Comments on: Guest Post: Sci-Culturist

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:47:30 +0000

@seinlife: You bring up something that I think is definitely one of the core issues behind the whole anti-immigration position: class and power. My guess is that a lot of Europeans are very aware of the history and the fact that a lot of their wealth was derived on the backs of the ancestors of the now -poor-immigrants and are now scared of, for lack of a better way of putting it, “karma coming back to bite them in the a**”. That and of course people from poor, war torn nations tend to have issues that are quite different from those of Westerners because of the extreme circumstances from which they came. My two cents.

By: seinlife

seinlife — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:41:56 +0000

I somewhat understand why some people might be anti-immigration but i have yet to understand why ’selective’ anti-immigration. In the US, the immigrants getting the same treatment as your eastern european counterparts are mexicans. Yet they are the backbone of agriculture in this country, working those asparagus, orange and you name it farms. I know that ‘Mike’ will say yes deport that mexican and i will take up the job but ‘Mike’ will probably last a whomping 2wks at most.He will complain about the pay, the hours and who knows what else. Granted the pay is not the best (that is another topic for another time) but it works for the mexican and the farm.
I seriously believe the root problem is not economics but the changing ethnic balance. In 1965 when the immigration act first made it’s debut in the US, Whites made up the vast majority of the population. That dominancy is trickling down with every non white immigrant that arrives. California is a good example of a state where whites are no longer a majority. It obvious that at some time in the future white majority will be a thing of the past in the entire US. That i think is a huge threat – that inherent fear of the unknown.
Do you think that perhaps because eastern europeans typically come from war-torn poverty striken countries they are purposely grouped and identified as non whites so that they do not ’stain’ the pure white race? i suspect thus….

Either way i think the immigration problem is a world wide issue that will continue to evoke all sorts of discussion and actions. Thanks sci-culturist for this wonderful piece.

Hey check this out http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/04/whoops-anti-immigration-p_n_100043.html

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:00:35 +0000

@gal: Posts such as this one reinforce the statement, “We fear that which we cannot understand and control”

By: gal africana

gal africana — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:35:56 +0000

Nice post! The situation is quite the same, if not worse, in Denmark. Eastern-European, African and Arab immigrants are viewed differently (negatively), compared to American, Australian and in this case British immigrants. Arab immigrants are particularly affected by this, since many have been living here since the 70’s. Even their kids, who are born in DK, are NEVER considered as being “native”…they are instead called “2nd generation immigrants”!

The post on Afropolitanness is spot on and a really good read!