Immigration has had a major influence on the demographics and culture of the Western world. Immigration to the West started happening in significant numbers during the 1960s and afterward, [1] as Europe made its post-war economic recovery and the United States passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allowing non-European immigration. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Immigration to the West has often been related to the West's colonial history; for example, immigration to Britain historically has come largely from former British colonies (generally as part of the broader Commonwealth migration.) [6] [7] Wars that Western countries have recently been involved in, and the fallout or flows of refugees associated with them, have also been tied to the inflow of immigration. [8]
Significant debate has taken place around the economic and other benefits associated with immigration (particularly for low-skilled workers), [9] [10] with Western governments often more in favor of immigration than their constituents. [11] Debate has also taken place around both the theory and current state of integration of the immigrants, with some favoring multiculturalism as a solution. [12]
In the United States, theories around immigration have historically revolved around the metaphor of a melting pot, wherein different kinds of immigrants would eventually become more homogeneous and Americanized over time, [13] with such effects seen even today. [14]
There is significant migration between the countries of the European Union, where there is freedom of movement. [15] Migration between OECD countries is also notable, though sometimes limited by cultural differences. [16]
Backlash to immigration has impacted Western politics significantly; [17] [18] for example, Britain's decision to leave the European Union was informed partly by some of its voters' desire to reduce immigration. [19] This backlash has helped far-right politics become more prevalent. [20]
There has been an increase in anti-immigration sentiment in the West in relation to illegal immigration. [21] [22] In the United States, right-wing politicians have called for a border wall with Mexico, [23] [19] and in European politics, accusations have been made of a "Fortress Europe" mentality. [24] [25]
American responses to Muslim immigration have been influenced by the September 11 attacks. [26] [27] Within Europe, there has been a concerted backlash to Muslim immigration. Some feel that Muslim Europeans do not fully embody Western values, [28] while others have focused on publicizing various violent incidents perpetrated by Muslims. [29]
Some members of the Muslim diaspora have become more religious over time, either in response to hostility, or as a result of newer generations seeking a connection with their ancestral homeland and practices. [30]
In Europe, certain countries have banned elements of Muslim-associated culture, as is the case with France's burqa ban. [31]
Attention has been called to the rise of "lone-wolf" Islamist terror in Europe, which is partially motivated by anger from some European-born Muslims against their former colonial masters, and how it differs from the relative success of North America in ameliorating native-born Islamic terrorism. [32] [33]
Some oppose immigration on the basis that it increases cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity in a way that threatens native cultures and can impair social integration. [34] [1] [35]
This resistance has been noted in the context of the European Union after it expanded to include Eastern Europe, as many migrated towards Western Europe. [36]
"Eurabia" is a far-right, anti-Muslim conspiracy theory that posits that globalist entities, led by French and Arab powers, aim to Islamize and Arabize Europe, thereby weakening its existing culture and undermining its previous alliances with the United States and Israel.
The Camp of the Saints is a 1973 French dystopian fiction novel by author and explorer Jean Raspail. A speculative fictional account, it depicts the destruction of Western civilization through Third World mass immigration to France and the Western world. Almost forty years after its initial publication, the novel returned to the bestseller list in 2011.
Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration, there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea, and Volga region. The term "Muslim Europe" is used to refer to the Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus and parts of countries in Eastern Europe with sizable Muslim minorities that constitute large populations of indigenous European Muslims, although the majority are secular.
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short-term stays in a destination country do not fall under the definition of immigration or migration; seasonal labour immigration is sometimes included, however.
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political ideology that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in which they are not citizens. Illegal immigration occurs when people immigrate to a country without having official permission to do so. Opposition to immigration ranges from calls for various immigration reforms, to proposals to completely restrict immigration, to calls for repatriation of existing immigrants.
Right-wing populism, also called national populism, and right populism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishment, and speaking to or for the "common people". Recurring themes of right-wing populists include neo-nationalism, social conservatism, economic nationalism and fiscal conservatism. Frequently, they aim to defend a national culture, identity, and economy against perceived attacks by outsiders. Right-wing populism has associations with authoritarianism, while some far right-wing populists draw comparisons to fascism.
The concept of demographic threat is a term used in political conversation or demography to refer to population increases from within a minority ethnic or religious group in a given country that is perceived as threatening to the ethnic, racial or religious majority, stability of the country or to the identity of said countries in which it is present in.
Douglas Murray is a British author and conservative political commentator, cultural critic, and journalist. He founded the Centre for Social Cohesion in 2007, which became part of the Henry Jackson Society, where he was associate director from 2011 to 2018.
Renaud Camus is a French novelist, conspiracy theorist, and white nationalist writer. He is the inventor of the "Great Replacement", a far-right conspiracy theory that claims that a "global elite" is colluding against the white population of Europe to replace them with non-European peoples.
The Muslim diaspora is the diasporic group of Muslims whose ancestors emigrated from the long-standing regions of the Muslim world and the national homes of the Muslim peoples, including Asia, the Palestinian and Israeli regions, and others, although mainly comprise the Middle East and North Africa along with parts of South and Southeast Asia.
