Nicholas Sarkozy made headlines recently when he said that there are too many immigrants in France and that under some circumstances he would consider closing France's borders in violation of the EU agreement concerning passport-free travel. Immigration and been a hot button issue political for some time in the US, and most recently a white nationalist is appearing openly with GOP leaders.
Prof. Rosensaft asks:
...who, precisely, is Peter Brimelow, and why should the rest of us be concerned when a white nationalist racist like him appears at the same event as, say, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin?
Brimelow is founder and editor of the VDARE.com website which has been designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and which, according to no less an authority than the Anti-Defamation League, "features the work of racists, anti-Semites and anti-immigrant figures."
The ADL has been following Brimelow's activities for some time. In February of 2009, the organization tells us, "Brimelow demonstrated his racist views" at "a conference of racists in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to 'Preserving Western Civilization.'" There, Brimelow "delivered one of the most extreme presentations at the conference. He argued that the influx of "non-traditional" immigration is a problem all over the Western world and that the loss of control over the country by "white Protestants" will mean a collapse of the American political system. He urged that whites respond by creating an explicitly white nationalist political party."
Hmm? An "explicitly white nationalist political party"? Where have we heard that before?Is Brimelow's open appearance with GOP leaders an iteration of Nixon's Southern strategy that seeks to incorporate the nationalist and racist fringe. At what cost?
Read it at The Huffington Post
White Nationalism: A Scourge That Won't Go Away
by Menachem Rosensaft | Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants
Prof. Rosensaft teaches law of genocide and World War II war crimes trials at Columbia, Cornell, and Syracuse law schools.We have to ask why white nationalism would be coming more into public prominence at this time? Would this type of appeal get traction socially and politically if it were not for high unemployment creating a backlash against immigrants? If so, add it to the social cost of unemployment as a policy choice to depress wages in a misguided attempt to increase investment and productivity.
Ironically Brimelow is himself an immigrant (from the UK by way of Canada). There's no excuse for advocating for a white nationalism party and no justification. Immigration control isn't an ethnic issue, its an economic one. Like Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang said:
ReplyDelete“Wages in rich countries are determined more by immigration control than anything else, including any minimum wage legislation. How is the immigration maximum determined? Not by the ‘free’ labour market, which, if left alone, will end up replacing 80-90 per cent of native workers with cheaper, and often more productive, immigrants. Immigration is largely settled by politics. So, if you have any residual doubt about the massive role that the government plays in the economy’s free market, then pause to reflect that all our wages are, at root, politically determined…”
http://books.google.com/books?id=qUqoS7MTwPwC&pg=PA5&dq#v
It's even spreading onto Mike Norman Economics. You've got a post just below this one by a white nationalist - Ralph Musgrave
ReplyDelete"Why is white nationalism so unacceptable?"
ReplyDeleteBecause of the overlap of those who support white nationalism and those who oppose black civil rights.
vimothy: "Why is white nationalism so unacceptable?"
ReplyDeleteBecause it is becoming a rising political force in the developed countries and it is being condoned if not encouraged by craven politicians pandering for the vote off the bottom. This gives a marginal subset of society inordinate power and influence in framing the political debate and potentially influencing policy.
The fact that is gaining traction socially seems to be because it has taken up the anti-immigrant banner at a time when many people are either suffering from unemployment or underemployment and are looking for scapegoats. This is a dangerous trend socially, politically, and economically for countries that hold themselves out as beacons of liberal democracy and world leaders.
Good point out immigration, beowulf. And it should be added that leaking jobs through a trade deficit is virtual immigration since the lower prices for imports are due in part to lower wages and benefits abroad. While it may be true that net imports are a benefit in real terms, there are other issues involved is the net importer does not take steps to increase domestic employment by offsetting demand leakage. It is generally the reactionary right that opposes actual immigration, calling for stricter enforcement and lower quotas and the socialist left that opposes virtual immigration by encouraging limits on free trade. Something for everyone.
ReplyDeleteIs this the same Brimelow that posts on MarketWatch?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-bugs-digging-out-again-2012-03-08
Attempts by any country to preserve its culture, way of life, identity, etc are a disgrace. Tibet should be overrun by the Chinese and/or Western culture. Plus attempts by Isreal to preserve the Jewish way of lift, culture, etc should be squashed. And as for the Europe, the quicker it is Islamised the better. That should help destroy Western civilisation.
ReplyDeleteUltimately we’ll destroy all the world’s cultures and end up with a pan-world monoculture. I.e. Multiculturalism ultimately destroys itself. But that’s something that your average dimwit PC Professor of Sociology hasn’t worked out yet.
These issues are quite nuanced.
I've always been puzzled about why the Libertarians of the Right would not look at border control as "Big Government" yet they seem to be all about this type of physical border control...... Beo and Tom point out that so-called "free trade" is in effect the same thing economically... so there is a lot of hypocrisy in advocating "closed borders" for humans yet "free markets" for the mercantilists. But you have to understand true macro to be able to see this.
ReplyDeleteResp,
Is it really becoming a political force in the developed world? It seems to me that it's basically completely untouchable from a political point of view.
