Immigration-related events are moving rapidly this in Europe summer. The situation is in such flux that now would be a good time to step back and try to get an overview of the process.
Three years ago the dead baby hysteria, followed by Chancellor Merkel’s invitation to the world (“Y’all come in and set a spell, bitte!”), launched the Great European Migration Crisis. Since then I’ve read hundreds of news articles and analyses about the flow of “refugees” and the reactions to their violent and fragrant arrival in Western Europe.
After digesting all that information I created the following map, which presents my subjective evaluation of the different approaches to migration by various European countries. I’ve rated the policies of 28 different countries (the EU 27 minus Croatia, plus Switzerland) on a scale from 0 to 100, from zero (red) for the open-borders attitude of the “Welcoming Culture” to 100 (blue) for the absolute refusal of mass migration by the Visegrád Four (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic). Data from the last six months weighs more heavily in the score assigned to each country — for example, Spain and Italy recently changed governments, which has strongly affected each country’s migration policy.
Immigration policies in Europe, Summer 2018 (Click to enlarge)
The grouping of countries based on their stance on migration bears a striking resemblance to the division of Europe into East and West by the Iron Curtain. This is especially true if we roll the clock back three months — back then Italy and Bavaria would have been quite red. And the analogy becomes even more apt if we remember that Austria was occupied by Soviet troops until 1955, which gives it one foot in the Eastern camp.
The biggest change in the past three months has been the formation of a new anti-immigration government in Italy. The “xenophobia” of the East Bloc has now broken through the razor-wire curtain and gained a foothold in Western Europe. No wonder EU politics is in such turmoil! After failing to contain the “anti-European” attitudes of Poland and Hungary, Brussels now has to contend with Matteo Salvini. Italy is one of the “big four” pillars of the European Union, so its defection to the anti-migration side carries enormous significance for continental politics.
The situation is metamorphosing rapidly, but before we analyze the process of change — the “delta”, as they say in the military-industrial complex — let’s go over the snapshot of current European migration policies.
The Visegrád Four
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first major European political leader to (1) understand the larger significance of the refugee crisis of 2015, and (2) act rapidly to counteract the nexus of globalist actions that threatened the stability of the Hungarian state. In doing so he made himself an obstacle to the no-borders coalition, especially the “American philanthropist” George Soros. The reaction to Mr. Orbán’s building of the fence helped clarify the East-West divide, and strengthened the solidarity of the Visegrád Four. Each country now supports the others’ positions, and each vows to veto any action by the EU (the European Commission requires consensus to implement a sanctions regime) that would harm the other members. Taken individually, each V4 country is no match for Germany or France, but when they act in concert the four countries become a formidable thorn in the flesh of the Brussels oligarchy.
The movement of Italy and Austria (and even Bavaria) towards the Visegrád Four position allows Hungary to — as Barack Obama has so frequently said — punch above its weight.
Austria
The most recent Austrian election resulted in a coalition government headed by Sebastian “Boy” Kurz (ÖVP) as chancellor and Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) as vice chancellor. Mr. Kurz may well be a cynical opportunist who has simply trimmed his sails to the wind, all the while remaining loyal to his mentors in the Davos crowd. However, to maintain his position he has to give at least the appearance of acting decisively to deal with the migration issue — hence the recent law targeting “radicalization” in Austrian mosques (see Christian Zeitz’ analysis). Part of that appearance will of necessity include the reduction of violence and disorder brought to Austria by Muslim immigrants. Any failure to achieve discernible results will endanger his chancellorship. For that reason one may expect him to stay the course, at least for the time being.
Mr. Kurz’ alignment with Italy, Hungary, and Bavaria bodes ill for Chancellor Angela Merkel and the mandarins in Brussels. A counterweight to their power is forming on their southeastern flank, and the resulting political crisis looks to be the most turbulent since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany.
Italy
The new coalition government in Italy is shaking the very foundations of Barad-dûr in Brussels. The Five-Star Movement is more or less a traditional populist party, but the Lega Nord is full-on anti-immigration. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has hit his stride early, turning back the refugee ferries and threatening to impound any NGO “rescue” vessels that make port in Italy. Unlike Chancellor Kurz, Mr. Salvini has never changed his tune — almost ten years ago, when I first started paying attention to him, he was the same anti-migrant firebrand that he is today. He shows no sign of being cowed by threats from Brussels; it’s no wonder that emergency summits are being hastily convened in reaction to him.
Since the new government was formed, the Lega has shot ahead of the Five-Star Movement to become the most popular party in Italy. If another election were to be held, Matteo Salvini would most likely end up as prime minister.
Eastern Europe
When I use the term “Eastern Europe”, I refer to the Baltic republics, Romania, and Bulgaria. (The Visegrád Four plus Austria comprise Central Europe. Strictly speaking, Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus could also be considered Eastern Europe, but their political affairs are more closely associated with Russia, whether for or against, so I’m leaving them out of this analysis.)
Eastern Europe has the good fortune not to be attractive as a final destination for migrants — their welfare benefits are much less generous than those further west, and they are less reticent about dealing harshly with the criminal proclivities of foreigners. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have the added advantage of being largely off the route for most of the migration flowing into Western Europe.
Bulgaria and Romania have their share of migrant camps, full of angry, resentful Third-World “refugees” who are impatient to get out of those Black Sea backwaters and into the promised land of Germany or Sweden. The crime and disease the migrants bring with them spills out of the camps and into the adjacent towns. News outlets in those countries are blessedly un-PC, so the word gets out, and members of the general public who may once have been indifferent are now becoming anti-immigrant.
Bulgaria and Romania generally align with the Visegrád Four on most issues. However, a lot of globalist money — much of it channeled by Soros NGOs — makes its way into both countries. They are not as well-off as their Western neighbors, so the flow of cash has some effect.
Traffickers are active in both countries, and a steady flow of illicit migrants crosses from there into Serbia on the route to Shangri-la in Munich or Berlin.
The Balkans
I left the Balkan countries off the map for two reasons: (1) I don’t understand their politics very well; and (2) their function in the migration crisis is to act as transit camps for the flow heading north. No migrants want to settle in the Balkans. They may live in squalid conditions for months or years in the camps that have sprung up adjacent to various borders, but they have no intention of staying. And the natives do their best, legally or otherwise, to make sure that the transients move on.
