Immigration, ethnicity and religion (in ain’t as simple as it seems!)

Foreword: Today I am starting what might well turn out into a series of articles about the interaction between immigration, ethnicity and religion. I happen to believe that this is a topic I know pretty well for the following reasons:

I myself was born in a family of immigrants who went from Russia, to Serbia, to Germany, to Argentina, to Holland and then to Switzerland were I was born. I then immigrated to the USA twice, first to get two college degrees 1986-1991 and a second time in 2002. I know about immigration from the inside.
Furthermore, I also worked as an interpreter for the Swiss Federal authorities interviewing refugees.
As a member of the Swiss General Staff I also participated in analyses and command staff exercises dealing with the issue of how the national authorities would deal with a major immigration crisis.
While already in the USA, I also worked as an over-the-phone consecutive interpreter often involving cases of asylum seekers and other immigrants being interviewed by authorities (courts, police, etc.).
In Geneva I witnessed how a big mosque was built literally on my street and all the fears and changes this mosque elicited amongst the locals and I also witnessed what then actually happened over time.
I have a graduate degree in Orthodox theology which I combine with a personal interest for Islam in all its different versions and I have the privilege to speak, at length, with many Muslims, including very well educated ones.
I speak six languages and I have been extensively exposed to plenty of different cultures on our planet in many years of travel in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
My own culture, the Russian one, has always multi-ethnic, multi-religious and has been influenced by many waves of immigrants from all over the Eurasian continent.

I also wrote a series of articles entitled Russia and Islam which I can refer any interested reader to:

http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-one-introduction-and-definitions/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-two-russian-orthodoxy/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-three-internal-russian-politics/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-four-islam-as-a-threat/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-five-islam-as-an-ally/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-six-the-kremlin/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-seven-the-weathermans-cop-out/
http://10.16.86.131/russia-and-islam-part-eight-working-together-a-basic-how-to/
http://10.16.86.131/russias-civilizational-choice/
http://10.16.86.131/the-fighting-imam-of-donbass-must-see/
http://10.16.86.131/ramzan-kadyrov-offers-putin-his-own-personal-volunteer-chechen-special-force/
http://10.16.86.131/a-muslim-police-officer-dies-a-heros-death-and-receives-russias-highest-honorary-title-hero-of-russia/

Normally, I would not begin with such an immodest “I am the expert, trust me on authority” kind of nonsense, but in this case this is important, because a lot of what I will write below comes out of my personal and direct experience.

I should also mention that I posted a (English subtitled) video about a recent incident in Moscow (see here) which got some folks very offended at me. I wish they had waited for this series of articles before exploding in anger, but such is human nature…

Having said that, now let’s turn to the topic at hand.

***

Section one: basic truisms

Here I will begin by some basic assumptions which should be uncontroversial (at least I hope so!)

People chose to emigrate for very different reasons, including poverty, violence, fleeing the law (criminals) etc.
Internal immigration and external immigration have common features but should not be conflated.
Being FROM a Christian/Muslim country and actually BEING Christian/Muslim are two totally different propositions and the former does not in any way imply the latter.
To be considered as an adherent of religion X requires, at the minimum, a) being aware of its main teachings and b) living your daily life in according to at least the main precepts of this religion.
Immigrating to country X does not mean that you approve/like/are inspired by country X or its native people, this is especially true when country X is the one which destroyed your own country of origin.
Immigration is an extremely stressful exercise, even when done in very comfortable conditions, and even more so when done under adverse ones. Most immigrants are suffering stress/anxiety/PTSD/etc.
In many cases, the locals/natives are hostile to immigrants, some even use them as “cheap labor” (slaves) in often terrible conditions (even in supposedly civilized societies, there were cases of such slavery even in prosperous Switzerland).
When immigrants come not for neighboring countries, but from farther away a “clash of cultures” often happens.
In most cases, large waves of immigrants include a percentage of true criminals which “hide in the crowd” and who then commit crimes they would not dare to commit in their country of origin.

Next, a few elements which might not be widely known

Most countries do not have the capability to enforce their laws on large groups of immigrants. Here are a few examples:

Regular cops: they often do not speak the language of the immigrants, and they know little about the cultural/tribal customs and organization of immigrants. It is very hard for them to get confidential informers amongst immigrants. Furthermore, when cops use legal, legitimate. violence against criminals from country X, these criminals always appeal to their fellow immigrants who, alas, often side with them which, in turn, results in a knee-jerk “circling of wagons” along ethnic lines on both sides which just makes things even worse.
Special services (intelligence, counter-intelligence, anti-terrorist, etc.): These services typically have some experts (cultural, linguistic, religions, etc.) but NEVER in sufficient numbers. Furthermore, in many countries it is illegal for these services to operate internally. Finally, to somebody with a hammer everything looks like a nail: the same way for a typical counter-intelligence officer or counter-terrorist officer, every immigrant looks like at least a potential spy or a potential terrorist. That is, of course, utter nonsense, but for the advancement of their own careers these folks will seek out “the enemy” in the most ridiculous places. The immigrants, by the way, become very attuned to these suspicions.
The military: while they typically have the numbers, their mission and training is to engage an enemy and defeat him. When the military does intervene against immigrants, it often results in a PR disaster which a lot of seemingly innocent immigrants being abused, mistreated or even killed by seemingly “hell bent on violence” military forces.

Which leaves only one group which *might* be effective in operations with/against immigrants: specialized internal security forces such as, say, the Russian National Guard or ICE in the USA. That’s in theory. In reality, for that type of force to be effective it needs all of the following:

An unambiguous legal status and mandate.
A smooth collaboration with police forces, special forces and the military.
Lots and lots of money for training, facilities, operations, etc.
The support of the general public (natives/locals).
The legal and material means to deal with the criminal elements hiding inside a wave of refugees.

That is very rarely the case, to put it mildly.

Next, the role of governments

I think I have already mentioned it several times on the blog that there is no such thing as a “non-government supported terrorist organization” out there, at least to my knowledge. Okay, there might be local gangs which we could call “terrorist” which are local and more or less spontaneous, but they rarely last very long and a infiltrated sooner rather than later. The late Colonel Gaddafi warned the EU that if he was removed, the gates of African immigration would open (and they did). Erdogan uses refugees on a regular basis to put pressure on the EU and it appears that Lukashenko might be emulating Erdogan’s model. The point is that if Turkey, for example, really wanted to stop the flow of immigrants cross its territory it could do so – the Turkish military is in bad shape, but that they sure could do. Ditto for Lukashenko. Yet, they (apparently) don’t.

In the countries which the immigrants want to reach, the local politicians make entire careers by being either pro-immigration or anti-immigration. They are in a tacit alliance NOT to solve anything, but to simply profit from it!

How about corporations and businesses?

Yeah, for all their typical pseudo patriotism, the truth is that immigration is a big, HUGE, business for folks ranging from the country of origin of these immigrants to corporations and businesses in the countries of asylum. And I am not only talking about drug dealers (though they play a major role too). As others have observed, corporations act in a psychopathic way and their only true goal is to make as much money as possible. They don’t give a damn about anything else, including crime, poverty, religion, etc.

Lastly, religious authorities

Well, they are typically in a pickle in many ways. You would think that if you are a cleric of religion X and there is a wave of immigrants coming from a country nominally pertaining to that religion, that only means that your flock will get bigger and better. Alas, this is almost rarely the case and, in fact, the opposite typically happens. The fact that the locals/natives do not know enough about religion X is not much of a consolation, because now you, as the religious leader of religion X in this country will be blamed for the actions of criminals, as will your fellow coreligionists and even your religion as such. Add to that the undeniable reality that some of these (pseudo-)religious immigrants use that religion to justify their actions make things even worse!

In theory, there is an easy solution for the local religious authorities: offer your services to the local law enforcement authorities. That is SUCH a naive statement, it always makes me wonder if those who believe that understand the implications of this “simple” solution! So let me spell out a few things about this:

First, unlike the “regular” members of the religious community X, the recently immigrants might view any such collaboration as a betrayal and even the evidence that the clergymen “sold out”, which might put the religious leaders in very real risk of violence (including murder) or, at best, replacement by another person, possibly an immigrant himself.
Second, unlike what the locals/natives seem to assume, most immigrants from country A with religion X are not at all interested in religion X or what its clerics might teach. Again, this is especially true for criminals.
Third, being a religious leader and an effective confidential informer or agent are totally different roles and psychological mindset. Hence, religious leaders are often quite incompetent in a role which is deeply alien to them.

Conclusion (for today): it ain’t as simply as some (simpletons) think it is!

What I outlined above are just elements of a very complex “immigration matrix” in which very complex and different phenomena all interact with each other. To put it differently: there is a very good reason why immigration is such a complex and frustrating problem, and to make it appear all quick, easy and simple is just adding to the problem. Yet, what do I see in the comment section under any article discussing immigration? Mostly this:

Sweeping slogans, sometimes several slogans in a row masquerading as a comment.
A total conflation of religions, countries, historical situations, etc.
A quasi total ignorance of the realities of immigration I tried to outline above.
A systematic “right or wrong – my country” attitude from both some local/natives and the some immigrants.
Sweeping and unsubstantiated accusations against the perceived “other” and his/her supposed views or intentions.

The sad reality is that immigration is a topic which makes a lot of people instantly infantile and stupid (along with stuff like abortion, gun laws, sexuality and historiography, just to name a few). The maxim that knowing a little about something is even worse than not nothing anything also fully applies. People compare incidents in, say, Moscow, with other incidents in, say, California and Spain. At best, these are at least real personal anecdotes, at worst just a paraphrasing of something read somewhere. And yet on the basis of such utterly inapplicable assumptions, they make sweeping generalizations!

And when religion gets involved, the following groups feel like now is the chance to get on a soapbox and preach:

Assorted atheists and religion-bashers.
Opponents of “organized religion”.
Opponents of religion X (whichever is involved).
Bigots from religion X who think that hating religion Y is a sign of deep piety (aka “virtue signalling”).
Native/local politicians who can make a career on this topic.
Assorted flag-waverers, racists and xenophobes who cannot deal with (real) diversity (but love the fake version).
Folks how never traveled outside their country of origin and who don’t know a single foreign language.
Pseudo-experts at everything which, in reality, lack even the basic understanding of the issues involved.

I don’t expect any members of the groups above to recognize themselves as members of these groups. And no matter how hard the moderators try, some of that will inevitable seep through and make it to the comments section.

And yet.

This IS a really important topic, which MUST be discussed openly and honestly. To just wish it away won’t do the trick.

So in the next installment, I would try to look a little deeper at the issues mentioned above.

Until then, cheers!

Andrei

Judy on November 10, 2021 · at 6:08 pm EST/EDT

I know that most well-read persons are aware why people are religious. When it comes to Islam you flush the awareness down a hole called Islamophobia. Religion was an organizer of our actions not the motivator for them. This topic has held humanity as a hostage for centuries.