ReplyDeletevimothy, political parties are coalition of factions. As factions gain political clout their demands need to be catered to. Look at how the immigration debate has influenced US politics recently and who is hanging on its coattails, driving it in other directions, too.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the reactionaries in the West are bemoaning the loss of Western civilization to multiculturalism, while the reactionaries in the rest of the world are bemoaning the loss of their traditional cultures to Americanization and Europeanization. The great leveling is taking place socially, politically and economically, as one is constantly remind being here in the American Southwest.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteI understand the concept of "factions".
What I don't understand is why anyone would think that white nationalism is a political philosophy with influence.
I don't pay a huge amount of attention to American politics, but it seems as though current levels and composition of immigration is basically harmful on every level, but this is not discussed or recognised by politicians of any stripe.
That's certainly the story in the UK.
President Hu Jintao of China wants to “Build a Cultural Front Against the West”. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106447
Personally I sympathise.
Weren't we told Obama hanging out w/black racist pastors wasn't a big deal? I think if there is a significant white nationalist faction, maybe its in response to other race factions. Who knows, but the same parties seem to bemoan the racism of other parties, just not their own.
ReplyDeleteRalph,
ReplyDeleteIf that's what Hu wants to do then that zombie can stop collecting these western things right now for all I care...
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
BTW the trade deficit INCREASED for last reported month (Jan '12) as reported last week:
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html
Ecerpt: "The goods deficit with China increased from $23.1 billion in December to $26.0 billion in January."
Talk is cheap. Mr Hu and his other "western wannabe" zombies just cant get enough of those USD balances... this looks like an unstoppable force at work... they at core do not believe in their own systems, that's why they want USD balances instead of their own.
Resp,
From an MMT economic perspective what sort of impact does immigration have? I'm not clear. It changes the supply of labor, may cause demand leakage because money is transmitted out of the country back to families.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Texas so my bias is to open the borders completely because we have Yankees to north, Mexico to the south and Liberals toward the west and they all make pretty good neighbors and have been coming and going forever. They have all shaped the Republic's character.
But France has had some violence and rioting and things from unemployed immigrants. It would seem MMT could solve many of the poverty problems that cause resentment between immigrants and natives.
Matt, You are probably right to say that there are “unstoppable forces at work”.
ReplyDeleteBut I still think it’s a shame to destroy the world’s cultures and replace them with a pan-world mono-culture. At the very least, I’d like to slow down this destruction.
Ralph, the destruction started when occidental powers started to export their model to the rest of the world by conquer and creating modern capitalist economies & states (or something alike) everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should have though better or not, maybe is an unavoidable zeitgiest, now the establishment interest is on globalization of capital and labour markets and these dynamics will better work with the homogenization of world culture.
It looks like those who obtain leadership for sure and certain segments of the citizen populations outside of the west for some reason become infatuated with the west.
ReplyDeleteThe leaders are led to want to accrue USD/Euro/GBP balances (savings) for their nations and many of the citizens seek to emigrate to the west, leaving much behind (family, culture, language,etc..). I look at all of this as "irrational" to a great extent, hard to understand.
Why do they want to do this? What force is driving them to the west? Monetary gain? Religion? "Freedom"?
As far as the foreign official reserves (USD/Euro/GBP) their leaders accrue, ie savings, I believe Bill Mitchell when he says savings are "a hedge against uncertainty using money as a bridge across time", but we must recognize that these people are doing this hedging in a foreign currency. This logically can only be explained by their lack of long term confidence in their own systems.
As far as the emigration of their "regular" citizens, this one is perhaps harder to pin down, from what I have seen first hand, it looks like mostly religious reasons.
Resp,
"so there is a lot of hypocrisy in advocating "closed borders" for humans yet "free markets" for the mercantilists."
ReplyDeleteWell, if nothing else, no one can accuse Pat Buchanan of hypocrisy, he ran against immigration and the trade deficit.
Its remarkable that Romney isn't given credit by conservatives for being tougher on immigration and trade of any candidate since Buchanan.
Which makes me think that Romney's religion is the actual reason he's not considered a real conservative by much of the GOP base.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteQuality of life and power (power of business, money or sheer political power) maybe. Mostly quality of life.
For all their hatred against some resemblance to democracy our oligarchs have and their race to equalize the world population to the bottom and destroy our system and substitute it for pure plutocracy it has created an stable environment were people can have a prosper live with quality.
Would you prefer to be a rich on South Africa or to be a little less rich but live in a flamboyant Paris residential area.
And to do business, for the good or for the bad, other partier will prefer USD/euro, so you need to accumulate and use USD/euro. However this trend is (very) slowly changing, and will do more so if these economies manage to get stability and wealth population growth, while occidental population 'mean reverses' to the median global income (as our elites want to fix 'productivity' or 'competitiveness' self-made problems).
beowulf: "Which makes me think that Romney's religion is the actual reason he's not considered a real conservative by much of the GOP base."
ReplyDeleteSeems to me to be the case. I asked a friend from a traditional white Southern Christian family whether bubba would ever vote for a Mormon. He shot back, "No way." He didn't even have to think about it. I think that this is pretty surely a strong force behind the anyone but Romney push.