An Attempt to Support Dutch Immigrant Practices

The following article was a comment I made in response to an article published in the Singapore Times regarding a country's rights to ask a lot of what at times appeared to be unnecessary and intrusive questions of a prospective immigrant. The article was not used by the newspaper which is unfortunate because I believe it has implications for all immigrant policies worldwide.

Regarding the article "Dutch migrants to take 'attitude test''', it is entirely proper and necessary to require these tests. Each society has developed it's own cultural values which it has every right to protect. By allowing a large number of people of any other culture to enter any country, given laws protecting all residents against discrimination, will legally open the door to attempts to change the local culture to one more in line with the immigrants own culture. Britain has suffered this with Muslim Imams who, after accepting the right to immigrate there ungraciously turn right around and suggest that their disciples are justified in killing British citizens(among others). The poor British authorities have bent over backwards to resist the prosecution of one Imam because of their fear of been accused of "racism" or religious intolerance. Finally they had to prosecute, which is what any country would/should have done from the start based upon their own laws, and now this person is jail and the taxpayers will be footing the bill for his extended incarceration.

This is similar to the conditions prevalent in the United State in the states of Florida and California with respect to immigrants from Cuba and Mexico respectively. In both cases the immigrant's culture is fast becoming the norm of these states, at least in localized areas. They demand certain things of the local officials such as making Spanish the official language of their community. Fortunately these people come from non-theocratic countries and are able to adapt to the U.S. culture well and are a contributing and law abiding group which are readily accepted by the U.S. citizens. If this were not the case the U.S. officials would indeed be fools to allow them to immigrate.

The bottom line for allowing any foreign national from entering any other country should be "Will this person fit in with our own culture" or "Will this person say or do things disruptive of community harmony". The only way to determine this is on a personal basis and should be required of all potential immigrants and should consists of just those questions regarding whether the person will indeed "fit in".