A long time ago I was an immigrant. Even though many generations of my family came from the country where I choose to live and work, I was not born here, and had to endure a great deal of scrutiny to secure citizenship. Out of curiosity and to refute some very wild claims on the back of yesterday's plea to resist anti-immigration, anti-integration politics, I made some enquiries and submit the following...it is rather difficult to immigrate into Europe from outside Europe. The levels of proof regarding positive contribution are very high. If the "uncontrolled immigration" to which my avid (or should I day rabid) readers refer, is from inside the Europe, well the duly elected representatives of the democratic electorate of all the participating European countries have signed the convention and as a committed democrat I respect them for it. If there is "uncontrolled immigration" into the European Union from elsewhere, would someone please show me documentary proof of it.
Immigration is not the dangerous issue, it is nationalism, and nationalism is the greatest threat to peaceful, respectful, co-operative, democratic prosperity. What fool thinks that the global integration of all the cultures and economies of humanity can be unpicked and that we can return to the dark ages when we killed or enslaved all who dared to cross the borders we were capable of defending.
Gray Dourman
FURTHER MORE....
