Immigrants not assimilating

The British police have just arrested 20 people, cancelled large numbers of international flights and banned all hand luggage on flights out of Britain in response to an alleged plot to blow up at least 9 planes. Most or all the alleged terrorists were born in Britain to immigrant parents.

What particularly struck me about this story is that, as with the 9/11 hijacking leaders, these terrorists are 2nd generation immigrants from the Middle East and Pakistan – born in Europe. Europe seems to be having a very hard time assimilating their Muslim immigrants.

The United States, in contrast, is having no similar problem with its citizens born to immigrant parents. The only native-born American terrorists are of the Timothy McVeigh and abortion clinic-bomber type. Our schools are doing an excellent job and all of our 2nd generation immigrants speak English without an accent and desire and value the same things as other Americans their age – designer jeans, video games, etc.

And yet a large number of Americans believe that the United States has a problem with immigrants not assimilating. This is a belief totally at odds with reality. Unlike Europe, our immigrants are not rioting and turning into terrorists. When our immigrants held a mass demonstration recently it was remarkable peaceful. They were not angry at all. They just wanted to be accepted as Americans.

To claim that our immigrants are not assimilating, as many Americans do, is to claim that white is black and up is down.