The First Balkan Route ran from Greece through Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary to Austria and Germany. Viktor Orbán blocked that route by the end of 2015, so the Second Balkan Route developed in early 2016 as a western detour, running through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.
As the second route was gradually choked off, the traffickers tried to establish a route across the Black Sea through Romania and Bulgaria. However, it was relatively difficult and expensive, and could not handle the volume of traffic that had been flowing from Greece through the Balkans.
A Third Balkan Route is reportedly now forming. It will run through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Some 80,000 would-be Germans are said to be backed up on that route, waiting to make it through. This is one of the main reasons that Austria and Bavaria are holding meetings to coordinate border patrols and other anti-trafficking measures.
Slovenia (which is not a Balkan country, but Southern European) is closely aligned with both Austria and Italy. With its recent election of a nationalist government, it may be expected to work with its northern and western neighbors to implement similar migration policies.
Scandinavia
Despite their apparent cultural similarity, the Swedes are quite different from the Danes and the Norwegians on the migration issue. Over the last six years the latter two countries have quietly imposed restrictions on migration, tightening the welfare system to make it less lucrative for foreigners. Norway has even gone so far as to deport hundreds of criminal immigrants — a rarity in Western Europe.
Meanwhile, Sweden continues its suicidal open-borders policies. Malmö is descending into chaos and making the Danes nervous about its proximity to Copenhagen. But the leftist establishment may have pushed the multicultural envelope too far — the Sweden Democrats are now the most popular party in the country, polling above 25%. If they continue to gain in popularity, Sweden may follow Austria and Italy and flip after the general election in September.
Finland is a mixed bag. Most Finns seem to have a sensible and skeptical attitude about immigration, yet the country’s governing class seems to be packed with Gutmenschen who want to imitate Mutti Merkel and invite the whole world in. If it were a more attractive destination for migrants — if it weren’t straddling the Arctic Circle, that is — Finland might have already gone the way of its Swedish role model.
Greece
I marked Greece as fully red on the map, but the nature of Greek migration policy is hard to pin down, since the country is only just barely a sovereign entity. The financial meltdown had already wrecked the Greek economy before the migration crisis, and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants has dealt a devastating blow to the country by wiping out most of the tourist industry.
Greece is now a virtual vassal of Berlin, and very much in thrall to the demands of the European Central Bank. It can make almost no independent fiscal decisions.
Greece also has the misfortune to be caught in the middle of the struggle between Germany and Turkey. When Turkey punishes the EU by releasing a new wave of “refugees”, Greece bears the brunt of the influx. Thousands of the new arrivals back up in the camps on the islands, or at the border with Macedonia.
Functionally speaking, Greece is a de-facto Balkan country nowadays, a gigantic refugee camp and holding pen for the “New Germans” who haven’t yet made it to Berlin.
Spain and Portugal
The Balkan Routes have carried the eastern branch of the migration, mostly made up of Afghans, Persians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Turks. The western traffickers have ferried a different clientele across the Mediterranean — Somalis, Eritreans, Nigerians, Senegalese, Tunisians, Libyans, Algerians, and Moroccans. Most of the African traffic had been landing at Lampedusa and other Italian ports, until Matteo Salvini took over as interior minister. The shift in political winds has allowed Malta to refuse the migrant ferries as well, so the boats are being forced to turn westwards towards Spain.
Coincidentally, Spain has just elected a new left-wing government that is enthusiastic about migrants, and apparently eager to take them in. It’s too early to say for certain, but it looks like the trans-Mediterranean route may shift westwards to Iberia.
Spain and Portugal, however, are not a preferred destination for most migrants. Like the Balkans, Iberia is just a way station on the route to the land of milk and honey further north in France, Britain, Germany, the Low Countries, and Sweden.
France
The French are shamelessly hypocritical when it comes to mass migration. President Emmanuel Macron, like his predecessors, pays plenty of lip service to welcoming migrants. However, the actions of the French government continue to serve French interests: while hectoring Italy to let the boats land, France keeps the border crossing from Italy at Ventimiglia tightly closed, and refuses to let the diverted NGO vessels land on French territory.
In the long run it doesn’t matter — France has already passed the Threshold of Doom: it has a Muslim population in excess of 15%. Successive governments will no doubt continue their dishonest rhetoric about La Gloire and La République while the country is inexorably transformed into an Islamic state. Or maybe it will fragment along ethnic lines — who knows?
In any case, France has passed to point of no return.
Switzerland
I don’t understand Switzerland. It is completely independent of the European Union, and affluent enough not to be extorted, yet it gives in to many of Brussels’ demands and allows far too many undesirables into its Alpine stronghold.
Is Swiss policy driven by ideology? Or is the country simply desirous of favorable terms for its commerce with the EU?
The Heartland of the Welcoming Culture
The most migrant-welcoming countries — the ones rated zero on the map — are Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and (strangely enough) Ireland. They are pro-active about immigration, lavish generous benefits on newcomers, and crack down on any anti-migrant discussion in social media.
Along with Sweden, they are the most attractive destinations for Third-World immigrants, bestowing subsidies on them and putting them on the fast track to voting and citizenship. The heartland’s socialist governments see the newcomers as a guarantee of their permanent ruling position, but even the “center-right” parties –e.g. Angela Merkel and the CDU — have long since capitulated to the New World Order.
The generosity of the welfare utopia in the heartland acts to create an osmotic pressure that sucks all those Third-World immigrants north and west. From thousands of miles away they hear the promises — it’s money for nothing, and the chicks are free! They’ll keep coming until the borders are closed, or the system collapses. Or both.
Bavaria is the wild card in all this. It’s not a sovereign nation, but its minister-president Markus Söder enjoys considerable autonomy. He is currently working closely with Austria on methods of stanching the flow of “refugees” from Italy and the Balkans. In the long run Mr. Söder cannot successfully impose a policy that diverges significantly from that crafted in Berlin. However, Bavaria’s actions, if it receives support from other elements of the German establishment, may ultimately topple Angela Merkel from power. If that happens, all bets are off as to what will become of migration policy in the heartland of the Welcoming Culture.
The United Kingdom
Britain is an anomaly. It has an immigrant problem as severe as any other European country except for France, but the source for the migrants is different. The bulk of the new arrivals in Britain fly in from Pakistan and Bangladesh, with most of the rest coming from former British colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.