Many people are religious because they fear the unknown. This fear was used by chiefs, shamans, kings, and now modern leaders to unite people against others. Those we feel are a threat to us, our power, our control of resources, wealth food whatever are the “devils” that we isolate, vilify, denigrate, and if that does not get rid of them, we sent in the military to eliminate them. Vatican has done this, and the words of Jesus were not written by him but by the Catholic Church in Rome which was done for economic not religious reasons. Marx was right opium of the masses.

Today wealth is a virtue, no matter how you get it, while poverty is a sin no matter the reason. The wealthy say that God blessed them, while the poor say the opposite that God blessed them. Neither the wealthy nor the poor are mentioned in the Bible as being blessed by God. How many examples of this do I need to provide here? Probably none because you know them as well as I do, but most delusional people ignore them.
For Example, when Islam came to Southern Europe, it came to plunder. Christianity did the same in Americas, Africa and anywhere it went, but that is another story. The conqueror instilled fear by their actions to make people obedient and cooperative.

In the Balkans they demanded a blood tax (one of your male children), half of what you produced, or conversion to Islam and when you refused to do any of these things, they cut your head off. Why did they do these things? They did it to make you obedient.

If they took one child you became obedient so that they did not take another child, or a daughter into the harem. Conversion to Islam gave you food, water, sex, and sleep without too much work, conversion was done not because you loved religion but because it gave you advantages. One thing that Islam or Christianity hated the most was rebels who also used religion to unite people to rebel, so they killed the rebels. Romans killed Jesus because he rebelled against their rule. The rebels were a threat to their wealth, power, and their ability to take what the rebels produced.

I am sure that those who have travelled to London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Washington, Vienna, St. Petersburg or even Baghdad and Tehran and marveled at the palaces, and monuments and said wow how did this culture produce such magnificence, or did you ask, who did they rob, how many died or how many slaves did they use so that they could build this. Maybe you did, I don’t know. Religion was used to control, rob, and plunder not to enlighten.

Oh yes religion provided schools, but they were used to indoctrinate not to enlighten. Good example of this are the Residential Schools in Canada. If you have not read about them google “Residential schools Kamloops Canada” and see how many children died to Anglicize the Indigenous people. Even, better read the first chapter of Howard Zinn’s book Peoples History of the United States and all the religious hogwash will be as clear as “Russian Standart” vodka.

You don’t need to go back to the Dark Ages as an example where Christianity united people to plunder others. You know well that the words “Gott Mit Uns”, in different languages have been used by every European nations as they bamboozled their people to go to war. ISIL-K is doing it now in Afghanistan.

In modern wars we provide chaplains to ease the fear of the enemy bullet spilling one’s guts all over the placed. There were many incidences in Vietnam of men holding their intestines in their hands trying to push them back in the hole caused by a grenade, urinating, and defecating in their pants asked for their mother rather than for their God.

WWI was blamed on Gavrilo Princip, but it should have been blamed on Marx’s ideas that encouraged people to rebel against economic oppression of the upper classes. To save their privileges the upper classes used religion, the “opium of the masses”, to unite their countrymen against their neighbor.

Again, it was economic determinism not religious ideology that killed 50 million Europeans including my maternal grandfather on the Salonika Front. The working people forgot their grievances as they went to war singing “God Save the King” and “God Save the Tsar”. The upper classes used “God” to save their privileges. Today we blame Islam so that 1% can plunder more. Did the Crusaders destroy Constantinople for plunder or to bring them into the fold so that Rome could control the wealth of the East?

A friend who is an atheist, while back, wrote a misguided column about Charlie Hebdo. He wrote ” Another day, another horrific act of terror courtesy of Islam”. I wrote back and said Islam is just a marker “them” vs. “us” by which we identify the perpetrators, however, it is not the reason why the perpetrator committed murder in Paris, and it is not a reason for many acts of terrorism be they from Islamic or Christian nations.

Israelis killed 17 journalists in Palestine recently, so is this another horrific act of Judaism, since we know they have some quirky things in that religion as well. I don’t think so. How about cheap labor for the Jewish state?
Many promote fear of Islam and by that justify our government abrogation of our liberties won by centuries of spilled blood of progressives who fought against government reactionaries and their oppression. Some conclude that Paris massacre was caused by Islam and with that they dismiss our invasion of Muslim countries that we have bombed into the Stone Age just to get at their resources.

All the wars had multiple causes, but much more common motivation for war was opposition to a puppet government, or to the economic, ideological, political, or social systems of a state. These factors were named as the main elements in nearly two thirds of the wars since WWI Capitalist hand (USA) was in almost 95% of these conflicts and religion was a convenient lightening rod used either to destabilize or to control the society. The reason was always the same economic materialism, power, resources, and markets.

Muslims ” object to being intentionally insulted over the course of many years.” Let me just post these words of Professor Finkelstein a Holocaust survivor who wrote about Charlie Hebdo and says, “when somebody is down and out, desperate, destitute, when you mock them, when you mock a homeless person, that is not satire,” What do you think many of us in Canada would do if USA invaded us on a pack of lies like they invaded, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and so on? I don’t think I need to answer that do I? Just Read Milosevic’s address to the court at the Hague, which was an Inquisitions or a kangaroo Court and everything about that war will be clear.

I understand religion well and that is why I vocally oppose religious customs be it Islam or Christianity. Understand me, I oppose Islam that promotes things that are not desirable for our society, like, sexual slavery, rapes, forced pedophile marriages, hangings, floggings, stoning, which are completely acceptable for the women of Jazzed in the caliphate and subsumed under multicultural diversity. Education will end this over time not jets.

The basic factor in human history is economics not religion. Humans may pray to God for food but once they see that there is no manna from heaven they will rob, steal, and kill others to eat. Humans are motivated, by material concerns, and fear of the unknown. The need to eat and survive is more powerful than our fear of the unknown. Every economic system, regardless of ideology, strives to produce food, shelter, and clothing for its citizens. The organization of the system determines who gets what and how much.

As I said before religion was an organizer of our actions not the motivator for them. When we walked on the Serengeti the group was the most important thing for survival. As soon as one individual grunted a warning, if a “Curious George” hesitated and did not climb the first tree he became a meal for the Saber Tooth Tiger. Before religion humans depended on group dynamics, working together, to survive. Two things changed human behavior, private property, and agriculture.

These two factors created division of labor and separated people into classes based upon power and wealth, (the 1% and the rest of us) in turn this, created the social conflict which drives society to this day. Institutions like marriage (relationship of women to men), religion (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Islam), government, (Moses to Biden and Putin), Wars (Crusades to World Wars), Terrorism (Paris to Kabul) can only be truly understood when examined in relation to economic forces. This is where the interpretation of Religion, at least that is how many posts and religious writing fails the test of reason.

Inquisition, crusades, European ones were called religious wars, while the ones against Islam were called crusades, but in each case including the Inquisition were expressions of class interest and class conflict. It’s not mom and dad that is sending our young Man to fight wars it’s the 1%. Those who have power want to maintain the status quo and preserve current economic realities. This was true of the Catholic Church in Spain during the Inquisition; this is true of George Bush (Halliburton), and his you are with us on Iraq, or you are against us (the Ayatollahs)

The powerful developed an ideology Religion to consolidate and maintain their power to justify and maintain that power. Theology or the ideology of religion, uses fear of death, heavenly rewards, and the unknown (you know all this) to maintain Class interests. Paris, for example, played well into the interest of the ruling elite in France but many ignore that and lay it at the feet of Islam.
People started to get smart, and fear of God diminished and with it the control of society by priests, kings, and nobles. The fear of losing power, priests, kings, and nobles used Theology to scare the ignorant people against following the likes of Copernicus and Galileo. If they admitted the truth of science, they lost power and Theology was dead as a control mechanism. What did they do? Just the same as America is doing today using fear to unite us against Islam.

Kings and Priests used force of the state and terror (fear, inquisition) to silence opposition and questioning. Biden uses the silence of the Media to manufacture consent, power of the state, lies, laws and state terrorism to silence opposition and justify his wars against Islam. Wars against Islam expands US power and control of resources
What did the people do against Kings and Priests –they rebelled –chopped their heads off just like the Romans did with the rebel including nailing Jesus to the cross who was a terrorist against Roman Rule in Palestine. What is the Muslim world doing? They are rebelling against Western particularly US terrorism and Islam unites them. Islam uses our terrorism to justify the use of terrorism against their own people.

The problem with much of what I read from religious writers is that it is focused on the God delusion and refuses to examine the historical evidence of economic determinism, Howard Zinn does it in his Peoples History of the United States. If you examine scientific evidence on the existence of a God, the evidence is clear on the God issue, while historical evidence is very clear, how Theology is used to control society and protect the economic power of the state and those who control it.

I don’t find it OK for people to post comments that repeat the mainstream media sanitization of the Middle East Conflict and further blur the boundary between fact and fiction of the religious role in history. Paris and other soft targets chosen by followers of Islam are not caused by religious delusion it is simply revenge for our atrocities against Islamic Nations done by those who use religion for self-interest.

78 Comments

bluedogg on November 08, 2021 · at 2:25 pm EST/EDT

Without a doubt many things contribute to immigration wars, probably being the main driver then the give a-way programs of the host country they are trying to immigrate to, no one has the freebies for immigrants that the U.S. has even tho they have millions living in poverty and I rather doubt you will see any change in their policies the immigration problems have been coming for years clear back to Ike who handled it very well, so they have had more than enough time to come up with a sane immigration program but didn’t.
- The Saker on November 08, 2021 · at 3:03 pm EST/EDT
  
  reading makes me think I wasted my time today :-(((
  - AfricanPostman on November 09, 2021 · at 6:42 am EST/EDT
    
    Ah-ha-ah!
    Do not worry, Saker, job honestly and very well done. Go sleep and rest instead.
    And thanks again.
  - bluedogg on November 09, 2021 · at 9:20 am EST/EDT
    
    Perhaps so, but the millions of native unborn Americans (killed by abortion) are simply being replaced by the millions of those who come here as immigrates. Now my ancestors came over here in the early 1600s they came not looking for food stamps free housing free education or free anything else but in that period of time damn near owned the state of New Hampshire and you can include the Boston Harbor in that while others became engineers business leaders contributing to the country they came too not looking for a free ride. I’m sorry if my view differs from yours, but both sides of the matter must be discussed, both the plus and the minus and when you have over 5 million living in poverty and God knows how many are living on the streets, and you’re talking about bringing millions more in well something is simply wrong.
  - red1chief on November 09, 2021 · at 8:44 pm EST/EDT
    
    “reading makes me think I wasted my time today” Look below, that’s not the majority!
    