The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a pan-European nationalist, ethno-nationalist, far-right political ideology asserting the right of the European ethnic groups and white peoples to Western culture and territories exclusively. Originating in France as Les Identitaires, with its youth wing Generation Identity (GI), the movement expanded to other European countries during the early 21st century. Its ideology was formulated from the 1960s onward by essayists such as Alain de Benoist, Dominique Venner, Guillaume Faye and Renaud Camus, who are considered the main ideological sources of the movement.
The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims there is a deliberate plot to cause the extinction of white people through forced assimilation, mass immigration, and/or violent genocide. It purports that this goal is advanced through the promotion of miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non-white immigration, racial integration, low fertility rates, abortion, pornography, LGBT identities, governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence, and eliminationism in majority white countries. Under some theories, Black people, Hispanics, and Muslims are blamed for the secret plot, but usually as more fertile immigrants, invaders, or violent aggressors, rather than as the masterminds. A related, but distinct, conspiracy theory is the Great Replacement theory.
Eric Peter Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham. He was appointed in October 2023, following his resignation from his post at Birkbeck, University of London, after two decades of service, citing political differences. He is a specialist on Orangeism in Northern Ireland, nationalism, and political and religious demography. He has authored, co-authored, and edited books and other publications on these subjects.
The National Council of European Resistance is a France-based pan-European far-right political organization co-founded by Renaud Camus and Karim Ouchikh on 9 November 2017 by analogy to the National Council of the Resistance. It has links to the identitarian movement.
The Great Replacement, also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicity or cooperation of "replacist" elites, the ethnic French and white European populations at large are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans. Since then, similar claims have been advanced in other national contexts, notably in the United States. Mainstream scholars have dismissed these claims of a conspiracy of "replacist" elites as rooted in a misunderstanding of demographic statistics and premised upon an unscientific, racist worldview. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Great Replacement "has been widely ridiculed for its blatant absurdity."
Islamophobia in France holds a particularly political significance since France has the largest proportion of Muslims in the Western world, primarily due to the migration from Maghrebi, West African, and Middle Eastern countries. The existence of discrimination against Muslims is reported by the media in the Muslim world and by the perceived segregation and alienation of Muslims within the French community. The belief that there is an anti-Muslim climate in France is heavily criticised by some members of the French Muslim community who terms it an 'exaggeration'.
Remigration, also called repatriation, is a far-right and Identitarian political concept referring to the forced or promoted return of non-ethnically European immigrants, often including their descendants who were born in Europe, back to their place of racial origin, typically with no regard for their citizenship. It is popular especially within the Identitarian movement in Europe. Some proponents of remigration suggest excluding some residents with non-European background from such a mass deportation, based on a varyingly-defined degree of assimilation into European culture.
White demographic decline is a decrease in the White populace numerically and or as a percentage of the total population in a city, state, subregion, or nation. It has been recorded in a number of countries and smaller jurisdictions. For example, according to national censuses, White Americans, White Canadians, White Latin Americans, and White people in the United Kingdom are in demographic decline in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the United Kingdom, respectively. White demographic decline can also be observed in other countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Zimbabwe.
In the United States, the populist Great Replacement conspiracy theory holds the view that "political elites" are purposefully seeking to increase the number of racial and religious minorities in an attempt to displace the Christian white American population. Believers in the conspiracy theory have used it as a racist trope in an attempt to advocate anti-immigration policies and dogwhistle to xenophobic ideology. The theory has received strong support in many sectors of the Republican Party. According to David Smith, "Two in three Republicans agree with the 'great replacement' theory." As a result, it has become a major issue of political debate. It has also stimulated violent reactionary responses, including mass murders. Research published in 2024 found that people who endorse the Great Replacement conspiracy theory tend to have anti-social personality traits, authoritarian views, and negative attitudes toward immigrants, minorities, and women. The name is derived from the "Great Replacement" theory, invented in 2011 by the French author Renaud Camus; it is promoted in Europe, and it also has some similarities to the white genocide conspiracy theory, popularized by the American terrorist David Lane in his 1995 White Genocide Manifesto.
Demographic jihad or population jihad is a purported phenomenon in which Muslims migrate to or have many children in a particular region in order to demographically and otherwise dominate it.
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of May 2024 (link)Behind the idea is a racist conspiracy theory known as 'the replacement theory,' which was popularized by a right-wing French philosopher.
This article addresses recent strains of white nationalism rooted within anxieties over demographic replacement (e.g., 'the Great Replacement').
...this narrative is highly compatible with concrete conspiracy narratives about how this replacement is desired and planned, either by 'the politicians' or 'the elite,' which-ever connotes Jewishness more effectively.
This conspiracy theory, which was first articulated by the French philosopher Renaud Camus, has gained a lot of traction in Europe since 2015.
...the conspiracy theory of the Grand remplacement (Great replacement) positing the 'Islamo-substitution' of biologically autochthonous populations in the French metropolitan territory, by Muslim minorities mostly coming from sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb
As for the grand replacement, this has been widely seen as a paranoid fantasy, which plays fast and loose with the statistics, is racist in that it classes as immigrants people actually born in France, glosses over the fact that around half of immigrants are from other European countries, and suggests that declining indigenous France will be outbred by Muslim newcomers when in fact it has the highest fertility rate in Western Europe, and not because of immigration.
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