Immigration Tensions Rise Around The World

Turns out it's not just "bitter" gunslingers and bible thumpers that are uneasy with generally unrestricted immigration from third-world countries.

This past month has seen several stories in international papers about growing frustrations with lax immigration policies. Americans would be smart to pay attention as these countries are are the "progressive" models that stateside liberals strive so much to emulate.

From the UK's Daily Mail we read:

Almost two-thirds of British residents fear race relations are so poor that tensions are likely to spill over into violence, the BBC has found.
Of 1,000 men and women polled, 59 per cent said the UK had too many immigrants and almost half - 49 per cent - wanted foreigners to be encouraged to leave.

and:

The findings are very close to those of other recent polls. Earlier this month, a YouGov survey found four-fifths of the population - 83 per cent - considers there is an "immigration crisis".

That poll, carried out for Channel Four's Dispatches, found 69 per cent of the population thinks special treatment of immigrants causes British people to "lose out".

Another Daily Mail article states:

One in every five murders or manslaughters in England and Wales is committed by a foreigner, police figures revealed.

In one area of London, the figure is one in three.

This is despite the fact that foreigners represent only around one in 16 of the general population.

Among the most high-profile cases was that of Roberto Malasi, an 18-year-old Angolan asylum seeker who shot dead a 33-year-old woman as she cradled her baby niece at a christening in south London.

Malasi went on the run and two weeks later stabbed to death an 18-year-old pastor's daughter who he felt had "disrespected" him.

From Canada's Globe and Mail we read:

A majority of Canadians say their country bends too much in trying to make visible minorities feel at home, even as voters pat themselves on the back for being a welcoming society.

According to the poll, 61 per cent of those surveyed believe that Canada makes too many accommodations for visible minorities. In Quebec, 72 per cent of those surveyed feel that way.

So there's nothing uniquely American about our hesitancy to open our doors and entitlement rolls to just anybody. On the contrary we take in more immigrants every year than the rest of the world combined.