PrintVisiting US, London mayor says immigrants shouldn't have to assimilate
On a visit to Chicago, London mayor Sadiq Kahn lectured the U.S. on how to welcome immigrants to the U.S. He said integration, not assimilation should be the goal in developing "cohesive communities."
“One of the lessons from around the world is that a laissez faire or hands-off approach to social integration doesn't work. We need rules, institutions and support to enable people to integrate into cohesive communities and for the avoidance of doubt, I don't mean assimilation, I mean integration, and there's a difference,” Khan said. “People shouldn't have to drop their cultures and traditions when they arrive in our cities and countries.”
Note that Khan is presuming to lecture a country that has successfully assimilated 140 million people in the last 170 years. It was done without forcing the newcomers to give up their culture. To this day, we celebrate the cultures of other countries together, as Americans. Pride in one's ethnicity is encouraged. And while there are forces trying to destroy the "melting pot" model, they haven't met with much success...yet.
Perhaps Khan could have given some examples where the assimilation model was a failure and the integration model – think France – was a success.
France’s recent move to ban the burkini and Britain’s decision to break away from the European Union could be traced back to anti-immigrant sentiments, much like those espoused by Trump, Khan said, and the only way to avoid these “ridiculous” situations is through social integration.
"We need to be sure that minority communities have a sense of belonging, so that they are as resilient as possible to extremism and radicalization. We should create the right conditions for new migrants to fully integrate into their new neighborhoods, providing clear advice on our values and expectations,” he said.
Khan’s first official trip to North America as London’s mayor began earlier in the day Thursday when he met with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Khan is in the U.S. along with several leaders in Britain’s tech industry to promote trade between the two countries.
Great Britain "integrates" immigrants by validating every claim the newcomers make regarding the superiority of their culture and way of life to that found in the West. Many Muslims advocate for sharia courts while demanding that grocery stores and other establishments bow to the Islamic way of doing things.
Does this promote "cohesive communities"? Or is it a recipe to create islands of religious and ethnic minorities disconnected from the whole?
In 50 years, when it is likely that most of Western Europe is an Islamic caliphate, the few remaining Europeans will wonder where they went wrong and why the glory of civilization was deliberately trampled to dust by those entrusted with Western civilization's legacy.