The Great European Migration Crisis has affected the UK only indirectly, through the chokepoint in Calais and its environs. Those who manage to make it across (or under) the English Channel take up residence and enjoy the same benefits enjoyed by earlier arrivals, but they are not as significant in numbers as immigrants from the Indian subcontinent.
Brexit notwithstanding, the migrants continue to arrive. It appears that even if Theresa May’s government actually pulls the plug on the EU, the immigrants will keep flowing in. Neither major party shows any sign of wanting to stop the flow.
Sad to say, the U.K. is accelerating giddily towards full Islamization.
Conclusions
Look at the map again and imagine the immense stream of “refugees” across the Bosphorus and the Aegean to Greece, across the Mediterranean to Italy, across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain, across various overland routes to Austria and Poland. Picture those hordes of refugees flowing north to Germany, Britain, and Sweden.
It’s obvious that a lot of somebody’s money is behind them, pushing them towards their destination and facilitating their journey. A lot of money, presumably from the same sources, is also lining the pockets of politicians and apparatchiks in Western Europe, who in return make sure that the migrants can enter the country and be supported after they arrive.
It’s obvious that the situation cannot continue in such a manner indefinitely.
One possible outcome is a collapse of the welfare system, ushering in an inherently unpredictable period of political chaos and social suffering. But Italy shows us that the buildup of popular pressure can cause rapid and dramatic change without political collapse.
The ballot box is largely vestigial in most Western countries. You can vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee, who promise you whatever you want to hear. Then after the election things continue more or less the same, year after year and decade after decade.
Yet there has been significant change in Italy via the electoral process, although it’s too early to tell how long it will last. The ECB and Germany may yet be able to undo the result somehow and send Matteo Salvini packing. Or they may not.
During the past year the blue stronghold in Eastern and Central Europe has crept westward, turning Austria, Slovenia, Italy, and Bavaria purple. Who’s next?
Watch the Swedish election in September. Sweden has possibly the most rigid consensus culture in the West. A consensus society cannot change gradually — it continues placidly along more or less the same course for decades, and then suddenly one day everything is different. A new consensus appears out of nowhere, and it’s as if the entire society has forgotten the previous one.
I don’t know if that’s what will happen in Sweden; I’m not making any predictions. Despite my studies of Swedish affairs over more than a decade, I don’t understand Swedes. Not in the slightest.
But it will be interesting to watch and see what happens.
Spain will most likely become as Mexico already is. The parallels between France and Spain against California and Mexico would make for an interesting study, especially for the future of America if the Elite herd us down the primrose path that they have Europe on.
Our Trump supporters will make that unlikely. Yes, we have a thriving, healthy elite but we also have a loud, boisterous and stubborn lower middle-class.
As the leftist opposition continues to uglify the public space with cries of “Nazis” etc., ad nauseam, things are heating up here at home. We will not go gently into the wonderland of immigration.
It would be a whole lot easier if they respected the rule of law. By and large they have been taught from youth to circumvent it, which is a necessary survival skill in the Latin America countries.
You have hit the nail on the head. The problem with Mexico is not “racial”, it is cultural. And that same problem extends throughout Latin America: the rule of law does not prevail and the average Joe and Joanne learns to understand this from an early age and act accordingly. In Mexico, becoming a police officer is not a role of “protect and serve”, it is an opportunity to become an entrepreneur using State-granted police authority. This explanation was given by a Mexican host to a friend of mine the day in 1994 the latter drove from Mexico City’s airport with his wife and three children to the host’s home they day they arrived in order for his wife to take up a one year position for an international cosmetics company. Taking a freeway exit that suddenly became apparent to him, he clipped a low wooden exit sign on a timber post set on the grass verge. The police arrested him for “damage to public property” and demanded that he follow them. They led him to the nearest ATM and demanded he withdraw USD$5,000. He protested that he didn’t have $5K in his account. They asked how much he had and he answered honestly $1,800. The police response was; “Okay, withdraw $1,000 then”. He did and was let go. My own experience of Peru is similar. My own experience of Brazil in the 90’s, advised by an American who had lived in Brazil ever since he’d been posted by the US Navy to Natal during World War 2 (and became a black marketeer) was that the local police were not to be trusted on any account, the state police forces only a little less so and the only police force with a semblance of ethics was the national military police.
Interestingly, when one looks at the world’s economic powerhouses, they are all democracies where the rule of law prevails (or historically has): USA, Germany, UK, Japan and France. The same goes for the next rank down of economic powers: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan.
The pre-European cultures that existed in Mexico weren’t exactly the greatest cultures.
Heck, the main reason Cortes was able to overthrow the Aztecs is that the Aztecs treated their vassal tribes so poorly.
It is no surprise those vassal tribes allied with the Spanish – they had no centuries-long track record of abusing those vassal tribes via punitive taxes, mass abductions, mass rape, mass human sacrifice, and endless warfare.
“The problem with Mexico is not “racial”, it is cultural.”
….
The problem is also racial. Mexico is stuffed with low-IQ Indians who exist on the fringes of society and in some cases, can’t even speak Spanish. Mexico is very anxious to export these people to the US to burden our welfare system. IQ is stable across the years and across generations and is an excellent predictor of employability.
A low-IQ person is going to have problems existing in a modern society, regardless of the culture.
There was a Jordan Peterson video explaining why anyone with an IQ of 85 or below is simply not trainable. They don’t retain enough repetition to be able to use motor memory. Nothing sticks. He said he got his stats from the U.S. military, which – as he notes – has a vested interest in finding warm bodies* for grunt work.
*In Navy parlance, a “warm body” was a person who could tell the difference between something that was on fire and something that wasn’t. This ability was crucial for the task of stripping old paint and barnacles off steel hulls with torches. It wouldn’t be difficult to start a ship afire if you didn’t have a spotter to watch for problems.
acuara-
Based on my travels, I would argue that circumventing the law is a necessary survival skill in all developing/Third World countries.
I am happy. I am happy for the Supreme Court ruling.
Bloody Somalia will not send its garbage here anymore.
That is fantastic
It never ceases to amaze me how, by the time it all shakes out, the evil and destructive ideologies of the last 100+ years make great progress… until they start to seriously bother people in places like Kansas.
