109. The immigration lie

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One of the defining drivers of nationalistic populist movements coming to the fore in the last few years, not for the first time as history teaches us, is the belief by the working class that immigrants will take their livelihood, lower wages, increase insecurity and crime rates. America First, Brexit, the rise of Vox in Spain or La Lega in Italy all owe their popularity to this idea. This is an amazingly executed subterfuge by an elite that takes more and more of the pie whilst convincing those left with less that they need to fight each other. The tactic is not new. Julius Caesar famously postulated it as a strategy with ‘Divide et Impera’ and Sun Tzu even before him, in ‘The Art of War’. Well, I have news for you. There is absolutely no evidence, whatsoever, that immigrants will do any of this. There is, in fact, some evidence that they will do the opposite, they work harder and engage in crime less than natives and, often, raise wages for locals, who become their supervisors

Length:994 characters 
Location: Portonovo, Pontevedra, Spain

Comments

Douglas Hampson said…
Well stated Santi. In view of the historic mistreatment of indigenous peoples in USA, (which is super wealthy) by immigrants from Europe, do you think the nationalist sentiment stems from fear of mistreatment by new immigrants?
July 15, 2020 at 10:41 AM
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