Francis Fukuyama: unassimilated immigrants pose threat to liberalism

Meet Dr Francis Fukuyama, one of the world's most celebrated political scientists. He's the author of The Origins of Political Order, Political Order and Political Decay, and The End of History and the Last Man. In that now-famous work, he argued if you imagined history as the process by which liberal institutions -- representative government, free markets, and consumerist culture -- become universal, it might be possible to say that history had reached its goal.

Last summer, Dr Fukuyama, "postponed" the end of history, saying that liberalism was not triumphant after all, but threatened by the desire of identity groups for recognition. Click here to read all about his remarkable volte-face in "Francis Fukuyama Postpones the End of History" (New Yorker, 27/8/18). [How often is it that Walt recommends an article from the New Yorker?! Ed.]

Dr Fukuyama's name came up again today in an article by the Toronto Sun's Anthony Furey, who quotes liberally [Careful. Ed.] from "Against Identity Politics: The New Tribalism and the Crisis of Democracy", the essay the good doctor wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine, which inspired the New Yorker article.

Since Mr Furey commends the article to Canuckistan's Minister of Refugees, Immigration and Citizenship -- Somali-born Muslim Ahmed Hussen -- I trust he (Mr Furey) won't mind if I repost the three quotes he selected, just in case Mr Hussen is a reader of WWW.

The real debate [Dr Fukuyama wrote] should...be about the best strategies for assimilating immigrants into a country’s creedal national identity. Well-assimilated immigrants bring a healthy diversity to any society; poorly assimilated immigrants are a drag on the state and in some cases constitute security threats.

Assimilation into a dominant culture becomes much harder as the numbers of immigrants rise relative to the native population. As immigrant communities reach a certain scale, they tend to become self-sufficient and no longer need connections to groups outside themselves.

Democratic societies are fracturing into segments based on ever-narrower identities, threatening the possibility of deliberation and collective action by society as a whole. This is a road that leads only to state breakdown and, ultimately, failure.

As Mr Furey points out, "Against Identity Politics: The New Tribalism and the Crisis of Democracy", isn't entirely about integration, nor is it a "safe space for right-wing views", with its very critical takes on President Trump's policies. All the more reason why it should be read by Mr Hussen and all those liberals who think that "carefully controlled" immigration is the key to growing Western economies and that "diversity is our strength".