Make no mistake: the reason that the USA is so villified worldwide is because all the purveyors of evil ideologies know fully well what stands between them and success.
about that “healthy, thriving elite” vs a ” .. stubborn low middle class”
If you are defining the Trump voters with lower middle class, you are very much mistaken. That is a media meme…
the LEFT in America is the detritus of ghettos and barrios, herded in any direction by coastal academics – who feel cheated by an economy that rewards capital and entrepreneurs. Oh, and then there are a couple of generations of aging snowflakes, unemployable after years of University training for, um, protests?
and HR jobs. they are also up to their ink and piercings in debt – which cannot be written off [thanks to hero Obomination]
The RIGHT – increasingly old style conservatives, entrepreneurs and libertarians who have changed their tune on open borders because full employment is forcing wages up. The old yarn about hillbilly white trash is bunk.
Trump supporters that I know across Colorado, Utah and the Southwest are college educated, self employed, rural, urban and fully conscious. No inbreeding that I can see.
So I take issue with your off hand insult – which infers Trumpets are blue collar, rural gun toting fools… as CNN would describe us
I take issue with your off hand insult – which infers Trumpets are blue collar, rural gun toting fools
You inferred an insult where none was/is meant. Many of our neighbors are blue-collar, rural, gun-toting citizens; they also voted for Trump but didn’t discuss it bec we also have black neighbors who are paranoid; we all work hard to protect their feelings until reality catches up with their sensitivities. Interestingly, in the last election, there weren’t many yard signs for either candidate, though the invisible lines of support were there on either side. I figured it was due to people hanging on to the shreds of civility left.
Among the college-educated rural voters I know (many of them in our church), most – but not all – are Dems. Boy, were they loud. And a lot of the entrepreneurs are NOT college-educated in rural areas. Or if they are, they haven’t used those skills in their businesses. College educations are vastly over-rated.
For many here, Trump was a one-off, “ABC” vote, i.e., Anyone But Hillary. There was also the phenomenon of NeverTrumpers, and they tended to be as loud as the Dems. Both seemed to believe that their opinion was the consensus of whichever group they were spouting off to.
I grew up in a Roman Catholic ghetto in the South; we knew the house of every Catholic on the way to school. That experience prepared me for being in a minority once again. I know every conservative/libertarian in our church and social group. I definitely know when and where it’s safe to discuss politics around here.
Funny, but I don’t recall making any claims for in-breeding. But I know for sure no insult was implied in my comment. What you inferred is your burden, not mine.
Do you really watch CNN?
Agree that college degrees are hugely over-rated these days.
I hold two engineering degrees and I know there are tons of guys in the trades like HVAC that make a lot more money than I do. Of course I am a bit envious.
College was getting bad in the late 90s, I shudder to imagine what it is like now.
Heck, I was recently looking through my old Physics textbook and I found an example problem about making ice without a freezer that was presented as scientific fact. Great – except I can find NO evidence of this ice-making methodology anywhere on the Internet.
If college-level science texts were this bad in the late 90s, one can only imagine the trash that is peddled now…
Any updates on cold fusion in that book?
Yes, HVAC workers are well-paid. As are master plumbers, electricians, etc. A man who doesn’t want to encumber himself with college debt, who likes to work with his hands, can choose from a number of career paths. He just needs to make sure it’s in a field where his skills would be crucial…
For Rasparailwasright,
College degrees today in the soft fields are probably worse than useless. They soak you in debt, delay your career for years, and there are findings that graduates are actually less qualified for a career after they complete a four-year degree than when they entered.
There is an organization, probably there are others, that teaches high school graduates what they need to know for the job market and sends them straight into careers.
http://discoverpraxis.com/
In the technical fields, science, engineering, computers, a degree still has some value. Of course, those with a natural gift will teach themselves or pick it right up if they are in a benign environment. Nevertheless, I’d feel uneasy about being treated by a doctor who didn’t graduate medical school, or represented by a lawyer who didn’t pass through law school.
In Virginia, I think it’s still legal to apprentice to a lawyer and, after some years of study and dogsbody work, being permitted to sit for the bar exam. At least it used to be.
As for doctors graduating from medical school, feh. I have been mal-treated by so many incompetents that I refuse everything but the most basic of care. I will get my pacemaker replaced when the time comes, but a competent technician could insert one of those.
Brain surgery is another case entirely.
BTW, no one has more contempt for medical doctors than other medical doctors. That priesthood is finished.,
.
https://youtu.be/e1Ua12-Ahsc
Lots of cultural enrichment to be seen in Poland lately… and an article in last week’s magazine “Sieci” apparently discusses mafias arranging Polish visas for migrants, to legalise themselves in the Schengen area. Trying to get hold of a copy of the magazine.
Also, apparently in two recent attacks by an Uzbek in Sweden and a Sri Lankan in Germany, the perpetrators came into Europe on Polish visas… so Eastern Europe is not fully immune, unfortunately.
A muslim colonist killed a Pole in the small border town of Elk in January of last year…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38488863
Yep. All thanks to Poland’s “kebabisation” . Poles did show some big rage in the aftermath though.
The only thing that will keep Portugal from having the same problems as Sweden is, as you pointed, the low welfare payments comparing to richer countries.
The socialist government, in a parliamentary coalition with not one but two communist parties, is more than doubling down Merkel’s stupidity.
When the EU started talking about refugee quotas and wanted to have Portugal to house, feed, cloth and subsidize 4.000 third worlders, the mental retarded prime minister said it was a low figure, the country wanted (?) to receive 10.000.
Fortunately the few who settled disappeared shortly after, maybe to Germany, I don’t know or care.
Now the same idiotic ape that wanted 10.000 third worlders is saying the country needs 75.000 immigrants per year to keep the population level. Since I don’t think he can attract Norwegian or Australian legal and productive immigrants, we all know what he has on his twisted mind.
I never thought a country could be graceful for being poor, that’s the only thing that can keep this lunacy away.
To be honest, you do have good sunshine, nice beaches, and now, a footballer who considers himself to be the “Greatest Of All Time”. That’s more riches than Germany can boast. Especially today.
That’s interesting.
