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
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