Should Enoch Powell Have Spoken?, by Roger Scruton: a defense of anti-immigration British politician J. Enoch Powell. An interesting read. Scruton’s comment about Italy is reminiscent of those of Hoppe and Raico (re the Alps and Switzerland) quoted in the comments to this post. Raico had noted “One wonders, for instance, what would become of the liberal society of Switzerland under a regime of ‘open borders.’” and Hoppe,
Once the welfare states have collapsed under their own weight, the masses of immigrants who have brought this about are still there. ... Based on all historical experience with such forms of multiculturalism, it can safely be predicted that in fact the result will be civil war. There will be widespread plundering and squatterism leading to massive capital consumption, and civilization as we know it will disappear from Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Furthermore, the host population will quickly be outbred and, ultimately, physically displaced by their “guests.” There will still be Alps in Switzerland and Austria, but no Swiss or Austrians.In a not completely dissimilar observation, Scruton writes:
The fact is that the people of Europe are losing their homelands, and therefore losing their place in the world. I don’t envisage the Tiber one day foaming with much blood, nor do I see it blushing as the voice of the muezzin sounds from the former cathedral of St. Peter. But the city through which the Tiber flows will one day cease to be Italian, and all the expectations of its former residents, whether political, social, cultural, or personal, will suffer a violent upheaval, with results every bit as interesting as those that Powell prophesied.