    I’ll add that I’ve never known an immigrant looking for “freebies”… Just opportunity and a safe community. Despite what a lot of people here in the USA believe, it is very hard for immigrants (especially not legal) to get access to “freebies” enjoyed by citizens or legal residents.
  - Rabbitnexus on November 10, 2021 · at 7:35 am EST/EDT
    
    It’s one hell of a subject to expect to be able to bring extremists to the middle upon. Those groups you mention are not as you also implied, inclined to self awareness or empathy with others so where do you start?
- Rabbitnexus on November 10, 2021 · at 7:32 am EST/EDT
  
  Most Western countries have “freebies” as you describe it and many have more than the USA. Try Australia, UK or Denmark for comparison. Still I am sure there are better examples. I see why Andrei is frustrated. Guess which group/s mentioned you belong to?
Anonymous on November 08, 2021 · at 2:53 pm EST/EDT

some people just like to move around! not all immigrants are fleeing something in the same way that all people living on the streets do not have that forced on them. Some people like to move around to experience different cultures, and some people live on the streets because they are against the system etc. no question the endless wars in the middle east does not help, nor does the monroe doctrine free the peoples of central and south america. until all people are allowed to move and live freely, immigration etc will remain a senseless issue or better said an issue some take a tour de force point of view…like trump. lastly, if capitalism really worked for the peoples than things would be different, but the fact remains that capitalism is a system made by a few for a few. and it is clear that the west are the ones whom really take offense to this…peoples living in systems that force others to do as that want. thus, the problem arises with the rich peoples, not the poor peoples…
- The Saker on November 08, 2021 · at 3:01 pm EST/EDT
  
  tourists and immigrants are not the same phenomenon… (sigh, rolleyes)
  - A. Dane on November 09, 2021 · at 2:51 pm EST/EDT
    
    Tank You Andrei, for trying to create a debate on an intellectual level, containing the many aspects of migration.
    My post is regarding the psychological mechanisms behind migration.
    
    Some might claim that they choose to migrate freely.
    To those I ask why?
    Was the society where you were born evil toward you?
    Were you evil towards people living in the society you were born?
    Or was you made to believe that the grass was greener on the other side?
    When you arrived, was the grass greener?
    
    Using migration as a weapon to control both foreign and you own populations is not a new phenomenon. History is full of displaced populations, instigated by their rulers.
    The purpose is to harm both to the ones displaced, and to harm those receiving the migrants.
    “Rulers” have used this MO for millennials to control populations by fracturing native bonds and stirring up oppositions. A classic divide and conquer technique to rule the masses.
    
    I believe:
    That it is human nature to form a bond to the place where you were born and raised.
    Your family protection and the local native customs during childhood form your personal identity for life.
    If this bond (your roots) is served, you enter a life as wandered often in depression, left with the feeling of not fitting in anywhere.
    You get detached from the strangers among you, and you never really bond, but only integrate.
    While living in your native society your neighbor’s problem instantly became your problem because of your common bond. However as a migrant or displaced your become detached from you neighbors lives, and they becomes detached from your life. You are now both living among strangers.
    
    The problem of Migration of today is that this technique is used not only internally in Nations, but on a Global scale. And the only solution is for all humanity to bond against the Globalist harming humanity by displacement.
    
    BTW: I believe that the migrant crises taking place between Belarus and Poland are instigated by the usual suspects.
    I wonder: how com migrants from Syria, Iraq and Africa are departing from northern Iraq to either:
    1) Travel through Turkey, sail through the Black sea, Travel through Ukraine, and enter into Belarus instead of entering directly into Poland, to seek asylum in the EU.
    2) Or Pay 15.000 euro for a visa and a plane ticket from Iraq to Minsk in Belarus. And then travel 450Km inside Belarus to reach the Polish border to seek asylum in the EU.
    
    The “migrant crisis created by evil Lukashenko” is now prime-time on European News networks, a clear indicator that the crisis is created by the Elite controlling the Western Empire and mass media, to be used as a threat against Polish sovereignty, and as leverage to demonize and remove Lukashenko.
    And all migrants stranded at the border be damned.
Cris on November 08, 2021 · at 3:17 pm EST/EDT

Italy, where I come from, has huge problems with immigration, especially from Africa through the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately the public discussions are almost too emotional, so that barely posing your points would raise tons of insults, rhetoric and useless straw-man discussions.
Bottom lines are the followings:
– Politicians exploit opposite narratives to gain votes, both the “we defend our country from irregular criminal immigrants” and “we must accept these poor good people fleeing from war to host them in our rich and open society”. Both are lies, but they are able to sell them and a lot of people are believing.
– This human traffic is criticized, but it is actually encouraged by everyone: immigrants serve as cheap and very disposable labor force (very close to slavery) for agriculture, and also by Mafia for drug distribution (there were also cases of organ traffic, but nobody cares).
– It is encouraged by a lot of NGO, going to save their lives in the Mediterranean Sea, but actually acting as slave drivers, well paid by well known agencies carrying on foreign policies not related to improve immigrant lives.
– It is encouraged by the legal apparatus, because each immigrant can appeal for the refugee status; even if he is not fleeing from war, workaround can be found, i.e. stating that in his country he is persecuted for homosexuality or religion, in any case it will be impossible to check. For each process lawyers and judges earn a lot of money, regardless the end of the process. Then, they can act as the good people donating part of such earnings to NGO for saving lives in the sea, and delivering new immigrants.
– It is encouraged by a lot of associations, of any political color, gaining a lot of money for every immigrant they care of. Nobody checks if this stream of money goes actually into the immigrant pocket or in that of their host.

Finally, of all immigrants arriving in Italy, only a negligible part wins the lottery a find a stable well paid job, the majority must choose if serve as labor force for criminality or hoping to receive some charity. They can also work as occasional workers for legal enterprises as long as they are young and strong, and they can live in this way many years, but finally they will age and will be ejected from the job market, and the first choice will be posed again. Meanwhile most of them live in the peripheries, clashing with other poor locals, everyone struggling not to starve before the end of the month. This is very sad, but all the discussions at higher political level about integration are just fog to hide this large business.
- Man With No Name on November 10, 2021 · at 12:27 am EST/EDT
  
  Italy deserves that chaos because they actively supported the criminal bombing of Libya by the NATO.
Larchmonter445 on November 08, 2021 · at 3:24 pm EST/EDT

Belarus and Poland are engaged with migrants at their border.

https://sputniknews.com/20211108/poland-deploys-counterterrorism-units-at-belarusian-border-as-situation-with-migrants-remains-tense-1090572336.html

Migrants are a wedge for governments to use against their neighbors or enemies.
Their migration often ends in refugee camps where some of them fester and ripen into criminals or terrorists.

The cause of migration is economics and regional terror wars. The West’s developed nations wants no development of the third world. But they want cheap migrant labor. So, they get migrant chaos and crime.

Russia just listened to Patrushev and will be curtailing their migrant inflow, even though their vast construction industry wants cheap migrant labor.
- Serbian girl on November 08, 2021 · at 3:59 pm EST/EDT
  
  I read that these people are from Iraq. I presume they crossed the Black Sea from Turkey and went through Ukraine. Isn’t it easier just to go directly from Ukraine to Poland? I am trying to understand why they are going to Poland via Belarus..if they wanted to get into EU they could’ve just gone straight to Bulgaria or Romania from the Black Sea…
  - JJ on November 08, 2021 · at 4:38 pm EST/EDT
    
    Lots info here ? 27 Oct.
    
    https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/36063/the-route-from-iraq-to-belarus-how-are-migrants-getting-to-europe
    
    Notwithstanding the risks of embarking on a journey fraught with dangers and even death, scores of migrants are choosing to put their destinies in the hands of local smugglers in Iraq to get into the EU via Belarus. To put it into perspective: Since the beginning of October, there have been 11,300 attempts to illegally enter Polish territory from Belarus. So far this year, around 23,000 such attempts have been registered. From there, many make their way to the German border. Three German states border Poland: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony. Border police say there have been around 6,000 illegal crossings so far this year. Who’s fleeing and from where? Most of those smuggled out are originally from Iraq, but nationals from Syria, Congo and Cameroon are also among those making the journey to Minsk. Currently, the main points of departure are said to be three towns in Iraq’s Kurdish region: Irbil, Shiladze and Sulaymaniyah. Iraq suspended direct flights from Baghdad in August following pressure from the EU, so now migrants fly via Dubai, Turkey, Lebanon and Ukraine, according to local travel agencies. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week that there was also a noticeable increase in direct flights to Minsk from Beirut, Damascus and Amman. Credit: DW Visas and costs According to reports, the trips can cost between €12,000 to €15,000 ($14,000 to $17,000), including visas, flights and being smuggled overland once in Europe. The Belarusian Embassy in Irbil reportedly handles visas. However, a travel agent in Baghdad, who didn’t want to reveal his name or that of his agency, told DW the embassy had “outsourced visa applications to a number of travel agencies.” He said he used to get such visa requests but had stopped processing them: “I don’t do that anymore because it is becoming too shady and I don’t want to jeopardize my business. But it used to take between five days to two weeks to get the visas.” In addition, sources confirmed to DW that visa applications were being out……etc etc
  - A.H.H. on November 08, 2021 · at 4:39 pm EST/EDT
    
    The migrants are flying into Belarus!
    Belarus was sanctioned soon after that rerouted controversial flight a few months ago and its national carrier Belavia lost access to EU.
    It lost most of its routes and this put huge burden on state.
    So it found new customers by ferrying migrants from Iraq, Turkey, and other sources to Minsk, then opening borders for those migrants to EU neighbors…
    Business became so brisk, it leased more planes from Ireland and EU to bring even more migrants!
    Huge blowback for EU; hats off to the cheeky resourceful “last dictator of Europe.”
    
    https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-to-seek-sanctions-on-belarus-airline-belavia-over-migrant-arrivals/
    - ruca on November 08, 2021 · at 7:12 pm EST/EDT
      
      This is also my understanding of what’s happening. It was Lukashenko’s version of F*** the EU! Rather clever I must say. Once again Europe pays for obeying the US of Arrogance.
      - djole on November 09, 2021 · at 1:03 am EST/EDT
        
        Poland was the third contingent in Iraq. They came to another country, destroyed the country, and now when the bill has to be paid they turn their heads. Well, that’s not how it goes. Full support for migrants to ask for accommodation from Poles and Germans because they have nowhere to live and no place to raise their children. Whether there are terrorists there should be checked by the European services. Or, according to the historicaly known reaction of Alpine gene, they are all terrorists at once? In any case, the terrorists were created by European and Anglo-American services, so let their citizens pay the price. Let them demand the reorganization of these services. Unless the citizens of the EU and America are pressured and forced to seek a change of their government actions, the colonization of the world will continue.
    - sik on November 09, 2021 · at 6:54 am EST/EDT
      
