A.H. Bittles’ cousin marriage map

Closing EU borders will lead to inbreeding, German finance minister warns Wolfgang Schäuble said closing Germany’s borders would ‘ruin’ the country Harry Cockburn Sunday 12 June 2016 17:38 BST11 comments As European countries grapple with growing public concern over immigration, political tensions are running high. But hyperbolic political rhetoric reached a strange new peak this week when Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble told a newspaper that closing the country’s borders would lead to inbreeding. In an interview with weekly paper Die Zeit, Mr Schäuble rejected the idea Europe could close its borders to immigrants, and said: “Isolation is what would ruin us – it would lead us into inbreeding.” Taking aim at opponents of Germany’s border policies, he said: “Muslims are an enrichment of our openness and our diversity.” “Look at the third generation of Turks, especially the women. That is an enormous innovation potential,” he added.

From The Independent In other words, first and second generations: not so hot, as are third generation of men, But the third generation of Turkish women! So, obviously, this same logic will apply to Afghans and Chadians. Just wait 75 years …

In the meantime, however, the last half century shows that Islamic immigration tends to boost cousin marriage / inbreeding rates in Western Europe dramatically, as shown in Professor A.H. Bittles’ data. The Turks (traditionally the main Islamic nationality in Germany) aren’t quite as bad as their more backward neighbors, but, say, Britain has all sorts of problems caused by inbreeding among its Pakistanis.

Here’s my January 13, 2003 American Conservative article “Cousin Marriage Conundrum” on why the sky-high rates of inbreeding bode ominously for the Bush Administration’s plans to invade and nation-build in Iraq.