Stefan Molyneux in his YouTube videos, emphasizes over and over that it is the welfare state that draws immigrants, and motivates them to overcome the most horrendous obstacles in their way. It’s the pot of gold allowing them to make more money than they ever dreamed of, just sitting and collecting welfare.
This is not the whole story. The map is not telling a lot of infos. It looks like Greece want migrants with that “Welcoming Culture” tag in the legend. It is not like that. Greece like Italy was forced to get migrants, with economic retaliation after the Global Financial Crisis, from the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. In both countries, a government made up of traitors, sold the land and the rights of its citizens. Now Greece is almost destroyed, while Italy is in similar conditions, just with its own people government trying to put an end to this migratory scam and shame. In many other EU countries, FR, SP, SW, (UK?), the most important DE, etc, they have similar traitor governments, based on post socialist ideology and contemporary liberal ideology, they continue repeating the same mantra on multicultural enrichment and diversity cohesion.
The IMF is still continuing on the same story too, all the time: we need more migrants, to revert the demography rate and the economy rate so to raise the Gross Domestic Product.
https://blogs.imf.org/tag/immigration/
Many countries have already lost most of their real power, to these overnational organizations like IMF and ECB. Today censorship is much more subtle when performed by big corporations like Google, Facebook, Youtube, Amazon, with Artificial Intelligence algorithms. And when they all agree to go all in with multicultural diversity and muslim invasion, we have to take them real seriously.
A cargo container ship owned by Maersk the other day rescued another 100 illegals, and was granted to let them in Italy. Why a big multinational company like that is taking this business now that the NGO are being stopped ? NGOs are just a cover, for the real people behind this foolish invasion. What Italy has done, stopping the NGOs, is letting the real financiers of this scam to come to the light. So we have Maerks, a big international logistic company, to come to the first line to do the job. It is not a secret that most of the banking and financial world is willing to lower the wages of the workers flooding Ze(u)ro-pa with african slaves, since the Euro is a currency with no inflation. When you cannot have inflation, like within the Euro monetary union, the only way to raise the profit is by lowering the workers wage.
You must have missed what I said about Greece in my country-by-country snapshot further down.
For all practical purposes, Greece is a vassal state of Germany. The Greeks have almost no control over their fiscal affairs or their migration policy. Decisions are made in Berlin and Brussels.
you are right. I just ask how can a country like greece get out all the idol worshippers, when germany and other overnational financial organizations has created this religious kaos on their soil. There is no solution at this point one has to make a choice between one’s soul on one hand and the euro currency on the other hand. Tsipras traitor made that choice and now is solding what is left in the capital city where the mayor is a muslim famous for defendig jihadi terrorists.http://english.cyprustimes.com/2018/06/26/london-verbal-attack-on-tsipras-traitor-you-sold-macedonia-videos-photos/
Je suis suisse.
Notre gouvernement, subit un chantage continuel, politique et économique, depuis des années à cause de son refus d’entrer dans l’UE. Celle-ci veut absolument la faire tomber dans son escarcelle.
(Une escarcelle était autrefois une grande bourse que l’on portait suspendue à la ceinture, un peu comme une aumônière. Par extension et plaisanterie, l’escarcelle désigne une réserve d’argent.)
La population suisse, elle, a voté contre l’immigration de masse en 2014. Cette votation qui n’arrangeait pas l’agenda totalitaire de l’UE, ni les politiciens suisses “euroïnomanes” qui vivent très confortablement dans leur bulle, été mise à la poubelle comme si le vote n’avais jamais eu lieu.
Depuis que la population suisse a été trompée sur les chiffres lors de la votation dite de Schengen sur la libre circulation il y a 10 ans ( 8000 pers. par année annoncés alors que 80 000 à 100 000 pers. s’installent dans le pays, sans compter les 80 000 réfugiés…) elle se fait trahir systématiquement par ses instances politiques et économiques à chaque votation quand celles-ci ne correspondent pas à ce que veut l’UE.
Pour l’instant, la situation n’est pas aussi tendue que dans les autres pays européens, car la population a toujours été mélangée, quelque soit le niveau social ou l’origine. Mais nous sommes clairement et majoritairement hostiles à l’augmentation du pourcentage de migrants économiques de l’UE à cause du dumping salarial qui s’accentue, sans compter les loyers et les assurances maladies obligatoires etc. qui deviennent exorbitants pour tous.
Idem pour l’augmentation de la population musulmane et ses pseudos réfugiés qui restent dans les assurances sociales durant des années…
Mais nos autorités politiques ne voient rien venir, refusent d’écouter le grondement de la population, comme ailleurs, et baissent systématiquement leurs culottes devant les menaces continuelles de l’UE.
Nous ne sommes clairement plus dans une démocratie malgré les apparences.
Après l’invasion territoriale et économique, l’UE exige désormais que nous soumettions entièrement et automatiquement à son droit ce qui fera de la Suisse une colonie sous administration européenne.
Je ne sais pas si les suisses vont se réveiller ou non. Quoiqu’il en soit les temps à venir vont être très dangereux pour la plus vieille démocratie du monde…
Salutations de Suisse
[This is an English-language blog. In future please leave comments in English.
Machine translation:
I am Swiss.
Our government has been subjected to constant political and economic blackmail for years because of its refusal to join the EU. This one absolutely wants to make it fall into his purse.
(A purse was once a large purse that was worn hanging from the waist, akin to a chaplain, and by extension and joke the purse means a store of money.)
The Swiss population voted against mass immigration in 2014. This vote, which did not help the totalitarian agenda of the EU, nor the Swiss politicians “euro-addicted” who live very comfortably in their bubble, was put in the trash as if the vote had never taken place.
Since the Swiss population was deceived about the figures in the so-called Schengen vote on free movement 10 years ago (8000 people per year announced while 80 000 to 100 000 people are settling in the country, without counting the 80 000 refugees …) it is betrayed systematically by its political and economic authorities with each vote when these do not correspond to what wants the EU.
For the moment, the situation is not as tense as in other European countries, because the population has always been mixed, whatever the social level or origin. But we are clearly and overwhelmingly hostile to the increase in the percentage of economic migrants in the EU because of rising wage dumping, not to mention rents and compulsory health insurance and so on. which become exorbitant for all.