      Lukashenko is not a flower to smell. He’s a tough cookie. lukashenko may be being mentored by putin. Russia is monocultural. Even Putin banned Muslims from publicly celebrating their holidays and living in accordance with Russian laws.
      Second, living together… with whom exactly? Even the great advocate of multiculturalism, the US, has enormous problems because of the aforementioned multiculturalism. It is human nature to be cautious with others and impose your own. Diversity is the weapon of all religions! Capitalism makes you homosexual.
      Zionists want to divide russia and china. part of Poland is smart, has wit and doesn’t want to sell itself to its mother brussels/berlin. The vile and despicable double-faced snakes are still trying to divide China and Russia. They want Russia to be as morally corrupt as they are, the head of the CIA, the same people who tried to assassinate Putin by shooting down a Malaysian plane over Ukraine, the same people who are trying to destroy the Russian economy with sanctions. Putin, who was a KGB colonel, is well aware of his mistake.
      
      these immigrants from Belarus, from the Middle East, they want to go to Germany, France or England! .. Poland already has ukrainians working as cheap labor (cleaning toilets and picking apples) … will poland be the next germany? angela merkel is very popular with psychologically castrated women and men who still feel guilty about world war 2.
      
      we are clearly living in a civilizational war. Everything is going on both sides. Humanity may have gone wrong, and in the future Asia will also be gripped by disorder and social chaos. Asia is the last hope for humanity, against the decay of values and Christianity.
      - Стивен on November 09, 2021 · at 8:01 pm EST/EDT
        
        Russia is far from monocultural, and has never banned Muslims, or Jews, or Buddhists “from publicly celebrating their holidays and living in accordance with Russian laws.” (Removed insults,do not violate the rules about insulting fellow posters.MOD)
- Dick Lenning on November 08, 2021 · at 4:39 pm EST/EDT
  
  As posted in the “Cafe,” I believe this is Belarus’ answer to Poland’s attempt to overthrow Lukashenko’s government. Furthermore, if NATO considers these migrant caravans a near existential danger to Poland and the rest of the alliance, I think this is a sign NATO has spent too much time killing civilians! How can NATO believe it can successfully conquer professional Russian or Chinese soldiers if they fear “invasion” from unarmed migrants?
  
  That said, I wonder if Lukashenko decided to cut his government’s budget by emptying Belarus prisons into this migrant caravan?
  - KpucK on November 09, 2021 · at 11:11 pm EST/EDT
    
    Poland has only assigned to Lukashenko a crown, reinforcing the regime for another day. If he didn’t pay good money for that so-called color revolt, he should have. And as now, both countries are exposed of working these various angles to profit from the immigrant hordes, one by direct act, the other indirect, both simultaneously work to strengthen the war of ideas against their own citizens, and entrench the status quo. Selfish greed is the universal polity, this unites and divides the planet today, as the greed of migrants, the envy and malice of the fixed class. The romanticism of lady liberty is pointless today when the name of the game is calculated spite measured in dividends, when universal values are all dollar based, and pegged to inflation. We are all migrants on earth ultimately, whether or not we foresee it, and just as there can’t be atheists in trenches, likewise everything disappears. Home, family, friends, culture, all are important, maybe vital, but death and taxes are more certain, death being the last migration.
- Man With No Name on November 10, 2021 · at 12:25 am EST/EDT
  
  If Russia wants migrant labor, why don’t they allow Asians (SE Asia, E Asia) to come and work in Russia? You don’t have to import people always from the ME and N. Africa.
Hornet on November 08, 2021 · at 3:33 pm EST/EDT

Looking forward to this topic! Being in a country where immigration is now a topic that can’t be discussed in polite company (Canada), I.e. anyone who criticises our immigration policy is a racist, please consider discussing what a successful and balanced immigration policy might look like. I understand that there are no one size fits all policies given that all countries are different in so many ways but there surely must be universal pitfalls to avoid.
Salaam on November 08, 2021 · at 4:21 pm EST/EDT

One thing you may want to discuss is that though immigration or ‘migration’ has existed since ancient times, modern immigration has the modern characteristic of being hyper everything. Relative to the past, today the decision to immigrate is made super fast, immigration is super fast, the destination is often super far, individuals and families immigrate whereas before it was whole villages, etc.
sadness on November 08, 2021 · at 4:23 pm EST/EDT

No need to emigrate at all if we lived in a world of the love of life on earth, a world of caring & sharing because we all want the same for the lives of our families whoever we are.

While the Saker is trying to make love true between the this’s & that’s to help make do. Best wishes all.
Serbian girl on November 08, 2021 · at 4:36 pm EST/EDT

Saker, thanks for this intro.

Regarding Afghanistan, the US airlifted a people into military bases in Europe (mostly Ramstein and Bondsteel) Civilians /refugees are normally not allowed onto military bases, so who are these people and why were taken there?

Secondly, the US asked neighbouring countries to Afghanistan to “temporarily host” US assets while they are being vetted for emigration to US. As Lavrov pointed out (in his most recent interview) these people already worked 20+ years for the US and should have already been vetted..what is Lavrov implying by this comment?

Is the US using humanitarian reasons / refugees / to (re)position their paramilitary proxies?
Nussiminen on November 08, 2021 · at 4:44 pm EST/EDT

A significant and indeed a most pressing topic. For now, just one remark pertaining to the ”Next, the role of governments” paragraph. Saker writes:

”Erdogan uses refugees on a regular basis to put pressure on the EU and it appears that Lukashenko might be emulating Erdogan’s model. The point is that if Turkey, for example, really wanted to stop the flow of immigrants cross its territory it could do so – the Turkish military is in bad shape, but that they sure could do. Ditto for Lukashenko. Yet, they (apparently) don’t.”

I have a slightly different point to make. To wit: Unlike the megalomaniac Erdogan who happily meddles in other countries and creates these refugee torrents by which he dexterously deals with the equally rotten Euro-trash, ”Europe’s last dictator” has no blood on his hands and is merely contributing to the comity of nations, letting the refugees pass through Belarus to his kind and peace-loving EU neighbours. It is the latter which the refugees have set sight on, after all. Lukashenko and Belarus have no obligations to act as the border guards of the Euro-trash, whatever the latter might have to say about that.
NJ on November 08, 2021 · at 4:47 pm EST/EDT

Andrei, you’re an immigrant. So am I, mainly to escape religious persecution in my native land in Asia, and to practice my professional trade where visibly-obvious politically-connected corruption is at least not accepted as normal. My experience is not of the poverty-stricken modern slavery variety, so I can’t comment on that aspect. If I feel an employer is taking advantage of me I resign and seek another job.

I don’t give a rat’s arse about the pig excreta called democracy, which stinks the same everywhere on the planet. From my personal immigrant perspective, Western democracy has zero appeal. I stopped voting last year because it’s just a toss up between one dirtbag with another, offering pretend ideological variety in their competition to serve the same masters, typically of Ashkenazim descent.

The freedom I value is not the jingoistic variety by which gullible insecure native racist morons propel a parasite’s political career, but the freedom of living in a society that is ignorant of and don’t care about the controversies of my faith, as opposed to groupthink insecurity by which I’m persecuted for non-conformity where I was born and raised.

I can confirm that I despise my host country, its natives and their pathetic culture. My level of integration is at best a form of dissimulation to keep trouble away. I do not seek superficial common values to trumpet, am aware of our irreconcilable value differences yet do not seek confrontation, domination or subjugation.

I’m glad you’re discussing these thorny issues. My point in the above abridged personal immigration experience?

Don’t generalise because it exposes the generaliser as a dimwit at best.
Harfang67 on November 08, 2021 · at 5:41 pm EST/EDT

Wow! I didn’t know about your knowledge and deep experience in immigration matters.

Looking forward to reading your next texts on the matter. And I will certainly circulate this material to people I know so that your content reaches people who make decisions on this matter in Québec.

I will always remember what the [King?] of Sweden said to the Pope when he visited that country (in 2018 or 2019 I think) : each country must place “integration” as the main criteria un immigration matters. Wisdom speaks.
Jurassic man on November 08, 2021 · at 5:42 pm EST/EDT

Thank you for the relevance of the comments. As usual I should say.

I am Swiss and married to an African woman who was forced to flee her country following the assassination of her father in 1963 and the recurring massacres that followed in 65, 67, 73 to reach a climax in 1994. The exile is very hard felt on a daily basis, as well as during the most important events of life: baptisms, weddings, deaths, family celebrations. Recently, the death of a childhood friend was very hard felt. The impossibility to travel in time for the funeral was an additional suffering.

The Catholic religion has been a factor facilitating integration by sharing a common reference with the host country. The anti-Tutsi persecution, supported in particular by the Papacy, Belgium and Switzerland, posed a problem. We were obliged to rush our marriage to compensate for the refusal to stay in Switzerland. The Hutu extremists close to the regime did not have these problems and were well supported by the churches and political parties, notably the socialists.

Africa, South America, the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, many countries in Asia and the Middle East have experienced and are experiencing waves of migration forced by the criminal aggression and global economic predation of the West.

Migration is a weapon. The two examples that outrage me the most are the following:

As a result of the Paris Agreement, one million catholic North Vietnamese were moved from North to South Vietnam. They offered Van Thieu the basis for his regime to continue the war with the Americans.

The same pattern was repeated with Operation Turquoise in Rwanda in 1994. To continue the war they had lost in Rwanda, the French displaced 1.5 million civilians mixed with their genocidal auxiliaries to continue the war from Zaire. The chaos created by the French 27 years ago is still active today.

The West is collapsing and the migration it has caused will contribute to its collapse. This is not a balm for anyone, especially for those tens of millions of uprooted people.
Anonymous on November 08, 2021 · at 7:01 pm EST/EDT

Immigration to the (European) differs from immigration to other polities (I think). The reason for this is the manufactured consent which exists in these centres immediately for wars which are a direct cause for immigration but their is something more subtle as well concommitent with the obvious NATO (vulgarly) driven causality is fundamental Bass riff, wealth and (fear of) dispossession. The perception that migrants are driven by economic rationalism to migrate and that the source countries are to blame for economic marginalisation which is deemed the cause for migration. The manufactured consent which drives this is insular and refuses to take into account anything apart from the fear of economic dispossession. On the spirit of Brian Wilson, a kind of sublimated shame which manifests in fear and distrust. Briefly european exceptionalism. Clearly Russia as a multinational entity not formed by the European ‘enlightenment’ has the cultural resources to look at and implement legislative and institutional solutions to immigration in a different way from the Europeans who suffer from a centralised identarian media which manufactured consent leveraging these identarian tropes , effectively rendering unpatriotic any questioning about the visioning of immigration while rendering it difficult, through identarian distration, to establish organisational forms capable of challenging secular neoliberal ideology. Migrants can function as bridges to inform us all about the causes of global issues. That makes them a threat. Migration also impedes progress in source countries as the young, motivated, energetic and educated accept a lower position in the destination countries rather than advocating change in the source countries.

