When I read the headline about a slavery ring (“the UK’s largest”) I surmised that the ring was not the work of indigenous British/English people. Of course I was supposedly guilty of wrongthink in guessing that the slavery ringleaders were from outside the UK, even though the perpetrators are Eastern European, but the important thing is, my instincts were correct.

I’ve earned some displeasure in criticizing Eastern European immigration to the UK (as well as to Ireland and elsewhere), and especially by my mentioning specific crimes perpetrated by Eastern Europeans in the UK. But even if Eastern Europeans in the UK committed zero crimes, as some seem to wish to believe, the sheer numbers are worrying, for a small island. And granted, immigration from third-world countries is much greater in numbers, but that’s another story. Perhaps the people of the UK see Europeans as more likely to assimilate, but that is not at all certain, given their large numbers, to wit: as of 2017, there were 1.4 million Eastern Europeans in the UK. 916,000 of the 1.4 million were Poles — incidentally, the nationality of both the slavery ring-leaders and their victims.

I am not ‘picking on’ Polish people; I’ve known a few here in the U.S. and I have no animosity towards them as people. But the fact is Poland is not a war-torn country, not experiencing a famine, and not under totalitarian rule — so why the need to colonize Western Europe or Northern Europe? The statistics I’ve looked at all seem to say that about 20 million Poles are living outside their homeland. They seem to live anywhere from Azerbaijan to Australia, and some even in the Middle East and Africa. The story is that the economy of Poland will not support them, but the headline here says that immigration to Poland is necessary — so why not bring the ‘exiles’ home? Is it just that Western Europe, for example, provides a better living standard, more social programs, and so on, the usual lures for immigrants?

While it’s natually ethnocentric to assert ‘Poland for the Poles’, as many Polish demonstrators reportedly chanted in a recent flag-waving demonstration (which, oddly, I cannot find any article remaining of those which reported it a year or two ago) it is inconsistent to say that Poland is for Poles — but the UK is not just for the English, Welsh, Scots, or Northern Irish.

As all the immigrants to the US proclaim now, ‘America is for everybody’ . That means that millions of Americans have no homeland that is for us — and for our posterity — as we once had. I know that some British, especially English people, feel displaced and alienated in the same way.

I find it hard to respect people who claim ‘a homeland for me, but not for thee’. I have little sympathy for immigrants who claim their homeland is exclusively for them and their kin, while simultaneously laying claim to the right to someone else’s country. It seems that virtually all immigrants now display this attitude, and sadly Eastern Europeans are no exception to the rule.

And the issue of crimes committed by immigrants is not an insignificant one. While the ‘slavery ring’ involved Polish people only, and did not directly affect the native people of Britain, there is a certain amount of crime committed by Eastern Europeans in the UK; I’ve blogged about that before. When immigrants commit crimes here in the U.S., their sympathizers inevitably say, ”well, native born/White people commit crimes too”, the answer is, yes they do, so why do we benefit by inviting others to add to those crimes? Immigrant crime is avoidable.

And an Irish ‘Garda whistleblower’, John Wilson, made some pretty strong assertions about Eastern European crime in the Republic of Ireland — Ireland also has quite a large contingent of East Europeans:

He says that in 2004 , Ireland became a dumping ground for Eastern European Criminals. Today Russian and Eastern European Mafia operate in Ireland without any fear of being caught by the Gardai .

I am sure Mr. John Wilson gained some enemies by saying it, but I believe that in the case of many countries, immigration is being used as a kind of pressure valve, a way of offloading ‘problem’ people, including those with criminal records. We know it happened in the case of the infamous Cuban ‘Mariel Boatlift’ which Jimmy Carter was willingly duped into accepting. Can that be the only instance of such a thing in history?

Even if there was no element of crime to consider, as I said, it is best for every people to have a homeland which is the place where a distinct people with a common heritage and history and culture can thrive and feel relatively safe. And there is no doubt that the UK in the days when it was populated by the indigenous people(s) was a much more tranquil and safe than today. And that is reason enough to hope that the present situation change for the better. Would Brexit — if it ever really happens — change things? That’s a question for another post.