Immigrants don't outbreed or convert the host society to their religion by force - whether Irish catholics or Pakistani Muslims

Submitted by Duncan McFarlane (United Kingdom), Jun 7, 2010 at 16:38

... There have been the same scare stories in every country in the world for centuries. In the UK it was meant to be that the Catholic Irish immigrants coming over here would out-breed the Protestants and impose Catholicism. This is more of the same prejudice and scare-mongering. It didnt happen with Catholic Irish immigrants and it isnt happening now with Muslims for reasons that anyone looking at the history will know.

Immigrant families from poorer countries initially have more children because in countries with no real pension system, no unemployment benefits and no real welfare state this was their only form of pension or insurance - to have children to look after them when they became ill or too old to work ; and because most children would not survive to adulthood.

However the second and third generations become better educated and earn more and live in a country with a welfare state, so they don't have so many children.

There are plenty of children and grand-children of Pakistani immigrant families in Scotland who, having been born here or lived most of their lives here, are mostly secular in their outlook and talk English with strong Scottish accents. Culturally they are more Scottish than anything else, but their families have also brought some interesting ideas and traditions which make Scottish and British society richer and more diverse.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".