At City Journal, John Leo assesses Robert Putnam’s 5-year research into the implication of immigration and social “diversity.” The results do not paint a pretty picture, and have even frightened its author.
Bowling With Our Own
Robert Putnam’s sobering new diversity research scares its author.
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties.
Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer. The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.â€
I address the scourge of multiculturalism in my book, The Death of Right and Wrong, and the destructive impact of what I termed ‘hermetically-sealed pockets of culture.’ The isolation multiculturalism demands destroys the lives of those in its midst, and obviously harms general social interaction. It is why assimilation is so important, not just for society at large, but for every individual who migrates to a new nation.
Read Leo’s entire article. He, of course, is a treasure, and his ability convey the importance of the issues we face today is unparalleled.
I don’t understand why I don’t hear more about one of the consequences of unchecked immigration; the health threat from tuberculosis, hepatitis, and cholera.
When immigrants came in the old quaint way; legally, there were means of testing each person to make sure they weren’t coming in with something hideous.
Now our politicians and pundits look at the economic and social impact of adding millions of criminal aliens to the roles of legal citizens but for whatever reason overlook the potential epidemic disaster looming on the horizon.
With the three diseases I mentioned I’m sure I’m scratching the surface, if we started making a list I bet there’s a lot of itchy awfuls we could come up with, all spilling across the border with no more concern than a coughing attorney jaunting to Europe and back.
And people wonder why I dislike public transportation.
Multiculturalism is taught to teachers in training as if it is not only the best way, but the only way. The end result is teachers who are so gung-ho about it that they spend more time on social engineering than on teaching a subject. Is it any wonder our students’ scores are falling?