British Home Secretary Suella Braverman issued a blistering speech in Washington Tuesday, denouncing the "failed" and "outdated" immigration policies that have compromised the stability, security, and sovereignty of Western nations.
The conservative politician drew a parallel between the crises at the U.S. southern border and in the Mediterranean, stressing in her American Enterprise Institute keynote address that "uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination" for the West.
The British government indicated that in the year ending June 2023, 52,530 illegal aliens stole into the U.K. — four nations with a collective population of roughly 67 million souls. About 85% of these illegal migrants arrived by boat. The U.K. also received 74,751 asylum claims.
Under President Joe Biden, the United States — a nation with a population of over 335 million — saw over 232,000 illegal aliens steal into the nation just last month.
The Independent reported that Braverman, born to migrants from Mauritius and Kenya, recognizes the benefits of legal immigration. However, she emphasized Tuesday that such benefits rely upon the integration of migrants into the culture of their newfound homelands — a feat she prides her parents on having achieved "wholeheartedly."
"Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate," said Braverman. "It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in the society but not of the society."
For instance, the U.K. has observed the emergence of a parallel legal system in its midst, taking the form of Sharia councils.
The European Conservative noted in April that estimates put the number of Sharia councils in England and Wales at around 80, with more on the way. Braverman's predecessor noted that these councils have subjected various British women to discriminatory decisions that wouldn't otherwise fly under the legitimate law of the land.
"And, in extreme cases," continued Braverman, these balkanized migrant populations "could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society."
Braverman referenced Leicester, England, in her speech as a prime example of how multiculturalism contra monocultural multiracialism has proven ruinous.
The English city has been a hotbed for tribal violence, particularly between Hindus and Muslims.
Just as with the Eritrean-Ethiopian violence that Western nations have unwittingly imported, the New York Times highlighted last year that Indian civil strife has found asylum in Leicester along with waves of warring migrants.
According to Braverman, the influx of migrants to the U.K. and the European continent "has been too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion."
"If cultural change is too rapid and too big, then what was already there is diluted," continued Braverman. "Eventually it will disappear."
France is among the European nations to have recently paid a price for its failure to integrate new residents. In the wake of a police-involved shooting of a motorist of Algerian descent, riots swept the nation, leaving thousand of buildings torched, thousands of businesses looted, historical sites razed, and memorials desecrated.
Italy too has reaped the whirlwind, just last week seeing its island of Lampedusa, which has a native population of 6,000 residents, inundated with well over 8,500 illegal aliens, many of whom were military-age single men who had set sail from Libya.
Extra to stressing that illegal immigration and a failure to integrate pose an "existential challenge" to the U.S. and U.K. alike, Braverman questioned whether the United Nation's 1951 Refugee Convention was "fit for our modern age," noting that laws once intended to protect people from persecution have been transmogrified to protect people from bias. She suggested that "we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if, in effect, simply being gay or a woman or fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection."
Braverman's speech and her suggestion that she will look into reforming the European Convention on Human Rights and the U.N. Refugee Convention with her peers at home and in the U.S. — reforms she indicated others have failed to pursue for fear of being called "racist or illiberal" — have driven leftists and the U.N. up the wall.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, whose organization relies upon British pounds to stay afloat, rebuked the home secretary's remarks, stating, "The refugee convention remains as relevant today as when it was adopted. Where individuals are at risk of persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, it is crucial that they are able to seek safety and protection."
"An appropriate response to the increase in arrivals and to the U.K.’s current asylum backlog would include strengthening and expediting decision-making procedures," added the UNHCR. "The need is not for reform, or more restrictive interpretation, but for stronger and more consistent application of the Convention and its underlying principle of responsibility-sharing"
LGBT activist and London assembly member Andrew Boff, whose city has a foreign-born population of 37% and a non-British population of 22%, said that Braverman should stop engaging in "dog whistle" politics, adding that "talking about the victims of persecution as if they are the problem is incredibly unhelpful and really paints us as an uncaring party. I'm deeply unhappy with it."
Despite receiving overwhelming criticism from various bureaucrats and leftist politicians, Braverman has so far held her ground.
Listen to Braverman's remarks in full:
Keynote Address by UK Home Secretary Suella Bravermanyoutu.be
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