You missed my point entirely which was about integration. I’m not afraid of different people - quite the opposite. I believe experiencing other cultures is essential. I’m very well traveled and really enjoy embracing other cultures.
Last year I went to the wedding of the daughter of Sri Lankan friends who have integrated incredibly well. It was a really cool day out, largely because it was different. I loved seeing the differences - the clothes, the intricate henna paintings on hands, the food etc. About 20% of the wedding attendees were Irish born and I felt lucky to be one of them.
I’m friends with a Palestinian lad nearly 20 years now (to be fair, he only moved here about 7 years ago but we had worked together in the middle east a good bit before that). He’s a gem. I was so happy when he finally got citizenship. He had never owned a passport in his life and had to get company sponsored “travel documents” from Egypt (iirc) if he wanted to go anywhere outside the UAE where he was living statelessly.
The folks I’m talking about there enhance our country. They’re very, very welcome. The issue is integration. Bring your different culture with you. Share it! I’ll share mine too. Let’s change each other a little through our different perspectives.
I’m not sure your side of the conversation is being had in good faith at this point.
I can’t speak for the French. You’d have to ask them. I know there have been integration issues there. The very fast swing towards the hard right is one sign to me that integration has failed badly though. We had no such swing to the right in last month’s elections here thankfully though there is a definite increase in the number of vocal hard right lunatics here unfortunately.
I think a fair question is - are some cultures less open to integrating when they move to a new country? Another fair question is - are the people in the country where folks are immigrating to less open to integrating with the new arrivals?
If the answer to either is “yes” then the societal cost of that lack of integration (or ways to mitigate it) has to be looked at lest we end up in a very undesirable situation that we are rapidly moving towards.
Yes, I understand that people fear those who are different from them.
You missed my point entirely which was about integration. I’m not afraid of different people - quite the opposite. I believe experiencing other cultures is essential. I’m very well traveled and really enjoy embracing other cultures.
Last year I went to the wedding of the daughter of Sri Lankan friends who have integrated incredibly well. It was a really cool day out, largely because it was different. I loved seeing the differences - the clothes, the intricate henna paintings on hands, the food etc. About 20% of the wedding attendees were Irish born and I felt lucky to be one of them.
I’m friends with a Palestinian lad nearly 20 years now (to be fair, he only moved here about 7 years ago but we had worked together in the middle east a good bit before that). He’s a gem. I was so happy when he finally got citizenship. He had never owned a passport in his life and had to get company sponsored “travel documents” from Egypt (iirc) if he wanted to go anywhere outside the UAE where he was living statelessly.
The folks I’m talking about there enhance our country. They’re very, very welcome. The issue is integration. Bring your different culture with you. Share it! I’ll share mine too. Let’s change each other a little through our different perspectives.
And every person from one specific part in the world will refuse to integrate if they emigrate to France?
I’m not sure your side of the conversation is being had in good faith at this point.
I can’t speak for the French. You’d have to ask them. I know there have been integration issues there. The very fast swing towards the hard right is one sign to me that integration has failed badly though. We had no such swing to the right in last month’s elections here thankfully though there is a definite increase in the number of vocal hard right lunatics here unfortunately.
I think a fair question is - are some cultures less open to integrating when they move to a new country? Another fair question is - are the people in the country where folks are immigrating to less open to integrating with the new arrivals?
If the answer to either is “yes” then the societal cost of that lack of integration (or ways to mitigate it) has to be looked at lest we end up in a very undesirable situation that we are rapidly moving towards.