Mass Migration Also Imports Foreign Conflicts
Among the many inconvenient facts about mass migration that the open-borders lobby does not wish to talk about is that the newcomers bring with them various grievances – which sometimes run very deep – from their homelands. That is rarely the case, as demonstrated by recent violent riots between the supporters and opponents of the current regime in Eritrea in the streets of Norway and Israel.
During the first weekend of September, an Eritrean organization in Norway wished to mark the thirtieth anniversary of their homeland breaking away from Ethiopia. However, some Eritreans retain political hostility toward the government in the old country. This turned an event that was supposed to feature food and entertainment in Bergen’s city center into a full-scale riot when opposition protesters arrived. During a riot lasting six hours, the rioters threw stones, bricks, and other objects. The Norwegian police intervened to restore calm, but even off-duty officers had to be called in. The violence would have undoubtedly been even worse had busloads of Eritreans coming from other parts of Norway not been stopped by the authorities. Surprisingly, only two rioters were arrested and five were charged out of a total of approximately 200 rioters.
A similar scenario was played out on the very same weekend in Israel as fighting broke out in front of the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv. According to The Times of Israel, “Over 150 people were reported injured (…), including some 15 seriously, as asylum seekers [i.e., illegal aliens] from Eritrea protesting against their government clashed with supporters of the regime, and as both groups clashed with police trying to impose order.” Among the injured were 30 Israeli police officers. Weapons used included lumber, rocks, pieces of metal, and (at least in one case) an axe, resulting in blood in the streets and smashed store windows. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was justifiably angry, threatening to “immediately deport” the “illegal infiltrators” as he touted the new fence along Israel’s southern border for stopping further illegal alien incursions.
The pro-mass-immigration crowd may wish to portray such outbreaks as isolated and uncommon incidents. However, similar Eritrean-on-Eritrean violence occurred in Giessen, Germany, in July, with 200 individuals being arrested and 28 German law enforcement officers sustaining injuries. In August, approximately 1,000 Eritreans fought each other during an Eritrean cultural festival in Sweden, with 50 people being injured, including police officers. And such imported conflict violence is by no means limited to Eritreans. Europe has also seen street fighting between Turkish and Kurdish nationalists in Germany and Austria. In Sweden, Shia Muslim immigrants expressed fears of returning radical Sunni ISIS fighters.
The recent Eritrean riots should serve as a warning that mass migration brings not only cheaper labor, greater “diversity,” or a greater variety of cuisine, as the open-borders lobby typically argues. It can also mean the importation of other nations’ conflicts, rivalries, and grievances. The philosophy of “bring them all in and sort things out later” will simply no longer do and results in harm to both host societies and many immigrants.