It must be the worst article ever on the Brussels Journal. What is Frank Furedi trying to say ? I don't understand his analogy with the emperor's clothes.

FF: " In recent decades, the elites have embraced the European Union and have sought to cobble together a ‘European identity’ "

The European identity is not an EU invention. Any Irishman feels closer to a Russian than to a Chinese or an African.

FF: "If there is a problem in Europe today, then it has little to do with immigrant communities and much more to do with the failure of European societies to socialise and integrate these communities."

Who really thinks FF came to this opinion by himself? He is merely reciting his lesson.

Europe makes enormous efforts to integrate immigrants, and is destroying itself in the process. It would make more sense to help immigrants integrate and find work in their own countries.

FF: " Yet immigrants who come to Europe for a better life are unlikely actively to resist integrating into society "

The key thing is not that immigrants want to come to Europe, but that European governments are inviting them to come and replace us against our will. FF must be blind if he thinks world immigrants want to blend and disappear into European society. Everyone can see they want to protect their identity.

Kapitein Andre: "one can tailor these such that only the native population benefits."

Or better, one could expel the non-European population. If Furtadi is satisfied with the population replacement, why is he mentionning the risk that natalist policies could go wrong and produce even more immigrant babies? It isn't clear whether he is glad or sorry to see the end of Europe. Besides, he fails to understand that immigration and its side-effects are a main cause of the falling birth rates among Europeans.

His original essay is titled "The end of Europe?". In it, FF doesn't exactly say that the population replacement must go on, but he says immigration is not the real problem.

Here is another excerpt of his essay:
"So, will the cumulative impact of immigration, falling birth rates amongst Europeans and high fertility rates amongst recently arrived immigrants lead to the Islamicisation of the continent? It is always risky to make bold predictions, but we can be sure of one thing: whatever happens to Europe in the future, it is unlikely to be determined by the laws of demography."

And he is supposed to be a professor of sociology at the university of Kent. What a fraud ! How come sociology departments have been taken over by anti-western leftist nuts ?

PS: FF should get on well with Fjordman. He thinks the problem is islam, not immigration.

Frank Furedi: "Pro-natal policies have little impact on European people’s choices or behaviour. In fact, as [Gunnar] Heinsohn suggests, such policies will probably benefit immigrant couples who wish to have a large family. […]"

 

Actually, such policies and programmes (e.g. baby bonuses) have been demonstrated to be effective e.g. in Quebec, Canada. Secondly, one can tailor these such that only the native population benefits.

 

Frank Furedi: "[T]he fact that significant sections of new immigrant communities have little interest in integrating into European societies is not a result of any demographic law. They are not in the business of ‘demographic rearmament’ and have no long-term plans for taking over the continent."

 

Really? Those mosques under construction in Germany must be figments of my imagination.

 

Frank Furedi: "If there is a problem in Europe today, then it has little to do with immigrant communities and much more to do with the failure of European societies to socialise and integrate these communities."

 

A typical leftist response: there must be something wrong with us not them. 

 

Frank Furedi: "Heinsohn no doubt has a point about the disturbing impact of the welfare state on the immigrant population."

 

Again, not really. There is a marked tension between a nation's wealth and its fertility rate, especially as children are replaced by pensions as social security for the elderly. Note that Cossacks enjoy a wide lead on Russians not merely because of their traditional value system but because of their rural farm-based lifestyle in which children are necessary labor inputs.

 

Frank Furedi: "Some may be distracted from engaging in productive economic activity by the welfare set-up."

 

Some may be distracted from repoducing by the sheer amount of financial resources, time and energy necessary to raise a child in a competitive post-industrial society e.g. post-secondary education. 

 

Frank Furedi: "To put it bluntly, today Europe appears to have very few values to share."

 

Certainly Mr. Furedi's value system, anti-Stalinist Marxism (if this position can be occupied at all), will not inspire a new baby boom. What is needed is less emphasis on competitiveness and more on sheer survival.