Immigrations and integration

(To Antonio Vecchio)
25/01/16

The events in Cologne and Hamburg have dramatically confirmed that the themes of reception and integration deserve a profound reflection, also on a methodological level.

Integration is always a long process, not easy, moreover if you decide to take the path of multiculturalism or interculturalism.

To bring it to a successful end, constant dedication and the will of both parties are necessary.

Which, when the "foreigner" is of Islamic culture, despite the many beautiful souls transversal to the political and religious world, is extremely difficult if not impossible.

Samuel Hungtinton in his famous book "The clash of civilization" expresses itself eloquently in this regard: "The real problem of the West is not Islamic fundamentalism, but Islam as such, a different civilization whose populations are convinced of the superiority of their culture and obsessed by their limited power. The problem of Islam is not the CIA or the United States, but the West, a different civilization whose populations are convinced of the universal character of their culture and believe they must spread it everywhere in the world ".

It is a culture, the Islamic one, that sees in the cornerstones of Western civilization - free will, individualism, the separation between State and Church, democracy, economic liberalism, the equal relationship between sexes - a real threat to the its values.

An antinomy that the phenomenon of migration increases undermining social stability, and favoring the spread of xenophobic political movements, encouraged by the refusal of Islamic communities in Europe to adhere to the Western vision of society.

A recent research by Paolo Quercia, an analyst with the Military Center for Strategic Studies (CEMISS), has shown that from Europe, in the last four years, he has left to join the jihad about the 20% of all foreign fighters Foreign Fighters (FF) present in Iraq and Syria (about 3000).

This is even more interesting in its drama when compared to the percentage of Sunni Muslims present on our continent - the 1,5% on a global scale (19.000.000 versus 1.500.000.000) - which leads to the conclusion that in countries like Belgium and Sweden it is much easier become a jihadist than it is in Saudi Arabia or Sudan. (From the Swedish town of Gothemburg, in fact, more jiadhists have left than from the whole of Sudan).

Not encouraging numbers, if we consider that the vast majority of fighters is made up of European citizens, born on our continent and, in many cases, with an excellent level of education.

When we think about what to do, how to react, integration appears to us as the only possible recipe, even on the level of politically correct.

We think of an integrated society as an enlarged community in which all cultures live in harmony in total mutual respect: a multi-colored, multicultural society.

A society that is difficult to achieve with Muslim citizens.

"Why integration - as Ernesto Galli of the Loggia wrote in the Corriere del 10 last January - it is the denial of multiculturalism that many in the West still consider the line to follow in the relationship with foreigners, as an expression of the politically correct ”.

Integration implies a renunciation of one's own culture to the advantage of that of the country of adoption, recognized as dominant.

In the USA, the homeland of the "melting pot", everyone recognizes themselves in a language, a common history, a common philosophy of society and citizenship, in front of which they have sacrificed their own.

In the rest of the Americas, as in Europe, or in Australia, the second generation of Italian origin, no longer speaks Italian and has the same vision of Italy, perhaps stereotyped, present in the country of adoption, which has now become their country .

Should we then close the doors and send everyone home? I don't think it would be inconsistent with our anti-Western civilization.

However, starting to distinguish between economic migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and refugees - I believe - would serve to guide national reception policies, to be based on international law in the (only) case of refugees, and on the general receptivity of the country's "system" in the other cases.

Furthermore, (for foreigners admitted) it would not be wrong to place the residence permit and any subsequent recognition of citizenship, within a process of adherence to our values ​​and principles, an obligation formally assumed between the State and (aspirant) citizen, subject to revocation in the event of non-compliance by the contractor.

(photo: US Army)