Jovem imigrate espanca idoso

 

Muçulmanos profanam árvore de Natal

 

Muslims invade Christmas party in Germany.....

 

Failed integration and the fall of multiculturalismo

 

For decades, the debate in Denmark around  problems with mass immigration was stuck in a self-loathing blame game of "failed integration". That somehow, if the Danes had just tried harder, been less prejudice, offered more opportunities, the many foreigners with radically different cultures would have been able to integrate successfully. If not in the first generation, then the second. For much of this time, I thought that was a reasonable thesis. But reality has proved it wrong.

If literally every country in Europe has struggled in the same ways, and for decades on end, to produce the fabled "successful integration", it's not a compelling explanation that it's just because the Danes, Swedes, Norweigans, Germans, French, Brits, or Belgians just didn't try hard enough. It's that the mission, on the grand and statistical scale, was impossible in many cases.
As Thomas Sowell tells us, this is because there are no solutions to intractable, hard problems like cultural integration between wildly different ways of living. Only trade offs. Many of which are unfavorable to all parties.

But by the same token, just because the overall project of integrating many of the most divergent cultures from mass immigrations has failed, there are many individual cases of great success. Much of the Danish press, for example, has for years propped up the hope of broad integration success by sharing hopeful, heartwarming stories of highly successful integration. And you love to see it.
Heartwarming anecdotes don't settle trade offs, though. They don't prove a solution or offer a conclusion either.

I think the conclusion at this point is clear. First, cultural integration, let alone assimilation, is incredibly difficult. The more divergent the cultures, the more difficult the integration. And for some combinations, it's outright impossible.
Second, the compromise of multiculturalism has been an abject failure in Europe. Allowing parallel cultures to underpin parallel societies is poison for the national unity and trust.

Which brings us to another bad social thesis from the last thirty-some years: That national unity, character, and belonging not only isn't important, but actively harmful. That national pride in history, traditions, and culture is primarily an engine of bigotry.
What a tragic thesis with catastrophic consequences.
But at this point, there's a lot of political capital invested into all these bad ideas. In sticking with the tired blame game. Thinking that what hasn't worked for fifty years will surely start working if we give it five more. 
Now, I actually have a nostalgic appreciation for the beautiful ideals behind such hope for humanity, but I also think that at this point it is as delusional as it is dangerous.

And I think it's directly responsible for the rise of so-called populist movements all over Europe. They're directly downstream from the original theses of success in cultural integration going through just-try-harder efforts as well as the multicultural compromise. A pair of ideas that had buy-in across much of the European board until reality simply became too intolerable for too many who had to live with the consequences.

Such widespread realization doesn't automatically correct the course of a societal ship that's been sailing in the wrong direction for decades, of course. The playbook that took DEI and wokeness to blitzkrieg success in the States, by labeling any dissent to those ideologies racist or bigoted, have also worked to hold the line on the question of mass immigration in Europe until very recently. 

But I think the line is breaking in Europe, just as it recently did in America. The old accusations have finally lost their power from years of excessive use, and suppressing the reality that many people can see with their own eyes is getting harder.
I completely understand why that makes people anxious, though. History is full of examples of combative nationalism leading us to dark edges. And, especially in Germany, I can understand the historical hesitation when there's even a hint of something that sounds like what they heard in the 30s.

But you can hold both considerations in your head at the same time without losing your wits. Mass immigration to Europe has been a failure, and the old thesis of naive hope has to get replaced by a new strategy that deals with reality. AND that not all proposed fixes by those who diagnosed the situation early are either sound or palatable.

World history is full of people who've had the correct diagnosis but a terrible prescription. And I think it's fair to say that it's not even obvious what the right prescription is at this point!

Vibrant, strong societies surely benefit from some degree of immigration. Especially from culturally-compatible regions based on national and economic benefit. But whatever the specific trade-offs taken from here, it seems clear that for much of Europe, they're going to look radically different than they've done in the past three decades or so.

Best get started then.

David Heinemeir Hansson
January 20, 2025 

 

 

Governo congratula-se pela celeridade com que está a realizar a maior operação de regularização em Portugal

 

A Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA) vai resolver as pendências relacionadas com os vistos ‘gold’ no próximo ano, o que justifica que tenha 85 milhões de euros de receitas próprias, disse ontem o ministro da Presidência.

“No próximo ano vamos resolver as pendências que faltam e que por uma razão de equidade social deixamos para o fim, que são aquelas que pagam mais, os vistos ‘gold’”, disse António Leitão Amaro no parlamento, durante o debate da especialidade da proposta do Governo para o Orçamento do Estado para 2026 (OE2026), justificando os 85 milhões de euros de receitas próprias da AIMA em 2026.

O ministro sustentou que “na escala de valores morais” o Governo decidiu “atender primeiro aqueles mais pobres” e “mais vulneráveis”, que foram os imigrantes com manifestação de interesse, depois resolveu a questão dos cidadãos da Comunidade de Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP) e “em terceiro aqueles que estavam sem poder visitar a família, que eram os que estavam com os cartões caducados”.