Stopping insane imperial (humanitarian…) wars is clearly a first step to dealing with these issues.
ann watson on November 08, 2021 · at 8:45 pm EST/EDT

what a wonderful article – your CV is astounding !! Six languages…omg.

I also have developed an interest in Islam thanks to you Andrei

I just enjoyed this article thoroughly and hope for more from you (on any topic) asap

Ann
sik on November 08, 2021 · at 9:44 pm EST/EDT

it’s very simple: if russia or china do what angela merkel did, asia will be decadent, conflicted and with as high criminality as the west. If everything were to be mixed, the universe would have already made all races mixed. Race is different from ethnicity. I have a lot to say. We must indeed cultivate fraternity, but with great prudence, without forgetting the details.
- monnalisa on November 09, 2021 · at 4:08 am EST/EDT
  
  Races were mixed and should be mixed: please see the biological agenda throughout our human species times.
  In this case biological aspects should be prevalent. Ethnicity develops when people live in a certain region developing certain cultural and religious aspects etc. Often wandering through climate changes and other aspects (wars etc.).
  Neanderthals have mixed with homo Homo homo sapiens, and Denisovans and maybe other species the same which we still not have excavated respectively found out. However, biologists are expecting it. Mixing is sometimes necessary to refine the one specific outcome of the species. In our case the Homo Homo sapiens.
  - sik on November 09, 2021 · at 7:14 am EST/EDT
    
    You think like autistic scientist angela merkel, and believe in Michael Jackson’s song We Are The World. merkel thinks like a woman, and like her physicochemical husband, who is also a romantic western scientist. Jewish Zionist Yuval Noah Harari also uses science as well as romanticism. Your book Sapiens – A Brief History of Humanity, is a propaganda book, I’ve read it. This book had a foreword by Obama, it’s the way the empire sees anthropology today.
    Hollywood, netflix, books these days, advertise for the empire of chaos. And one of the ways to promote chaos is through multiculturalism.
    japan and china are racist countries that take the issue of immigration very seriously.
    merkel is a woman, only women have hardware to procreate and they don’t want to procreate, that’s the last thing they want. they’re going against their nature. Their minds tend to think like mothers. That is why it is not recommended that they deal with the issue of immigration.
    
    I live in the country with the greatest miscegenation in the world. Throughout my life, I have lived with Japanese, Chinese, Slavs, Germans, Africans from various regions of Africa, American Indians, and with Asian, African, Catholic and Protestant religion. I’ve been to all of them. I am descended from Poles, Germans, Africans, American Indians, Italians, Jews and Arabs. There are few people in the world who are like me.
    
    the daughter of putin also works with genetics. putin knows this topic well. Putin said: “We have a different genetic, cultural and moral code and we know how to defend our own interests.”
    
    [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-reaction-idUSKBN2BA0S1](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-reaction-idUSKBN2BA0S1)
    [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-18/biden-must-apologize-for-putin-killer-claim-russia-says](https://www.bloomberg.com/ news/articles/2021-03-18/biden-must-apologize-for-putin-killer-claim-russia-says)
    
    ethnicity is culture and variation of a race. this is the most difficult debate. It is thorny, painful, open and difficult to conclude. Science has not done well on this issue.
    Neanderthals were probably smarter than homo sapiens. Homo sapiens probably destroyed them. A lot of hypothesis in this area, in this field. Perhaps homo sapiens is programmed and destined for extinction, which has happened to many biological species already.
    
    angela merkel is autistic, who thinks physics and chemistry explain everything. she doesn’t know sociology.
    
    In philosophy and science you have to be neutral and cold. The Nazis dealt with the racial issue with great limitation, filled with hatred, and without considering the spiritual issue. In a very distant future, or even a millennium, the races will come together harmoniously and through a scientific project and agenda. As it is, the main motivation is economic, it is the Anglo Zionist empire having its petty motivations.
    Zionists want a multiracial culture. It will be a miracle we don’t have 3 world war, nuclear war.
    
    Putin’s daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, is overseeing the work of Rosneft’s genetic research center. Putin allocated nearly $2 billion to genetic research in 2018 and last year decreed that all Russians receive “genetic passports” by 2025.
    
    As Christians, we must promote brotherhood among peoples, love and spiritual evolution. But with responsibility and a lot of awareness and serious and neutral science. Zionists don’t want responsibility, they want chaos!!!
    - William Haught on November 09, 2021 · at 10:45 am EST/EDT
      
      I hardly think Angela Merkel is autistic. She has managed to stay Chancellor of the U.$. territory of Germany for nearly 16 years.
      
      Austism is probably, for the most part, early childhood CPTSD where the Refrigerator Mother Theory does not go nearly far enough. Even the proponents of the theory did not dare to consider that fathers, childcare workers in nursery schools, etc. could be part of the problem.
      
      The neurodiverse segment, or at least part of it, in the dysfunctional West are probably like canaries in coal mines. There is a lot of attention to a search for genes that predispose to autism, but none to environmental triggers that trigger the reactions. In other words, quackiatry is just nothing more than old-fashioned eugenics served straight-up.
      
      I do not understand why, last I checked, no one, not even Peter Breggin, is calling the quackiatrists out on this. It is probably more dangerous professionally that being labeled a Putin poodle. At least someone such as Breggin ought to have something to say on this.
      
      If the Toba Catastrophe Theory is true, H.s.s. may have been reduced to 30,000 or less — supposedly near extinction levels. As I understand it, H.s.n. numbers never reached anywhere near 30,000 but managed to survive for hundreds of thousands of years. H.s.s. just out bred them and copied and spread their inventions amongst themselves, eventually developing (probably H.s.s. x H.s.n. hybrids) the means to replace them in H.s.n. territory. How is that for an immigration angle???
      - Man With No Name on November 10, 2021 · at 12:43 am EST/EDT
        
        @Monnalisa
        
        You’re confusing hominid groups with human ethnicity.
        Western science which receives funds from the people who are actively promoting the multicultural agenda can’t be taken as a reliable source when it comes to its narrative about mixed people have advantages in terms of health.
        Besides, there hasn’t been any concrete studies which have supported your claim.
Nikola on November 09, 2021 · at 12:48 am EST/EDT

Hey Andrei- In my opinion Immigration in the US is mostly tied to our economic system. Which needs a certain amount of annual growth and a continual influx of low cost labor. This has been on going since the country was founded. In western/northern europe this same system has been in place since around the 1960’s, when ‘guest’ worker programs were implemented due to so called labor shortages. So, for me, the crux of the matter is an unsustainable system that requires growth and debt(at least in the west or zone A if you prefer). The things you talk about above occur under this premise. I could go into much more detail but I am just trying to make a quick remark. you seem to be disappointed in the comments here today.

I would also like to comment on what you mentioned about religious authorities. Here in California(especially rural CA) we have many Mexican and Central American immigrants which have greatly propped up the Catholic Church. The catholic church would not be as strong today in California if not for these immigrants. I believe this is the same across the rest of the states with large mexican immigration numbers. I believe your view is narrow concerning this portion of your article above because this is not rare here in the west, the flocks are big and who knows maybe even better.

I like your idea for this series but please be more specific to regions, religions and ethnic groups. You seem to be trying to play it safe without naming names.
- Alabama on November 09, 2021 · at 5:53 am EST/EDT
  
  The cost of labor is not really low when one has to train the laborer first, and secondly compete in a high cost environment.
  
  The barriers are enormous just as the need to be efficient is coming to the fore, these two arn’t going to mix well.
  - War for Blair Mountain on November 09, 2021 · at 11:38 am EST/EDT
    
    Post-1965 America could have easily been labor self-sufficient…like America was pre-1965….
    - Alabama on November 09, 2021 · at 6:16 pm EST/EDT
      
      Actually it really couldn’t have been.
      
      The gvt was using cheap oil to fund its pensions and future war expenses. Once off the gold std and on the petro std, everything worked out until the arab oil embargo drove the cost of living and trying to be labor self-sufficient, through the roof, which lead to farm jobs overseas to make ends meet.
      - War for Blair Mountain on November 10, 2021 · at 8:31 am EST/EDT
        
        Alabama
        
        There are no economic arguments for race-replacing the Historic Native Born White American Working Class…Yes, I do realize like all leftists and Libertarians you have extreme hatred of the Native White Working Class.
        
        If the US had remained labor self-sufficient post-1965….America 2021-2022 demographically 90 percent White+a high wage economy for Native White Workers….and this is what you and Noam Chomsky violently hate with every fiber of your being…
- sik on November 09, 2021 · at 7:25 am EST/EDT
  
  you have a sensible opinion. You are correct in many things.
  Immigrants were called upon by the Zionist elites to replace the sons and daughters that Western women do not want.
  Psychologically castrated men, who still feel guilty about world war 2, they lost control of their women, they let them play and play tik tok and look for a good professional job.
  Now, there is a shortage of low-ranking people in society to do the hard work and for low wages.
  if you had 3 or 4 kids 50 years ago, some of them would be “sacrificed” and would spend their lives driving trucks
  There is NOTHING wrong with that, but in this super competitive society you consider it a demeaning life choice…
  But you only had one child and you want him to be a doctor or an airline pilot.,
  Immigrants they have 6 children and 1 of them will also be a doctor or an airline pilot. Goodbye western world!
  
  elites want low-IQ men working in their factories, hotels and businesses, driving their trucks
  many hours and little pay, they don’t care if they are of the same race or not.,
  What the elites DON’T want is your child with 2 university degrees and 5 master’s degrees asking to be paid €10 more than the minimum wage.
  
  There’s something going on in Poland. They are upset with Brussels (which should be called Berlin). This migration crisis in Poland could destabilize the EU. The EU must end for some reason anyway. Maybe that’s it!
  
  Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to impose sanctions on Poland because the Constitutional Court aligned with the conservative Polish nationalist government rejected the primacy of European bloc rules over national law. Poland was fined.
  Talking about immigration is thorny, delicate.
  Today all Western artists are advertising for the empire. The culture of empire today is about multiculturalism and ideology slurred with letters. Putin’s daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, is overseeing the work of Rosneft’s genetic research center. Putin allocated nearly $2 billion to genetic research in 2018, and china will soon be leading the way in genetics. When studying immigration and genetics, study Asian scientists. Western best sellers are made by or sponsored by Zionists.
  the film Eternals with angelina jolie is just a small example of this. Let’s not be romantics, Zionism will not stop using immigration as a weapon in this civilizational war we are living.
  - William Haught on November 09, 2021 · at 11:13 am EST/EDT
    
    “What the elites DON’T want is your child with 2 university degrees and 5 master’s degrees asking to be paid €10 more than the minimum wage.”
    
