year at sleep-away camp who need extra attention from the counselor lest they feel homesick. The U.S. coddles immigrants and non-immigrants alike a lot less than in Europe, where government supported housing, healthcare, jobs, etc. is the norm. Yet somehow the US' immigrants, exposed to the vicissitudes of the market and forced to fend for themselves, are better assimilated and more at peace with the larger society than in Europe (i.e.: see the Paris riots from last year, or the fact that nearly all the 9/11 hijackers, the 3/11 Madrid and the London bombers, were radicalized in Europe).

btw–I'm not trying to make a statement about the degree to which a government should help its citizens and immigrants in general. Frankly, I think the US should "coddle" its residents a lot more when it comes to healthcare. My point is that you shouldn't assume government is the answer to the segregation Rabbi Sacks describes.

Zbird’s got me here. I’ve got no idea how precisely immigrant bureaucracy works in England or elsewhere in Europe. But I just can’t imagine why my assumption is that it doesn’t work well…