Are We at Risk of Becoming a Faceless Nation?
A Quick Thought About Immigration
I recently came across a helpful illustration for understanding a nation’s border. View the border of a nation as its face. This illustration conveys peculiar identity. Just as the face of a man identifies him and separates him from other men, so the "face,” or border, of the nation ought to separate it from other nations.
Assimilation
A nation is a nation precisely because it has its own unique system, culture, values, governance, and framework.
To open the borders to anyone without qualification or process is to forfeit the identity of the nation.
If there is no assimilation into the shared values, language, and culture of the nation, the result will be such a "melting pot" that there will be no shared value, language, and culture at all. Therefore, the nation loses the things that make it a particular nation in the first place.
Concentric Circles
Cultural units make concentric circles. At the core, there are families. Every family has its own home, culture, and rules. Though we are called to be hospitable to outsiders, it is reasonable and expected that we would require any outsider who enters our homes to abide by the rules and standards of the home.
It is also reasonable and expected that we would not leave the front door hanging open, thereby allowing anyone who likes the comfort and possessions of our homes to enter. In fact, in doing so we would be endangering the members of our homes and, therefore, neglecting our primary duty as protectors of those placed under our care.
Priorities
The family is the first and most intimate of the concentric circles. A man’s family is his first priority. Whenever a stranger poses a potential threat to the safety, purity, or wellbeing of his home, the man is obligated to prioritize his home to the neglect of the stranger.
His home has a border. Within it, there are people, values, culture, possessions, and comforts that he must guard. While he should seek hospitality, he should only do so when it poses no harm to his first responsibility, which is his home.
The Wider Concentric Circle
As the concentric circles go out (community, state, etc.), we arrive eventually at a nation. A nation, like a home, has a border. Within it, there are people, values, culture, possessions, and comforts that we must guard. While we should seek hospitality to the refugee, we should only do so when it poses no harm to our first responsibility — our nation and its citizens.
We should only bring in the immigrant in order to assimilate into the already established norms within our borders.
We should refuse the immigrant when there is potential threat to the safety, culture, values, comforts, and wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.
We must be willing to vet the people trying to cross our borders lest we become a faceless nation.
Originally published on Medium.