    Which of course should be twenty pieces of zinc, the real value of “the sanctity of work.” The value of being a sellout propagandist shill for corporatist thugs is probably about thirty pieces of silver every nanosecond. Still a lot even if the value is depressed through bankster/hedge fund sales of non-existent silver.
Al on November 09, 2021 · at 2:29 am EST/EDT

Not to oversimplify, but…
I wonder what are the immigration policies in Japan, Israel, Poland, etc. countries with very well defined, mostly homogeneous, monotheistic populations/beliefs/values? I don’t think they have major immigration problems (well, maybe Poland now with Belorussians, even though this is incomparable with say Sweden, France or Canada).
It does seem simple: you are allowed to enter ONLY if you fully subscribe, commit and invest yourself to becoming a fully local, ie agree to assimilate, or else leave. Is this not the only way to ensure that cats live with cats, dogs with dogs, but treat each other nicely when visiting (not staying!) each other?
Of course when you have larger countries like the US, Russia this may be more difficult, esp. when there is SO much money to be made on conflict… but look at China, India, Indonesia.. no problems with newcomers, it seems.
I refuse to understand why it has become normal, even expected that people bring their problems with them and dump them on their new homeland. It is clear that the majority of those who are called refuges do not have the capacity to comprehend that unless they themselves change to fit the new country, rather than expecting the new country to change to fit their expectation, soon enough their new homeland will become the shithole where they came from. So it needs to be set in stone by the hosting countries. A child when entering a boarding school needs to submit to the local code to become successful.
But, that goes against the current agenda, so we have what we have. Vicious circle…
- William Haught on November 09, 2021 · at 11:51 am EST/EDT
  
  In most cases the nations people are emigrating from became shithole countries because of the 2,000 pound tough love care packages on sleds shoved out the back of cargo planes at 30,000 feet, courtesy of U$rael.
  
  Meanwhile the potholes in the U.$. continue to accumulate because of the resources being spent on the above instead.
  
  It is a case of a pothole country creating shithole countries.
Nussiminen on November 09, 2021 · at 3:28 am EST/EDT

”Finally, to somebody with a hammer everything looks like a nail: the same way for a typical counter-intelligence officer or counter-terrorist officer /…/ for the advancement of their own careers these folks will seek out ’the enemy’ in the most ridiculous places.”

There is an appreciable load of delusion driven by ideology at work here. For as long as the USSR existed, anti-communism saw to it that Sweden’s secret police and judiciary let criminals from the Warsaw Pact countries (’dissidents’ the whole lot) form veritable syndicates operating freely in Swedish society. As if this wasn’t enough, the ”counter-measures” applied by these defenders of open society — duly endorsed by the media — were based on the ”assumption” that whatever criminals there were actually worked for the KGB and, therefore, the Swedish secret police had to be given ever more resources for spying on the embassies of the WP countries!

The tender loving care in today’s West for the ’dissidents’ in Russia and Belarus is the same phenomenon at work. Ditto the nonsense about Lukashenko and Putin ’weaponizing migrants’. But the crucial difference today is that the West is sinking and its lies are increasingly pathetic, silly, and powerless. The criminals that exist in the West’s immigrant communities are a calculated effect of premeditated imperialist lawlessness. Sweden, France, and Italy are very convincing examples in this regard.
Moses on November 09, 2021 · at 4:30 am EST/EDT

Top article. The Saker at his best, IMO.
Yrr on November 09, 2021 · at 6:09 am EST/EDT

For sure, the only realistic solution to stop immigration is to become (very) violent and to unambiguously reject human rights & co…

Do we want that ?

Or what the circumstances that will make us wanting that ?

These are the questions.
sean the leprechaun on November 09, 2021 · at 8:31 am EST/EDT

They do not look migrants in picture used, if that’s how ‘foot’ migrants look today, well dressed well fed, you are watching a prearranged scam, bought and paid for.

Cheers M
John Rowland on November 09, 2021 · at 9:04 am EST/EDT

Thank you for showing the complexity of these issues. There are no easy solutions, as the migrant problem has to be solved one migrant at a time. Best case scenario is that our governments learn that destabilizing policies are a bad idea, but I suspect that those who benefit will ensure that never happens. Look forward to reading the series.
Ali on November 09, 2021 · at 9:17 am EST/EDT

It was Eastern European countries led by Poland who came screaming when George Bush asked for soldiers to attack Iraq and Afghanistan.

The horrors they perpetrated in these two hapless countries are unspeakable!

Already dysfunctional countries, the good Jewish and Christian soldiers from the West laid waste to these societies. Now they want to have nothing to do with their victims.

I say, if you broke it you must fix it. Come on Poland! I thought you subscribe to the Western value of ‘Human Rights.’ And you deserve some help from your buddy Orban. You were the loud mouths when George Bush called up your soldiers. Go ahead. Take in your refugees.

As they say in this neck of the woods, your chickens have come home to roost. And you ain’t seen nothing yet. There is much more where they came from.
zina on November 09, 2021 · at 10:28 am EST/EDT

The EU took part in the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc., that destruction was initiated by tens of thousands of refugees, who were sent to the EU in a designed way, and the EU accepted it. Terrible crimes against humanity against nations, with millions of victims, mostly children and women and older men, then tens of millions expelled from their homes and properties, and no one even talks about it. Then, now all refugees who call migrants should be killed or imprisoned in camps. If you ask the question: Who benefits from all this horror of humanity, it will be clearer, and clearer why all this was initiated.
War for Blair Mountain on November 09, 2021 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT

The whole point of post-1965 Immigration Policy is to import the highly racialized nonwhite Democratic Party Voting Bloc so that this nonwhite Democratic Voting Bloc can enthusiastically vote the Native White Working Class into a violently persecuted White Racial Minority within the borders of the US.

Post-1965 Immigration Policy is of 0 benefit to the Native White Working Class.

A lone Native White Man used to hold a sign protesting the use of Mexican Scab Labor in South Hampton and East Hampton Long Island. He stood on the corner of the 7-11 on Montauk Highway. I stopped and spoke to him one day. He told me that he was driven out of the construction jobs in the South-East-Bridehampton area. The Mexicans, he told me, at least once a day, would come up to him and threaten to kill him if he didn’t stop his vigil in front of the 7-11….You can google photos of this Native Man in front of the South Hampton 7-11…

The Immigration Wars are about one thing:‘billionaire CEO control of US Labor Markets…
Cris on November 09, 2021 · at 1:09 pm EST/EDT

In my second comment, I would like to add a point missing in the article list:
– Economic/political context of arrival country: there is big difference if the country is growing, its economy is booming and it has a lot of free space to occupy (e.g. US at the beginning of the previous century), or if the country is invested by some crisis and economy is stagnant (e.g. Europe today). In both cases religion/cultural differences between locals and immigrants will play a role, but in the second case clashes will be wildly exacerbated by the competition of more people for the dwindling resources of the nation. Obviously, if everyone is stuffed in his quiet place, less will to blame each other.
bold'un on November 09, 2021 · at 1:17 pm EST/EDT

{there is no such thing as a “non-government supported terrorist organization” out there}

But the reverse can happen where immigrant communities in wealthy countries are strong-armed into contributing to a civil war effort back home: say Kosovans in Switzerland or Irish in America; maybe the current wave of Afghans coming West will be ‘asked’ to support some future anti-Taliban faction back home…

This creates two problems for the host country: they find themselves unable to stop some fierce outfit from starting to police and sanction residents in their country and they can be seen as ‘supporting terrorism’ by the current authorities of the country of origin.
Sideshow Bob on November 09, 2021 · at 1:22 pm EST/EDT

This is the Polish border right now.

https://streamable.com/g8mzzi
- Nussiminen on November 09, 2021 · at 2:45 pm EST/EDT
  
  Gównopolska miscalculated again — who would ever have guessed, LOL.
  
  Bet the Poles didn’t expect the victims of their rampage in Iraq plus the national leader targeted for regime change next door to come and haunt them so fast. When will the world’s most underrated Latin Christians ever learn? They are a plague to the entire EU. As proud defenders of European values, that should count for something.
ForWhomTheBellTolls on November 09, 2021 · at 2:11 pm EST/EDT

Love the topic. As a dobule re-imigrant (came back home twice from same country during my lifetime) and as a person who lives and has lived in a ethnicaly divided region (ethical divisions based on religion) I am eager to read the articles. Especialy beacuse the entire story was always trivialized and you were either integrated or not…Diversity is good or bad…But who ever walked this path knows that there are no absolutes. It was confusing, disorienting, disheartening…At times it felt like wearing ten different shoes but having only two feet to wear them. On this path , the first ime in my life, I sincerely asked myself as a young man “Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?” and “What makes me happy?”. The contrasts caused by subtle but conitnuous changes became most obvious when I visited my family. This gradual chang made me feel like I belong to neither of the two societes and to both. A profound soulsearching experience. Of course given one does not get caught in the loop (The loop is a soul crushing experience where the system perpretualy pushes you to seek external gratification and ignore one inner self). It was interesting to see that none of my friends had the same answer…They all found a different path. Looking forward to the next read…
Webej on November 09, 2021 · at 3:59 pm EST/EDT

Some observations to complement yours …
–Many (not all) immigrants find initial support among their own group/countrymen in their new destination.
–Although some use the step to free themselves from certain affiliations, many take the opposite step.
–Many immigrants become more devout & religious in their new community than they ever were at home.
–Many immigrant communities are more long-lived when combined with a religious identity. Purely ethnic identity tends to dissolve more quickly with society at large.
–Often it is considered disloyal (for 2nd/3rd generation immigrants) to marry outside the faith/group, often colored by religious community + ethnicity. This applies Catholic ethnic groups, Orthodox, Muslims, but also Protestants. Could cite many examples. Communities often consolidate more around religious affiliation than national/ethnic group, but religious affiliations often do not cross ethnic distinctions.
–Many immigrant communities hold on to a reified/conservative version of their ‘native’ culture, sometimes 3 generations out of date compared to developments back home.
–Some host countries fight a losing battle against such ethnic identities; others even encourage it, since the community is an economic support system, and often a stepping stone to integration in the host culture when it flourishes (instead of being forced into defensive loyalty).
–A mother tongue is never lost! Have seen many immigrants, when stressed (heart attacks, family disintegration, mental health problems, usually combined with advanced age), suddenly revert back to their mother tongue after being well acculturated for the intervening 40-50 years.
John Neal Spangler on November 09, 2021 · at 4:45 pm EST/EDT

You have to look at each country differently. Most of the immigrants to the US are from Spanish speaking countries, The difference between the Spanish-Catholic version of Western civilization and English Protestant is relatively minor. A man did his PhD thesis on whether Mexicans were assimilating to the US and San Diego Union printed it in 3 parts. By all measurements the3rd generation is assimilated. .
In Western Europe, with immigrants coming from non-European linguistic groups and different religion and the degenerate state of mainstream Western Civilization, the immigrants are not assimilating, creating a multi-cultural problem. Refugees from all the wars the West is waging might be in the country for pure economic survival reasons, fully intending to return to country of origin when the war devastation is over. A comples problem indeed.
augusto on November 09, 2021 · at 4:50 pm EST/EDT

