On The Horizon

What can we expect from our current immigration policies? We know that over a million green cards are made available each year. We know that along with the 70,000 or more Refugee Resettlers each year we have several other categories of special immigrants including Cubans, Haitians, and Iraqis. Now we hear the drumbeats to add thousands of Syrians. This is of special interest in Michigan where the trial balloon has been floated suggesting it would be a great resource to repopulate the moribund city of Detroit.

I think that many people do not encounter the effects of this migration on a day to day basis, but my experience suggests that they will and it will be sooner rather than later. I live in Oakland County, Michigan on the border of Macomb County. I learned by studying zip code data that three of the most densely foreign born populated zip codes in Michigan straddle this area. I have lived here for six years and during that time I have noted astounding changes in the demographics of my neighborhood.

When I first moved here the population was very homogeneous with families of young couples with children moving into homes that were owned by people of retirement age who had raised their families in the house. Within a year of moving here myself, I learned that a large group of Somali refugees had been resettled. I heard rumblings of the negative impact they were having on the schools and the school budget for interpreters and ESL teachers. I soon saw them at the supermarket. They were very conspicuous in their dress. The women wore the full burka which covered them from head to toe except for an eye level slit.

I saw them only at the supermarket and I noticed some definite patterns. There was always a man in western clothing with usually two women in burkas and each woman had two or three young children. This was such a common visual I started to wonder whether I was observing a polygamy situation as a practicing Muslim can have up to 4 wives and almost all Somalis are Muslims.

The other thing I noticed was that these people were beautifully dressed. The garments and shoes looked expensive. The fabrics and detailing were quite beautiful. If I ever assumed that we were welcoming refugees that just showed up from the camps with only the clothes on their backs I was very wrong. I would say that what I saw indicated considerable wealth.

They paid for their groceries with electronic benefit cards (EBT) but they also had wallets with wads of cash which were opened for the few things not covered by the taxpayer. Recently I have been seeing a new pattern. The man drops the women off for shopping with the children and when they finish they call on their mobile phones and he comes to pick them up at the door. I also noticed another new thing just last night. While shopping on their own the women detached the face covering part of the burka to permit more mobility. Perhaps when the watchful eye of the male was not around they felt the freedom to exhibit an uncovered face to the public.

The other thing I noticed is the nearly complete lack of interaction between these people and those around them. They maintain a stony expression, never smiling even when you smile at them. I see only the most limited talk with the cashier. For the most part it is a very silent transaction. They float through the store on a plane of their own. This is the marketplace and like every marketplace in the world it should be a place of very human interaction. No different than exploration based on searching out trade routes, the market is where assimilation often begins in the migratory process. That is not what I am seeing here. There seems to be no opening and no interest for assimilation.

And did we not hear recently that there is a government program with our president and Valerie Jarrett promoting the planting of "seedlings" in our communities. The idea is to make the ground receptive to allowing these seedlings to grow and propagate. I do not get the idea that we are going to end up with a beautiful garden of many flowers living in harmony. I am afraid we are going to be going down the road of those who have experienced this Migration Jihad in Europe. I believe we can take a lesson from them. I think they were idealistic in dreaming of a harmonious garden to be enjoyed by all, but instead they have found they have been nurturing a plant that is revealing itself as an invasive species which will choke out all the other flowers in the garden.

Last night my local supermarket seemed like the UN with not only Somalis but many, many other ethnic groups including Iraqis, Japanese, Indians, Vietnamese, Filipino, and others that were not as recognizable to me. It seems like an explosion of people who have come here very recently. Am I the canary in the coal mine be

Troubled Waters

We are a nation of immigrants. In fact we are a world of human migration which has been studied by the National Geographic Genographic Project. Through DNA sampling we have an opportunity to view thousands of years of "family " historical migration patterns.

Moving to locate better resources or a safer environment is part of the biological imperative for self preservation. This desire to stay alive is built into the psyche of the organism which seeks food and shelter and tries to avoid the dangers of predators and starvation.

I am not against immigration. I think our "melting pot" approach to absorbing those who migrated here is a big part of what has made this country great. What made this work so well in the past has been that through constant "tweaking" of our policies we were able to populate our country with workers when we needed workers during periods of expansion and limit immigration in cases where new arrivees would flood the labor market and depress wages for those already here.

In this collection of people who came here for opportunity; we made sure they were healthy, literate, and able to communicate in English. These characteristics made them find it much easier to integrate into the society as a whole. They were able to become part of the culture of this country. They might still keep some of the customs of their country of origin. but wanted to adapt here and become Americans.

What are we seeing now? Not so much assimilation. I just read that our president has made an executive order that takes wording out of the citizenship oath so there is no requirement to be willing to take up arms to defend this country. This is not even conscientious objector status. It actually preempts that. This is but one example of how more and more we see the rights of citizenship being freely given without the corresponding obligations.

The Refugee Resettlement population is an interesting subset of immigrants. Our local communities do not get to choose who comes or even know about their arrival until they are here. The UN picks them and the process is so lacking in transparency that I wonder if the refugees that come here even have much to say about where they are being sent. I get the impression these people are shuffled around like chess pieces for the UN agenda above all else. Otherwise, why would we be seeing so much anti American sentiment from these refugees we have welcomed into our fold?

We have seen Somalis of all ages on video in Minnesota saying they think things were better for them there under Sharia and several young men have gone back to take up arms against us. We have had a number of attacks on our soil since 9/11 by disaffected immigrants. The latest one in Chattanooga, TN was perpetrated by a young man who seemed to have everything going for him, so why did he hate this country so much that he killed military recruiters at a shopping center plaza?

I think that there has probably not been a time in the history of our country that we have been more welcoming of immigrants from all over the world. Why do I say this? I think we have as a nation, been so conditioned to have politically correct responses that we have lost our  natural instinct for self preservation. We now welcome with open arms the very people who openly say they want to destroy us, culturally and physically.

We are facing a danger that as the host we are being colonized for takeover. This is Migration Jihad and while it may not be on the agenda of the lovely person you met at the market, it is certainly the agenda of those calling the shots.

We can see the patterns all over the world where there are clashes between these new immigrants and their hosts. I am not picking on Muslims, but it has been the UN agenda to send them here. I would have to ask why? If we really want to help people why wouldn't our predominantly Christian country be rescuing persecuted Christians in the Middle East?