Ditto for the increase of the Muslim population and its pseudo refugees who remain in social insurance for years …
But our political authorities do not see anything coming, refuse to listen to the roar of the population, as elsewhere, and systematically lower their pants in front of the continual threats of the EU.
We are clearly no longer in a democracy despite appearances.
After the territorial and economic invasion, the EU now demands that we fully and automatically submit to its law what will make Switzerland a colony under European administration.
I do not know if the Swiss will wake up or not. Anyway, the times to come are going to be very dangerous for the oldest democracy in the world …
Greetings from Switzerland]
…Greece got itself into the financial bind by spending beyond its income, and borrowing from the international financiers to fund its deficit. Orban of Hungary first of all, put his country on a found fiscal basis, repaying Hungary’s debts.
You cannot have an independent country with deficit spending. A deficit country is beholden to its creditors.
The US is also selling itself, although in a more obscure way. The US government sells bonds like crazy to foreign governments like Saudi Arabia and China. Also, we have billions of dollars in trade deficits.
What do the foreign governments and companies do with the many dollars they get? They buy US assets: newspapers, land, TV networks, technology companies. In effect, the US is selling parts of itself to maintain its deficit lifestyle and welfare-state spending. It’s like a family spending more than they take in, and selling off their house, one room at a time, to pay for their spending. Eventually, the house is all sold, and the family has to move out.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly. A country with deficit spending absolutely cannot be independent.
As far as your statement about the Euro having no inflation: inflation is simply the printing of money without a corresponding increase in production or non-paper backing. Germany is already squeezing old-age pensioners out of public housing to make room for immigrants. As Germany gets more immigrants, you think Merkel and the EU bureaucracy will resist the temptation to buy a few years by printing Euros?
Also, I don’t see your implication that inflation is the way companies make money. Generally, companies and people actively engaged in production can compensate for inflation. If the wage you pay workers is worth less, unless you increase the wage, your workers are likely to be poached by another company. Similarly, if you produce goods, you can charge enough more to compensate for inflation.
Inflation really hurts savers, pensioners on a fixed income, and lenders. The regular payments they count on are suddenly worth less than they calculated.
My thoughts on Sweden (I’m British).
As I’m sure you’ll know, Swedes are traditionally very homogenous in their way of thinking (as well as, mainly, in appearance – there are some darker native Swedes). This is partly due to their long-standing ethnic homogeneity, surrounded by similar Scandinavian neighbours; partly as a consequence of their consensus style of politics and social interactions; from a naive and simplistic understanding of good and bad; also their comparatively classless society; plus the hubris of being a global ‘force for good’; also from 50 years or so of a civic system that meant all good Swedes had more or less the same education, experiences, opinions (now politically correct orthodoxies).
Fitting in is important to Swedes (and other Scandis) – in Scandinavia you rarely fnd the true eccentricity or the personal independence that you still do in the UK, France, Italy (independence of course being a trait at which you in the USA excel, but a European inheritance).
All this must change as Swedish society fractures, and their welfare state becomes untenable. The Swedish flock may change as the wind changes (and I’m very interested to see what happens in the Sept election), but you can’t predict – Europe is entering rough and uncharted waters. I think any epiphany will be harder – and likely have worse consequences – for the Swedes. Traditionally protected and provincial, tending towards naive utopianism, most or maybe even nearly all of them believed in the wonderful multi-kulti future – unlike in the big western states where (in my view) very few ordinary and ordinarily patriotic people ever thought it would end well.
Germany, for its part, is undergoing a fit of national self-immolation; after 70 years of increasing guilt (it’s my observation that, in the modern West, as historical wrongs get further away in time, they grow in importance – a sign of narcissistic and ahistorical times).
I was in Europe for the early waves in 2015 and then 2016. I drove around Austria, Hungary, Bavaria – and then across to Brittany in France. I spent 5-6 weeks there each succeeding autumn.
I am a political tourist, and grill any who speak English on the news of the day.
Question – the German Ex-pats at Lake Balaton were very bitter about the invasion and called the Swedish government a “nest of vicious, commie, Lesbians who feed daughters of Sweden into the Islamic wood chipper”
The consensus is that the Swedish women at the top of government will NEVER BACK DOWN – and no matter the cost, they are steely in their resolve to signal their socially superior culture by bringing the black and brown hordes home to Sweden.
thoughts? too strident?
Yes, I think your view is too pessimistic.
If the Swedish consensus changes then whoever’s in charge will just get swept away – it won’t matter what ‘the Swedish women at the top’ think.
And Salvini in Italy changes absolutely everything in Europe. Italy’s the third biggest partner in the EU; Salvini has achieved in weeks what Merkel/Macron and the EU bureacracy has said for years can’t be done (ie securing the borders and stopping migration dead). He’s an ally for a hitherto minor bloc – Kurz in Austria, perhaps Bavaria and Denmark, and the Visegrad countries – who have a wholly different vision of the EU. Plus he speaks to the large sections of French, German etc. society who were never convinced by modern western orthodoxies. Britain is an outlier – our (I’m British) populist sentiment shows a reversion to our traditional role, in but not of Europe. And with an ongoing connection to our cousins in North America and Down Under.
Remember too that Kurz, Salvini, Orban have for years been portrayed as fascists, beyond the pale – they will not lightly forget the insults.
People like the Swedes and Germans will henceforth be far more likely to vote for ‘extreme’ parties like the Sweden Democrats or AFD – the Italians have shown that Lega Nord can take up power and the sky won’t cave in, the world goes on, the power has shifted. Lots of political fence sitters and and people previously laying low will add to the momentum.
Salvini, despite being Deputy PM (the Five Star bloke is PM) and Interior Minister is actually the current de facto Italian leader – he’s a powerful personality, the polls are on his side and he has taken control of the two topics that matter most right now, the EU and migration.
Brexit then Trump showed a way forward, but Salvini’s election is the game-changer, in continental European terms. This now means that the EU will either reform or split into two groupings.
Of course these are my views, I can’t predict with certainty, but I think Merkel is finished – either a lame duck (if the EU reforms, against her wishes – though this will at first seem like the EU stumbles on in a fudge) or splits – which will mean Seehofer will be fired and the German govt will collapse. I think it’s reaching a tipping point at which the EU changes – what some lefties in the Swedish govt think will not mean a jot.