It took me a long time to learn on it, but I know of 80.000 plus hordes of northamerican ‘immigrants’ flooding other countries where they go deep into special tasks for years in a row.
Their expertise has usually been performing dirty tasks for the last 70 years, as anyone knows and I wasa late learner about.
They are the ’embassy attaches’ and their fellow security people, they are the special forces under hundreds of disgueses. This is c o n f i r m e d by candid reports of the state Dept dudes and by
every ‘intelligence’ or govt official called and reporting to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That s a place they feel at home to vomit their deeds ‘ cause few Senators bother to give them a hot time.
Usually the natives (poor Asian countries,Latin American and some east European ones) don t even know of their immigration status.
The criminal quota among them? Nearly 100%.
Their religion? Sheer Exceptionalism.
Gerry on November 09, 2021 · at 5:25 pm EST/EDT

Being a first generation Canadian and living working most of my life with immigrants, Greeks mostly, the experience and disasters of so many peoples lives including that of my own family is as I look back mind-boggling unbelievable. Isn’t life about family but all of this moving to other countries and marrying people of different languages and cultures really harms the nuclear family. My mother for one never forgave herself for leaving her parents and her family for one and I can add so many others i knew and know. Like a Greek fellow who married his daughter to a Greek man who owned a restaurant in Canada and thought he was wealthy. After traveling to the other side of the world Vancouver Island from Macedonia to see where her daughter would be and raise a family her father said to me in disbelief at life here ‘I thought money grows on trees here, he relayed to me’ lol? The grass is not greener on the other side. At least that was my view when i was much younger but today after seeing and reading a great many things there is I find a political agenda now behind so much that is going on. Diversity? More like that movie Braveheart where the king said “we’ll breed them out?” If Sovereignty is supposed to be a bad thing and a one world government is the be all and end all of everything well consider some words from the Communist Manifesto:

“The bourgeois claptrap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parent and child becomes all the more disgusting.”

reminds me of that 1970’s sitcom called The Brady Bunch where two divorcees with their own children the father with three sons and the mother with three daughters all moving in together. If that wasn’t bad enough lo and behold its reached the place where the Brady’s are today not divorced but living together and the children are products of well you know it all to well I’d imagine?

Diversity? Miscegenation? I think it was Trudeau senior who said government doesn’t belong in the bedrooms of the nation and yet…

Sovereignty must go, that means also the interests which sovereignty protects must be recognized as outmoded in character and dangerous in operation.
—Professor Laski of Oxford

The only escape from total destruction of civilization will be a world government, or we will perish in a war of the atom.
—Harold Urey

Rest of quotes removed. Stick to the topic please with your own words. Mod

What a hot potato immigration is or certainly will be. I could write many thousands of words just from my own life experiences. In the end I leave with the words from the book of Malachi:

“”He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and smite the earth with a curse.” 4:6

How many single mothers whose mates and ultimately fathers abandoned them do you know? Just recently in fact i met one fellow who has children from three different mothers all of whom he left and is now shacked up with another? He is 29 years old?
- Gerry on November 09, 2021 · at 6:15 pm EST/EDT
  
  I’d like to also mention what McLuhan said about our world the “Global Village.” We do indeed live in a global village or small world really due to the Industrial Revolution and now the technological revolution. Think about from Macedonia to Vancouver Island to marry a man she hardly knew or dated? If it wasn’t for airline travel and phones and such this would never ever have happened period. Immigration has far too many variables today. She was also fluent in English.
Urdaneta on November 09, 2021 · at 11:02 pm EST/EDT

Just want to say this is the most concise, rational, and honest immigration take I have seen online. Really looking forward to further posts!
CJ on November 10, 2021 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT

From what I can see the very vast majority of refugees or illegal immigrants since the Vietnamese War come from all the countries that the USA has tried to regime change or bring democracy to.The source of the problem is self evident.
Judy on November 10, 2021 · at 6:08 pm EST/EDT

I know that most well-read persons are aware why people are religious. When it comes to Islam you flush the awareness down a hole called Islamophobia. Religion was an organizer of our actions not the motivator for them. This topic has held humanity as a hostage for centuries.

Many people are religious because they fear the unknown. This fear was used by chiefs, shamans, kings, and now modern leaders to unite people against others. Those we feel are a threat to us, our power, our control of resources, wealth food whatever are the “devils” that we isolate, vilify, denigrate, and if that does not get rid of them, we sent in the military to eliminate them. Vatican has done this, and the words of Jesus were not written by him but by the Catholic Church in Rome which was done for economic not religious reasons. Marx was right opium of the masses.

Today wealth is a virtue, no matter how you get it, while poverty is a sin no matter the reason. The wealthy say that God blessed them, while the poor say the opposite that God blessed them. Neither the wealthy nor the poor are mentioned in the Bible as being blessed by God. How many examples of this do I need to provide here? Probably none because you know them as well as I do, but most delusional people ignore them.
For Example, when Islam came to Southern Europe, it came to plunder. Christianity did the same in Americas, Africa and anywhere it went, but that is another story. The conqueror instilled fear by their actions to make people obedient and cooperative.

In the Balkans they demanded a blood tax (one of your male children), half of what you produced, or conversion to Islam and when you refused to do any of these things, they cut your head off. Why did they do these things? They did it to make you obedient.

If they took one child you became obedient so that they did not take another child, or a daughter into the harem. Conversion to Islam gave you food, water, sex, and sleep without too much work, conversion was done not because you loved religion but because it gave you advantages. One thing that Islam or Christianity hated the most was rebels who also used religion to unite people to rebel, so they killed the rebels. Romans killed Jesus because he rebelled against their rule. The rebels were a threat to their wealth, power, and their ability to take what the rebels produced.

I am sure that those who have travelled to London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Washington, Vienna, St. Petersburg or even Baghdad and Tehran and marveled at the palaces, and monuments and said wow how did this culture produce such magnificence, or did you ask, who did they rob, how many died or how many slaves did they use so that they could build this. Maybe you did, I don’t know. Religion was used to control, rob, and plunder not to enlighten.

Oh yes religion provided schools, but they were used to indoctrinate not to enlighten. Good example of this are the Residential Schools in Canada. If you have not read about them google “Residential schools Kamloops Canada” and see how many children died to Anglicize the Indigenous people. Even, better read the first chapter of Howard Zinn’s book Peoples History of the United States and all the religious hogwash will be as clear as “Russian Standart” vodka.

You don’t need to go back to the Dark Ages as an example where Christianity united people to plunder others. You know well that the words “Gott Mit Uns”, in different languages have been used by every European nations as they bamboozled their people to go to war. ISIL-K is doing it now in Afghanistan.

In modern wars we provide chaplains to ease the fear of the enemy bullet spilling one’s guts all over the placed. There were many incidences in Vietnam of men holding their intestines in their hands trying to push them back in the hole caused by a grenade, urinating, and defecating in their pants asked for their mother rather than for their God.

WWI was blamed on Gavrilo Princip, but it should have been blamed on Marx’s ideas that encouraged people to rebel against economic oppression of the upper classes. To save their privileges the upper classes used religion, the “opium of the masses”, to unite their countrymen against their neighbor.

Again, it was economic determinism not religious ideology that killed 50 million Europeans including my maternal grandfather on the Salonika Front. The working people forgot their grievances as they went to war singing “God Save the King” and “God Save the Tsar”. The upper classes used “God” to save their privileges. Today we blame Islam so that 1% can plunder more. Did the Crusaders destroy Constantinople for plunder or to bring them into the fold so that Rome could control the wealth of the East?

A friend who is an atheist, while back, wrote a misguided column about Charlie Hebdo. He wrote ” Another day, another horrific act of terror courtesy of Islam”. I wrote back and said Islam is just a marker “them” vs. “us” by which we identify the perpetrators, however, it is not the reason why the perpetrator committed murder in Paris, and it is not a reason for many acts of terrorism be they from Islamic or Christian nations.

Israelis killed 17 journalists in Palestine recently, so is this another horrific act of Judaism, since we know they have some quirky things in that religion as well. I don’t think so. How about cheap labor for the Jewish state?
Many promote fear of Islam and by that justify our government abrogation of our liberties won by centuries of spilled blood of progressives who fought against government reactionaries and their oppression. Some conclude that Paris massacre was caused by Islam and with that they dismiss our invasion of Muslim countries that we have bombed into the Stone Age just to get at their resources.

All the wars had multiple causes, but much more common motivation for war was opposition to a puppet government, or to the economic, ideological, political, or social systems of a state. These factors were named as the main elements in nearly two thirds of the wars since WWI Capitalist hand (USA) was in almost 95% of these conflicts and religion was a convenient lightening rod used either to destabilize or to control the society. The reason was always the same economic materialism, power, resources, and markets.

Muslims ” object to being intentionally insulted over the course of many years.” Let me just post these words of Professor Finkelstein a Holocaust survivor who wrote about Charlie Hebdo and says, “when somebody is down and out, desperate, destitute, when you mock them, when you mock a homeless person, that is not satire,” What do you think many of us in Canada would do if USA invaded us on a pack of lies like they invaded, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and so on? I don’t think I need to answer that do I? Just Read Milosevic’s address to the court at the Hague, which was an Inquisitions or a kangaroo Court and everything about that war will be clear.

I understand religion well and that is why I vocally oppose religious customs be it Islam or Christianity. Understand me, I oppose Islam that promotes things that are not desirable for our society, like, sexual slavery, rapes, forced pedophile marriages, hangings, floggings, stoning, which are completely acceptable for the women of Jazzed in the caliphate and subsumed under multicultural diversity. Education will end this over time not jets.

The basic factor in human history is economics not religion. Humans may pray to God for food but once they see that there is no manna from heaven they will rob, steal, and kill others to eat. Humans are motivated, by material concerns, and fear of the unknown. The need to eat and survive is more powerful than our fear of the unknown. Every economic system, regardless of ideology, strives to produce food, shelter, and clothing for its citizens. The organization of the system determines who gets what and how much.

As I said before religion was an organizer of our actions not the motivator for them. When we walked on the Serengeti the group was the most important thing for survival. As soon as one individual grunted a warning, if a “Curious George” hesitated and did not climb the first tree he became a meal for the Saber Tooth Tiger. Before religion humans depended on group dynamics, working together, to survive. Two things changed human behavior, private property, and agriculture.

These two factors created division of labor and separated people into classes based upon power and wealth, (the 1% and the rest of us) in turn this, created the social conflict which drives society to this day. Institutions like marriage (relationship of women to men), religion (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Islam), government, (Moses to Biden and Putin), Wars (Crusades to World Wars), Terrorism (Paris to Kabul) can only be truly understood when examined in relation to economic forces. This is where the interpretation of Religion, at least that is how many posts and religious writing fails the test of reason.

