Man’s inhumanity to man: Death by immigration

“Most of the harm in the world is done by good
people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission.”
- Isabel Paterson,
“The Humanitarian With the Guillotine”

Think you’re a humanitarian?

Then open up that picture above (or head to its original site) and sit and think for a moment.

Think about people dying in pursuit of a better life.

Contemplate the number of deaths in Europe every year directly caused by barriers put up to stop people yearning to breathe freer—including human beings killed by drowning; by asphyxiation; by hypothermia, accident, exhaustion or minefield; by suicide; violence by policemen or border guards; or by sailors bodily throwing live human beings overboard.

That thousands every year still risk these journeys gives some indication of how bad their lives are in the place from which they’re trying to escape. And all these barrier are put up to stop them, by people who love their children, pat their dogs, do good works on the weekends, and probably donate to charities.

Why do they do it?

Because people like you ask them to.

Because the truth at the heart of the welfare state – of every welfare state, not just the European experiment – its dark underbelly which is here laid bare, is its utter inhumanity.

"How so?' you ask. "Isn't the Welfare State a model of benevolent charity?" No, it’s not.
    The Welfare State is not voluntary charity, it is based on compulsion, forcing every person to be responsible for every other person whether they like it or not. And like it or not, those who pick up the cheque for the welfare state resent that forced imposition.
    It makes them view others not as another human being, but as just another mouth to be fed at their expense, another wallet to fill by emptying theirs, another family to be funded by funding your own that much less -- and the people whose wallets are being picked are naturally upset at the prospect of many more mouths being fed at their expense
    By its very nature, the Welfare State dehumanises people - viewing them as just a wallet or a mouth.

That map above, and the corpses floating in their droves off Australia, are the modern symbols of the ‘benevolent’ Welfare State. They are eloquent symbols, because the flip side of forced charity is the gun.

The simple equation is this: Immigration Plus Welfare State Equal Police State.

And that’s as deadly as hell.

[Hat tip Open Borders Australia]

RELATED READING:

Immigration and the Statue of Bigotry – Peter Cresswell
Welfare State Leaves People to Die – Peter Cresswell
Bloodstains on the Refugee Red Carpet – Peter Cresswell
Good news about globalisation – Peter Cresswell
How about a little common sense on immigration - Tony Snow
Immigration plus Welfare State equals Police State - George Reisman
Immigration and the Welfare State - the real root of the problem - Brian Doherty
Who's milking who? - illegal aliens pay more in taxes than they impose in costs - Shikha Dalmia
Don't bad-mouth unskilled immigrants - Tyler Cowen & Daniel M. Rothschild
Exploitation or expulsion - illegal immigrants in a double bind - Jesse Walker
Fighting terrorism requires legalizing immigration - James Valliant
Worse than a wall - Kerry Howley
A legacy of the unforeseen - Carolyn Lochhead
Breathe free, huddled masses - Cathy Young
Open the borders - why should citizens of NAFTA countries need visas at all - Tim Cavanagh
Bush's border bravado - non-militarized solutions to a non-problem - Nick Gillespie
Open immigration, Si! Open borders, No! - Sixth Column

And of course there are the two classic Harry Binswanger articles which are 'must-reads' for the moral and practical case behind open immigration (note, open immigration, not open borders.):

The solution to 'illegal immigration' - Harry Binswanger
Immigration Quotas vs. Individual Rights: The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration - Harry Binswanger

There. That should answer your questions...