What comes next – how we deal with far under-replacement native European birth rates; and European cities, one by one, becoming demographically hostile to the nations they are in; this is another and more existential question.
Sebastian “Boy” Kurz should not be on your list of fascists. Prior to last year’s election, he was in the very respectable “center-right” crowd as the rising wonder-boy of the ÖVP. We’ve been following his career for a long time, since he was a mere wet-behind-the-ears stripling in the party. See “Sending a Boy to do a Man’s Job“, written by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff more than seven years ago.
He was not accused of fascism until very recently, after the coalition with Strache was formed.
yes, my error, should have written Strache.
Fine comments, Jonathan. And you are right to throw in the big question at the end: if we don’t want mass immigration (and we don’t), then how indeed do we raise the birth rate? The next decade will not be boring.
“What comes next – how we deal with far under-replacement native European birth rates;”
Sorry to bring this up, but you have to institute some form of eugenics to deal with the precipitously-declining birth rates.
The drop in population mirrors the 1960’s experiment termed “Mouse Utopia”, where a colony of mice was given unlimited food, space and no predators.
What happened was the colony died out. Every population has dysfunctional mutations. In a stressful environment, those individuals with mutations do not survive. In a benign environment, say a welfare state, mutations do not mean death, and mutated individuals get to breed and their mutations are carried into the next generations. Most mutations are harmful, and so once the mutational load gets high enough, individuals are either not able to have children or lose the drives necessary to have or raise young.
Mouse Utopia
The problem is to cull harmful mutations out of the general population.
I’m not going to give my own solutions, because it doesn’t matter if the solution is benign or horrendous. The problem exists, independent of what solution is found or proposed. Once you engage the problem, solutions become possible.
Jonathan,
Interesting comments. I was also curious as to what degree Sweden’s celebrated social democracy depended on a mono-cultural and mono-ethnic society. The Swedes probably don’t understand themselves, they seem remarkable naive. The Japanese who live in a completely mono cultural society haven’t shown the slightest interest in imitating Sweden.
Those of us who live in countries that have been multicultural for generations are not so naive.
Yes, they have been very naive, tending to utopian. With the whole raft of modern politically correct western orthodoxies (which of course don’t affect Japan), as well as in much else. Of course, reality is an unbending but sometimes very harsh teacher.
Europe-Western Europe is over! Bloody Communists. God I hate them! May theu burn in Hell and slowly-very slowly. “Krispy Kommie” what a wonderful thought.
Ireland is a special case. It does have a very ‘welcoming culture’ in the MSM and government, BUT there are strong countervailing forces, leading to the result that Ireland has not actually taken in that many ‘migrants’, which is probably the most important measure of all.
Ireland has been unpopular as an Asylum-seeker destination, partly because of it’s ‘direct provision’ system in which asylum-seekers are not allowed to work while being processed, which can take years. Yes, it is more expensive per asylum-seeker, but the asylum-seekers hate it with the result that it is unpopular.
Another feature is that while the young are very much in the ‘welcoming culture’ the older people are very much less so. Politicians are sly in Ireland, as they are in every country. They try to please both camps. They have appeared ‘welcoming’ in word, but have not been that welcoming in deed.
The end result is that in the metrics that matter, Ireland is really more ‘blue’ than ‘red’.
An interesting and informative overview, thank you. Minor point: Austria was only partially occupied until 1955 by the Soviet Union which got the north-east and east. It was Germany in miniature, with Vienna divided into four zones of control like Berlin. But your point remains pertinent: the Austrians know Soviet control. I respectfully take issue with the following:
“A lot of money, presumably from the same sources, is also lining the pockets of politicians and apparatchiks in Western Europe, who in return make sure that the migrants can enter the country and be supported after they arrive.”
I highly doubt Merkel, Cameron (and now May), Rutte, Macron or the PM of Ireland are on the take. Or that any of the apparatchiks in the countries they lead are on the take. They are simply in the ideological thrall of multi-culti PC virtue signalling.
Mutti Merkel never acted on a considered and planned policy to open the floodgates to migrant hordes; it was due to an abrupt about-turn, quickly repackaged as a “Germany of the 21st century is a lovely welcoming non-xenophobic country nothing at all like nasty mid 20th century Germany”. In 2015 Germany’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizere (my spelling is probably incorrect) was coordinating with the Bavarian state police to repel at the border the migrant hordes heading towards the German border from the south-east. The head of the state police informed the national Interior Minister, as long planned with Merkel in the loop, that the police were stationed at the border at the ready with water cannon, rubber-bullets and truncheons (with firearms as last recourse) to repel the invading hordes. Thomas de M advised his PM. She contemplated the PR downside of German police being seen on TV using the non-lethal, and if need be lethal, methods of repelling thousands of darker-skinned people at the national border. She panicked at that prospect and, with her Interior Minister, made a decision to turn 180 degrees. Some might attribute this to fickle female emotion-driven decision making. I, however, bear in mind the immortal response of Margaret Thatcher when faced with following through on tough policy decisions/positions she had staked out: “The [or “This] lady is not for turning.” Germany needed a Thatcher, they got a Merkel. What a pity for Germany.
I visited the Soviet memorial in Vienna, which the municipal authorities allowed to remain after the Red Army left. It is like any other Stalinist monument in the East. The Viennese, at least, had a good taste of life under the Red boot heel.
I don’t agree about the flow of money. The top apparatchiks in Germany and Brussels may not be on the take (and with their salaries and perks, they don’t need to be unless they are excessively greedy), but money DOES flow into the system.
It’s hard to track the details of it, but we know that oil money has been sweetening the pot in Europe since the 1970s. And Soros has thrown a lot of bundles of cash into a lot of places, presumably taking care to make it land where it could have the most stimulative effect towards achieving his goals.
The proof of the existence of that flow of money is this: Wherever polls are taken, the voters of the West (with the possible exception of Scandinavia) have always been strongly opposed to mass immigration. Another commenter pointed out that for the younger generations this is now changing, thanks to relentless indoctrination in education and the media. But for decades the voters were emphatic that they wanted less immigration. Yet up to 2016 they always got MORE.
Considering the electoral advantage to be had by cutting immigration, and the consistent refusal of pols to take that opportunity, one must assume that there are (mostly occluded) reasons why candidates would act against their interests. When unseen causes are at work against the natural political currents, it’s a safe bet that money is involved. LOTS of it.
