Timothy B. Smith: Immigrants fueled Europe's dynamism

Timothy B. Smith has written an excellent reply to Theodore Dalrymple's lack-luster opening essay in Cato Unbound.

As I stated in my recent post on Dalrymple's essay, I was more than a little disappointed to find somebody blogging on a Cato-sponsored site who clearly has such little regard for the culture of Europe's Muslims. (Indeed, he lays part of the case for Europe's decline at their feet - or at least at the feet of Europeans for failing to properly "assimilate" them.)

While Smith did little to directly attack Dalrymple's (in my mind) chauvanistic cultural assesments, I detect that he at least deflected them, in a round-about way.

Smith credits immigrants for contributing to Europe's success:

Western Europe was in the midst of a massive social and economic transformation [involving] the arrival of millions of immigrants to fuel dynamic economies growing at 5% per year.

He properly blames European governments for shutting them out of the success they helped create:

The general population sees immigrants and their children as threats to their share of a dwindling system of spoils. Starting in the mid-1970s, Western Europeans attempted to freeze the postwar economic miracle in its tracks, as they shut their borders to immigrants, and shut their factories to new workers. Europeans lost the focus on economic growth and instead concentrated on the distribution of existing wealth. (my emphasis)

Finally, he puts the Parisian riots into some much-needed perspective:

Old Europe's key problem is not low productiviy or the failure to create new wealth; it is its failure to allow the market to distribute new wealth in the form of new, private sector jobs. This is why French youth of immigrant origins riot but their Canadian counterparts do not.

Compare this last passage to Dalrymple's reactionary explanation of events such as the Paris riots:

. . .conflict is the method in which [immigrants] will resolve their very different and entrenched conceptions about the way life should be lived. This is particularly true when immigrants are in possession, as they believe, of a unique and universal truth, such as Islam in its various forms often claims to be. (my emphasis)

Even though Smith never mentions Dalrymple's (okay, I'll just say it) bigoted statements outright, he does appear to be cordially refuting them by way of inference. Dalrymple argues: Muslims riot because their beliefs are unwielding and backwards. Smith responds: the riots in Paris were predictable social and economic unrest resulting from stifling economic policies.

Congratulations to Timothy B. Smith for his very intelligent reponse. It would have made a much better lead article.