Scott Alexander

Scott writes, So maybe this is one example of European issues leaking to a less appropriate American context.

Are there any others?

In Understanding America's New Right, Noah Smith asks why American conservatives are so interested in European affairs.

He answers that their ideology centers around the idea of Western civilization, which is kind of him.

A more paranoid analyst might make a similar argument around white identitarianism.

Since Europe is the home of Western civilization, it's especially galling for it to be ravaged by immigration or whatever.

This may be true, but I propose a simpler explanation.

The American conservative narrative on immigration is mostly true in Europe, mostly false in America, and it is more pleasant to think about the places where your narrative is mostly true.

The conservative narrative on immigration is, to put it uncomfortably bluntly, that immigrants are often parasites and criminals.

As our news sources love to remind us, this is untrue in the American context.

The average immigrant is less likely to claim welfare benefits and less likely to commit crimes than the average native-born citizen.

This is a vague, high-level claim.

The answer can shift depending on details of how you ask the question, and it's certainly not true of all immigrant or native subgroups.

Still, taken as a vague, high-level claim, the news sources are right and the conservative narrative is wrong.

In Europe, the situation is more complicated.

There are still some ways of asking the questions where you find immigrants collecting fewer benefits than natives, for example because immigrants are young, natives are old, and pensions are a benefit.

But there are also more options for asking the question in ways where, yes, immigrants are disproportionately on welfare.

the European link between immigrants and crime is even stronger, especially if the conservatives are allowed to cherry-pick the most convincing European countries.

This makes it tempting for US right-wingers to center their discussion of immigration around stories, narratives, and images from Europe.

No-go zones, grooming gangs, rape statistics, Sharia law, and asylum seekers are all parts of the European experience with limited relevance to an America where most immigrants are Mexican, Central American, or Indian.