“Só depois de tratarmos destes todos, deixamos os mais ricos para o fim da fila”, frisou, sublinhando que “no próximo ano grande parte das autorizações de residência para atividade de investimento [vistos ‘gold’] vão ser resolvidas e vão pagar esse valor em taxas”.

Dando conta das medidas do executivo em matéria de imigração, Leitão Amaro destacou que “há mais de uma década que não há um Governo tão rigoroso e sobretudo que tenha tido um encargo e uma herança tão pesada de passar da desordem, da falta de rigor e do descontrolo para o rigor, ordem e controlo sempre com dignidade e humanismo”.

O ministro referiu que estão resolvidas 93% das pendências relacionadas com a regularização de imigrantes no país, sustentando que “nunca” se viu em “Portugal um Estado, num período tão curto, resolver um encargo de dependências com esta dimensão e com esta rapidez”.

“É a maior operação de regularização, o que significa também de segurança porque controlámos 500 mil registos criminais, pessoas a quem se recolheu dados biométricos, que sabemos quem são, onde estão e o que fazem”, precisou.

Na parte final do debate, o secretário de Estado Adjunto da Presidência e Imigração, Rui Armindo Freitas, deu conta do número de pendências existentes na AIMA quando, em setembro do ano passado, foi criada a estrutura de missão para tratar dos processos pendentes dos imigrantes.

Segundo o secretário de Estado, existiam cerca de um milhão de pendências, das quais 446 921 eram manifestações de interesse, 215 mil renovação das Autorizações de Residência (AR) CPLP atribuídas automaticamente e sem verificação de registo criminal, 374 mil renovações da AR e 184 mil referentes ao reagrupamento familiar.

Rui Armindo Freitas avançou ainda que “até ao final do ano” estará “totalmente resolvido” o estado das manifestações de interesse.

 

Garcia Pereira: Morte aos Traidores

 

O MRPP usou o slogan "Morte aos traidores" em cartazes, o que causou controvérsia e levou à sua retirada em algumas campanhas, como a de 2015, a pedido de uma mandatária da Juventude. 

Apesar da retirada, o partido continuou a usar palavras de ordem semelhantes, com o candidato Garcia Pereira a afirmar que os "traidores" não estavam isentos da morte que os esperava, conforme citado pelo Expresso. "O Comité Central do Partido e a Candidatura Nacional do PCTP/MRPP vêm comunicar que a palavra de ordem morte aos traidores foi suspensa da campanha eleitoral em curso", lê-se num comunicado enviado às redações, em 2015.

O partido explica que pode ser considerada um eventual excesso de linguagem que pode configurar um apelo à violência. Garcia Pereira garante no entanto que a frase não viola a lei eleitoral. Panfletos do partido para as eleições legislativas 2015 começavam com a frase "Morte aos Traidores! Fora do Euro". 

A expressão era também repetida várias vezes, em texto e pelo próprio Garcia Pereira, durante todo o vídeo emitido no tempo de antena. Agora, o conhecido advogado e dirigente político vem apresentar queixa do "Chega" ao Procurador Geral da República, acusando o partido de André Ventura de "vários comportamentos racistas" e alusão a Salazar: MP deve requerer ao Tribunal Constitucional a extinção do partido. 

"Para ser português é preciso muito mais que trabalhar em Portugal"

 

“Ser português não é uma mera formalidade ou conveniência, é uma honra e responsabilidade. Para trabalhar em Portugal não é preciso ser português, mas para ser português é preciso muito mais que trabalhar em Portugal” - Luís Montenegro, 1º ministrode Portugal  

Muslim Council of Britain Welcomes Historic Appointment of a Muslim, Sir Mufti Hamid Patel, as Interim Chair of Ofsted

 

March 14, 2025

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) today welcomes the appointment of Sir Mufti Hamid Patel CBE as interim chair of Ofsted, the first British Muslim to be appointed to this role. The MCB also condemns the Islamophobic attacks directed at Sir Mufti Hamid following his appointment, which appears to be motivated by his Muslim identity rather than his professional capabilities.

Sir Mufti Hamid, the highly respected Chief Executive of Star Academies and respected Islamic scholar brings exceptional credentials to the role, having transformed one of the UK’s most successful school academy networks.

Dr. Wajid Akhter, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “Sir Mufti Hamid Patel’s appointment represents a proud moment for British Muslims and indeed for Britain as a whole. However, we are deeply concerned by the prejudiced attacks directed at him, which are clearly motivated by his Muslim identity. It is profoundly disappointing that such a distinguished educational leader should face bigotry simply because of his faith. Such Islamophobic rhetoric undermines our shared British values of fairness and equality of opportunity.

These attacks are part of a wider pattern of Islamophobia targeting British Muslims in public life, fuelled by social media, right-wing media outlets, and politicians who seek to stoke division. The repeated vilification of British Muslims in prominent positions must be challenged to ensure that our society remains inclusive and just.

Sir Mufti Hamid’s wealth of experience, including his service as an Ofsted board member since 2019, makes him exceptionally well-qualified to guide the organisation through this important transition period.”

We wish Sir Mufti Hamid every success in his new role and look forward to the positive impact his leadership will bring to education across Britain.