Inquisition, crusades, European ones were called religious wars, while the ones against Islam were called crusades, but in each case including the Inquisition were expressions of class interest and class conflict. It’s not mom and dad that is sending our young Man to fight wars it’s the 1%. Those who have power want to maintain the status quo and preserve current economic realities. This was true of the Catholic Church in Spain during the Inquisition; this is true of George Bush (Halliburton), and his you are with us on Iraq, or you are against us (the Ayatollahs)

The powerful developed an ideology Religion to consolidate and maintain their power to justify and maintain that power. Theology or the ideology of religion, uses fear of death, heavenly rewards, and the unknown (you know all this) to maintain Class interests. Paris, for example, played well into the interest of the ruling elite in France but many ignore that and lay it at the feet of Islam.
People started to get smart, and fear of God diminished and with it the control of society by priests, kings, and nobles. The fear of losing power, priests, kings, and nobles used Theology to scare the ignorant people against following the likes of Copernicus and Galileo. If they admitted the truth of science, they lost power and Theology was dead as a control mechanism. What did they do? Just the same as America is doing today using fear to unite us against Islam.

Kings and Priests used force of the state and terror (fear, inquisition) to silence opposition and questioning. Biden uses the silence of the Media to manufacture consent, power of the state, lies, laws and state terrorism to silence opposition and justify his wars against Islam. Wars against Islam expands US power and control of resources
What did the people do against Kings and Priests –they rebelled –chopped their heads off just like the Romans did with the rebel including nailing Jesus to the cross who was a terrorist against Roman Rule in Palestine. What is the Muslim world doing? They are rebelling against Western particularly US terrorism and Islam unites them. Islam uses our terrorism to justify the use of terrorism against their own people.

The problem with much of what I read from religious writers is that it is focused on the God delusion and refuses to examine the historical evidence of economic determinism, Howard Zinn does it in his Peoples History of the United States. If you examine scientific evidence on the existence of a God, the evidence is clear on the God issue, while historical evidence is very clear, how Theology is used to control society and protect the economic power of the state and those who control it.

I don’t find it OK for people to post comments that repeat the mainstream media sanitization of the Middle East Conflict and further blur the boundary between fact and fiction of the religious role in history. Paris and other soft targets chosen by followers of Islam are not caused by religious delusion it is simply revenge for our atrocities against Islamic Nations done by those who use religion for self-interest.
- Gerry on November 11, 2021 · at 8:54 am EST/EDT
  
  “Romans killed Jesus because he rebelled against their rule.” Nonsense!
  - Judy on November 11, 2021 · at 1:40 pm EST/EDT
    
    Gerry evidence why this is nonsense, what has changed in 2000 years or have you already forgotten how many the Empire has eliminated, attempted to eliminate and plan to eliminate. Do I need to name them for you, these pages over time have named them all. ‘Jesus started a new sect in Judaism. He was crucified by the Romans in the year 30 give or take. He was crucified because Jesus claimed that he was king of the Jews. Anyone who made that claim (others made that claim) was similarly eliminated by the Romans. The Romans had appointed the Herodian family to that position. Anyone else claiming the crown was accused of SEDITION against Rome. This is why Jesus was put to death by the Romans Gospels say otherwise that Jesus was crucified for violating Jewish blasphemy laws’ , big lie, which Eric Zuesse explains in his book “Christ’s Ventriloquists.”
    - The Saker on November 11, 2021 · at 3:53 pm EST/EDT
      
      I wonder if you realize that the (truly silly) notion that Christ was crucified by the Romans contradicts BOTH Christian and Judaic scripture and tradition.
      It also contradicts Pilate’s action and words.
      It also contradicts Christ’s words about His Kingdom not being an earthly one!
      Finally, that even contradicts the words of Saint Peter to the Jews: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified (Acts 4:8-10).
      So, please, don’t post such utter nonsense here!
      Thanks
Greifenberg on November 10, 2021 · at 6:11 pm EST/EDT

This is a very thorny subject and as multiple angles to consider. In a short post I can only briefly mention a few.

Firstly, all beings have a single source and this should generate feelings of empathy. We should have the capacity to mentally switch places with another and ask what we would do in such a position and how we would like to be treated. Learning to generate equanimity of the mind helps here.

Many tribes around the world call themselves “the people” in their native language. This is also attached to a language, a land, genetic expression, a worldview, etc. So there are many different experiences and expressions around the world with a long history. It is difficult to maintain this identity and history when there is a significant minority with a very different background, language, history, etc. When you add differences in religion and limited economic opportunities then there is a very real chance of conflict. Especially if the demographic changes are very sudden.

An example of this sort of sudden change is the mass immigration of Europeans to the American continent. In North America there are very few left of the prior inhabitants and the ones left often don’t even know their old language or religion.

IMHO, there needs to be a balanced and regulated form of immigration that benefits both parties. If possible it is important to help refugees with their needs in their own land or close to it. This makes it easier to return once a conflict or natural disaster ends. A country that starts conflict has a lot of responsibility here.

Helping a people in need needs to happen quickly in the space where the people live. Permanent resettlement should be done slowly and under a small percentage.
Peter Moritz on November 11, 2021 · at 6:01 am EST/EDT

The problem is not immigration in itself – I immigrated twice myself, but used the legal routes into Canada and then to Portugal – and I think most people are not opposed to immigration, but the way it is happening especially in the EU.

Using criminal organization to further your personal goals and circumventing the laws of the host country by doing so give anyone not the right to be treated with respect. I also consider them as cue jumpers, trying to get ahead of the ones that try he legal route.

I know that is rather a simple view, as especially Germany doesn’t really have an immigration policy that lets anyone legally apply for his status, and likely there are other Nations in the EU as one of he main targets in the Eurasian/Middle East area.

So the problem is a lack of willingness by the targeted Nations for a legal framework including the goal of any immigration policy (Canada is a country that spells out those goals) and following from this the attempts by circumventing the laws of the future host country.
- Judy on November 13, 2021 · at 12:01 pm EST/EDT
  
  The “chickens have come home to roost”? You write about laws which the EU has ignored consistently. The EU is the root cause of the migration, as is the US on the Rio Grande. Colonialism past and present has gone into the countries where the migrants are from and destroyed their livelihood, agriculture; by war, massive Agricultural corporations of bananas, coffee, and so on, so that Americans and Europeans can have their salad all year while the farmer in these countries has been marginalized. Of course, we know that the mining industry and energy sectors followed, destabilizing the regions, causing people to migrate. It’s always been the same from WWII, to today.
Gerry on November 11, 2021 · at 9:51 am EST/EDT

2 more interesting life experiences from my youth on American immigration that is Americans leaving America lol.

I was a mere 13 years old {1970s} when a new family moved in across the street from us buying up a local kind of 7-11 corner store and I was introduced to the man’s son. He asked me to befriend his son Richard and introduce him to others at school. I learned they immigrated from New York to of all places Vancouver Island which I thought weird at the time. Why would anybody leave a place like New York for the backwoods of VI? I learned later from a news story in our local paper the family left New York because they owned a small corner store business and try as hard as they did to make a living they finally got fed up after being robbed constantly. In one year they were in fact robbed 57 times finally breaking their spirit. That was my first encounter at a young age of America. Later to i lost Richard friendship through Racism he dumped me for others more to his liking. Then my father came home one day to, cursing them because they robbed him after buying some cigarettes at their store. they short changed him on purpose.

The second encounter came much later in life late 20’s and through church. A family of gospel singers arrived to minister through song from Tennessee and they were enormously gifted group. On stage were instruments of so many different kinds that to this day i can’t or don’t know their names. From Banjo’s to all kinds of other instruments and when they sang and played they would move around picking up different ones. It was a great joy filled day but lo and behold one of the members of the band was my neighbor. What is he doing up there? I asked around about him and got the surprise of my life he was a draft dodger and that was his family. Later at home i saw him in his his yard and garage and struck up a conversation and yeah he left America his home and his family and never returned and wouldn’t. Something happened to him and he wouldn’t couldn’t share everything.

That was my introduction to America and Americans starting at the tender age of 12 years old. lol.

And O that girl from Macedonia i have another better example of the disaster of immigration. I worked for another Greek family whose wife said to me that she arrived in Terrace, BC in the middle of Winter from of all places the Pelopennese Islands a stone throw from Patmos. Her husband told her to wear warm clothing and she thought a windbreaker would be fine. When the plane landed and the door opened she was faced with something she never saw ever in her life snow and cold weather. She descended the stairs and walked across the tarmac in a dress and a windbreaker to her waiting husband who was shocked to say the least and the glaring eyes of everybody else.

I could go on and add but suffice to say how does religion fit into all of this? Easy:

For the love of money is the first step toward all kinds of sin. Some people have even turned away from God because of their love for it, and as a result have pierced themselves with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:10

For the Christian it seems to many have forgotten that it is God’s will if we do this or that. Too many embark on life thinking God follows us and helps us when in reality we need to seek God first and His counsel. How many times have you heard the words where were you God etc etc after people have destroyed their lives on some foreign soil. If God were to reply to them wouldn’t He say ‘Sorry but I never told you to go there and do what you have done now did I.’ I think the word used was and is shipwreck.

“Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” 1 Timothy 1:18

And this Greek family was so different from all the other I knew to the degree I made one day a terrible mistake. I said to them you people can’t be Greeks but Turkish or some other nationality. Ignorant me and i thought i was going to get fired right on the spot. His wife however came to me later and said nodding her head all the Greeks you’ve known are this and that? I looked at her and said what a breathe of fresh air the two of you are. all the ones i have ever known were heavy gamblers, womanizers, smokers. alcoholics, you name it and you know i said to he their all wearing a gold cross or crucifix. You two were did you two come from where?

The Church is really a mixed multitude and of course we never know what is truly inside a persons heart.
Too many sorrows…indeed! and in Terrace or Vancouver Island there are no Orthodox Churches where the children can grow up and learn.
- Judy on November 11, 2021 · at 1:46 pm EST/EDT
  
  There are a dozen Orthodox churches in Vancouver . When I lived in Terrace there were none, but North to Alaska there are some.
  - Gerry on November 11, 2021 · at 5:58 pm EST/EDT
    
    Judy, Greek Orthodox singular – there is also one in Burnaby, Nice interesting place so been there done that.
    
    none whatsoever on the Island at least when i was there.
    
    thanks
    
    By the way “I understand religion well and that is why I vocally oppose religious customs be it Islam or Christianity.”
    
    Might I suggest —-https://thesaker.is/book-review-andrei-martyanovs-the-real-revolution-in-military-affairs/#comment-729151
    
    and — /book-review-andrei-martyanovs-the-real-revolution-in-military-affairs/#comment-729491
Mr P on November 13, 2021 · at 8:42 am EST/EDT

Enoch Powell spoke, rather mildly I think, of the matter. Both the text and the audio are easy to find. see cafe.

I am glad to see Saker address this pregnant topic.

Thanks Old Man!