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What can I hope for (from politics)? 1127
this has to include the defence of their cultural and territorial integrity
as well. Cultural integrity cannot be maintained if the political
community has no right to decide whom it accepts into its ranks and
with what conditions. And self-determination presupposes control
over a piece of land and the resources it contains. Responsible
husbandry cannot be imagined otherwise. ‘There are good reasons for
holding that the peaceful integration of a million-strong wave of
people into European societies annually is impossible, because the
culture and way of life of the people here differ from theirs in many
respects. The hard-won basic values of our civilisation, such as religious
tolerance, personal autonomy, the equal rights of women and the
respect of human dignity are alien to the majority of the arrivals; at
times they are unacceptable or perhaps clash with the commands of
their religion. It can often be noticed that the second generation of
immigrant families from other continents respond to their difficulties
and failures in integrating by rejecting the need to adapt to and
cooperate with the majority society much more than their parents did.
And the greater the cultural distance, the faster the immigrants arrive
and the greater their numbers, the smaller is the probability of
successful integration. The peaceful existence of cultural islands side
by side is hard to imagine in strongly integrated modern societies.
All this does not affect the second objection. To some extent, we are
undoubtably responsible for the development of the circumstances which
now force the millions affected by the natural and social consequences
of globalisation to leave their homeland. Besides, mercy towards the
people fleeing war, persecution or destitution demands that we take
them in and help them even if we had no part in their misfortune.
How can we meet two contradictory demands if both arise from the
deepest of ethical convictions? The new migration confronts us with a
dilemma which puts our wisdom to the test. If we wish to determine
the suitability of our political institutions for the handling of the serious
upheavals that no doubt await us, the result will be crushing. Instead of
weighing the real contradictions, European public opinion and its
political opinion leaders have committed themselves almost without
exception to one of two untenable positions. Sweeping aside the just
objections, they have fought passionately for acceptance or rejection.
‘Thus, the possibility that the duty to help and the right to self-defence
might be reconcilable has barely been mentioned. What prevents us
from accepting the validity of the command of humanity and at the
same time also that we can only live a life worthy of human beings in