A Rose-Tinted View of Immigration

Few topics divide Western societies today as sharply as immigration.

Optimists, often associated with the Left , view it primarily as enriching, while pessimists, usually linked to the Right, perceive it as threatening.

Hein de Haas’s central argument is that migration is a “normal process,” which does not warrant panic.

But the evidence De Haas provides is often weak and far from being apolitical, purely factual account.

“ Fortress Europe turned out to be a pipe dream,” De Haas concludes, “but Fortress Europe has never been tried. What we have instead is Obstacle Course Europe .” He argues that the cultural diversity caused by migration is nothing to fear and integration policies have no significant effects on societal harmony.

Hein de Haas’s How Migration Really Works reads less like a dispassionate examination of the topic and more like a political argument.

De Haas suggests that the German minority naturally assimilated into the mainstream, but this did not happen until after the brutal outburst of anti-German sentiment during World War I.

Immigrants are now allowed to maintain their cultural and religious identities and political loyalties.