Hanson's Latest

NRO ^ | 7/9/2003 | David Frum, Victor Davis Hanson

[Utah Girl]

Fellow NR contributor Victor Davis Hanson has written an extremely interesting book … no wait, stop, what other kind of book does he write? …. OK, another extremely interesting book – this time on the subject of immigration and what it is doing to his beloved California, where the Hansons have farmed for five generations.

Much of what it is doing is harmful: It has put on the road drivers who cannot handle their machines and do not carry insurance – with deadly effect on California’s streets. It has brought new kinds of crime and once-extinguished diseases to California’s small towns. It animates the academic and political grievance industry, and destroys the cultural accord and educational standards that Hanson remembers from his youth.

Yet Hanson does not belong to the immigration-is-inherently-a-catastrophe school. He is not a ranter nor a blamer. He admires Mexicans and is fascinated by Mexico. His book, Mexifornia: A State of Becoming is, rather, an attack on schools that do not educate, a civic culture too ashamed of itself to assimilate, and a national government that will not enforce the immigration laws that already exist.

But he does make the point that combining weak-willed institutions with a mass immigration from a single foreign nation is a recipe for catastrophe.

“Let us be honest about the nature of human traffic. It is not climate, natural resources or race that entices or repels immigrants to new shores. Rather the answer lies with the capacity of Western culture to create capital, provide security, offer freedom and emphasize the individual rather than the tribe. Wealthy Westerners, who prefer low birthrates so as to satisfy their appetites for leisure, freedom and wealth, invite in the poor from Africa, Asia and South America to join them, on the condition that they are willing to work immediately at menial jobs in exchange for some future chance to partake in a free and affluent society. But what starts out as a mutually beneficial relationship soon deteriorates into one of mutual recrimination and theater: the host hectors the immigrant that he is lucky to have escaped his nightmarish home; the new arrival barks back that he now wants near-instant parity with his employer and the right to romanticize his once hated homeland as a savle for his wounded pride.”

Mexifornia is beautifully written, as of course one would expect. It is also one of the most enlightening books yet written on one of our most difficult subjects. Highly recommended.

[rmlew]

I think Hanson underestimates the effects of large scale LEGAL immigration.
The more you have, the harder it is to assimilate the immigrants.

[firebrand]

It's like a sunburn: by the time you realize the damage you have to yourself, it's too late.