Ergo, someone must be making a lot of money off mass immigration, or anticipates doing so.
Baron writes
“I visited the Soviet memorial in Vienna, which the municipal authorities allowed to remain after the Red Army left. It is like any other Stalinist monument in the East. The Viennese, at least, had a good taste of life under the Red boot heel.”
I believe there are serious issues in this paragraph.
Very very seldom do people use the word Stalinist and at least you do…
But if you read this the Red Army went through various changes which coincided with the arrival of Stalinism,
“The Russian imperial army and navy, together with other imperial institutions of tsarist Russia, disintegrated after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917. By a decree of Jan. 28 (Jan. 15, Old Style), 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars created a Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army on a voluntary basis. The first units, fighting with a revolutionary fervour, distinguished themselves against the Germans at Narva and Pskov on Feb. 23, 1918, which became Soviet Army Day. On April 22, 1918, the Soviet government decreed compulsory military training for workers and peasants who did not employ hired labour, and this was the beginning of the Red Army. Its founder was Leon Trotsky, people’s commissar for war from March 1918 until he lost the post in November 1924.
Leon Trotsky, commissar of war in the new Soviet government of Russia, reviewing troops.
Leon Trotsky, commissar of war in the new Soviet government of Russia, reviewing troops.
Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library
The Red Army was recruited exclusively from among workers and peasants and immediately faced the problem of creating a competent and reliable officers’ corps. Trotsky met this problem by mobilizing former officers of the imperial army. Up to 1921 about 50,000 such officers served in the Red Army and with but few exceptions remained loyal to the Soviet regime. Political advisers called commissars were attached to all army units to watch over the reliability of officers and to carry out political propaganda among the troops. As the Russian Civil War continued, the short-term officers’ training schools began to turn out young officers who were regarded as more reliable politically.
The number of Communist Party members increased among the Red Army’s ranks from 19 to 49 percent during 1925–33, and among officers this increase was much higher. Moreover, all commanders were graduates of Soviet military academies and officers’ training schools, admission to which was limited to those recommended by the Communist Party.
In May 1937 a drastic purge, affecting all potential opponents of Joseph Stalin’s leadership, decimated the officer corps and greatly reduced the morale and efficiency of the Red Army. On June 12, Mikhayl Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky, first deputy people’s commissar of war, and seven other Red Army generals were found guilty of plotting to betray the Soviet Union to Japan and Germany, and all were shot. Many other generals and colonels were either cashiered or sent to forced-labour camps, or both. The purge’s effects were apparent in the serious defeats suffered by the Red Army during the first months of the German invasion (1941), but a corps of younger commanders soon emerged to lead the Soviet Union to victory in World War II.
By war’s end the Soviet armed forces numbered 11,365,000 officers and men. Demobilization, however, started toward the end of 1945, and in a few years the armed forces fell to fewer than 3,000,000 troops.
In 1946 the word Red was removed from the name of the armed forces. Thus, a Soviet soldier, hitherto known as a krasnoarmiich (“Red Army man”), was subsequently called simply a ryadovoy (“ranker”). Discipline in the Soviet forces was always strict and punishments severe; during World War II, penal battalions were given suicidal tasks. In 1960, however, new regulations were introduced making discipline, and certainly punishments, less severe. Officers were to use more persuasion and were charged with developing their troops’ political consciousness, thus ending the dual control of military commanders and political commissars. By contrast, enlisted men increasingly brutalized each other; conscripts with longer service took advantage of new recruits, and ethnic communities worked out mutual hostilities in the barracks. The era of the revolutionary “Red Army” ended, in fact as well as in name, long before the final disappearance of the Soviet Union. In Russia, February 23, now known as Defender of the Fatherland Day, is still the official day to honour military veterans.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Red-Army
So we read above “In 1946 the word Red was removed from the name of the armed forces.”
Whatever our political views we have to be precise with facts. At least Britannica does talk about changes and about transitions.
Amazingly the piece by Britannia does not tell that in the Civil War from 1918 to 1922 there was massive intervention by very many countries including by Britain and the US
Oh darn. I thought you were done with us.
Dymphna I will never be shut up (but I create my own forum and I do not actually have to post here) because I AM A MARXIST who is bitterly opposed to ISLAM and I am a Marxist and Trotskyist who is deeply concerned with my own country Ireland being a sovereign country, same with America and all other countries in the world. I have been reading many things yesterday as to how Margaret Thatcher dealt with Enoch Powell, and my focus here is on what Powell was SAYING at the time, and I have found that Thatcher WAS involved in the outlawing of Powell to Ulster, and this knowledge is more or less hidden. The same issue, the hiding of knowledge, I have found in relation to all things connected with Russia and Russian history. But in response to your remark “Oh darn. I thought you were done with us.” it is your blog so I really will not post on here again.
Typically excellent article from GoV.
Thatcher was elected in 1979. In 1982 she embarked on the Falklands War. By 1979 the issue of immigration was huge. Did Thatcher use the war to avoid confronting the immigration issue and what was her record on that anyway? Never ever saw that discussed? I remember her attacking Powell, which is another sign she was closer to Heath actually. You remember Powell was “outlawed” to Ulster.
On this vital issue of immigration and Thatcher…I would characterize Thatcher as totally a failure and also involved in keeping Powell down…she must have been in on his “expulsion” to N Ireland. I meet many British people who swear by Thatcher and I would like a more objective analysis…But people on the right tend to excuse Thatcher because of what Labour did. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6418456/Labour-wanted-mass-immigration-to-make-UK-more-multicultural-says-former-adviser.html
These questions are difficult because not much has been written about Thatcher.
Poland is indeed an attractive final destination for migrants, though not necessarily from Africa and the Middle East but from India. A friend has just begun scraping the surface of this phenomenon, but it looks like visa fraud is part of the equation to bring in “students” who serve as coolie labor for Uber Eats, food processing, warehouse work and the like. In the past year Warsaw has changed dramatically in this respect, I see more Indians on a daily basis than I do in Silicon Valley when I am there. On the surface, places like Poland appear to be saying and doing all the right things when it comes to immigration, but don’t understimate the corrupting influence of the cheap labor lobby on ANY nation.