This tweet did come as a surprise from one of the leading figures in the anti-immigration movement, although perhaps not to anyone who has been paying attention. In general, those who are most vocal in their opposition to immigration tend to be the strongest supporters of it being done properly.
There is a basic recognition, particularly among businessmen such as Rupert Lowe, formerly chairman of Southampton FC, that immigration can bring prosperity to an economy. Farage has an immigrant wife.
So do I. I also lived abroad for years as an immigrant. My friends at Triggernometry, Francis Foster, whose family came from Venezuela, and Konstantin Kisin from Russia, are also products of immigration.
A Historic Example
History offers a useful example. In the late 19th century, Argentina became the most prosperous country in Latin America after six million immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy, arrived. The country later fell into decline due to an over-dependence on its exports, but its Spanish and Italian roots still define the culture today.
Argentines joke about what might have been had the British arrived instead. Would they now be rivalling Australia or the United States?
People disagree about whether Italian and Spanish immigration to Argentina was a good thing. What cannot be denied is the scale of the impact. More than a century after the Italian influx, Argentina is still set apart from the rest of South America.
Like Italians, Argentines eat pizza with passion, they talk with their hands, and their Spanish has a musical rhythm that makes it unique. Immigration changed Argentina in ways that could never be undone.
Our Own Culture Shock
That is the point. Immigration always changes a country’s culture and its prospects. On the Left, there seems to be a naïve belief that people lose their cultural baggage the moment they land at Heathrow or on a beach in Kent.
However, bringing in millions of people from one culture means that culture becomes deeply rooted here. Once it has done so, there is no going back.
If the culture we import is one that most Britons fear or distrust, then we are committing cultural suicide. It is no different to noticing that Argentines ended up sounding Italian. If you import millions of Pakistanis, Nigerians or Indians, Britain will inevitably begin to resemble those cultures.
Multiculturalism (A Nice Sounding Word…)
This is especially true in a society like ours that worships multiculturalism - it insists on celebrating foreign traditions while denouncing its own. We demand not that immigrants adapt to one of the greatest cultures in human history, but that the native population adapts to the newcomers. The project is doomed to fail.
What makes this so frustrating and unnecessary is that millions of talented, ambitious people would wholeheartedly embrace Britain. In six years in Buenos Aires, I met countless young Argentines who dreamt of moving to the UK.
They speak perfect English, wear T-shirts with the Union Jack and are fascinated by the Royal Family. Yet for almost all of them, the dream is impossible. They know they will never be able to move to London because the visa system is so restrictive. These are people who are doctors, engineers and geologists, yet they are not about to board a dinghy.
How My Wife & I Moved
To Rupert Lowe’s point, even families with a British spouse find it extremely difficult. My wife, an accomplished lawyer who speaks three languages and represented her university in international law competitions in Washington, and I looked into the process years ago.
It was not possible because we were required to have vast sums of money in the bank and even more to pay lawyers to begin the process. In the end, it was easier, though not at all simple, to apply for a European passport through her grandparents and move to the UK the day before Brexit.
While waiting for it to come through, we had to live in Germany for three years. A punishment for many reasons, one of which is that Berlin already seemed to be far further ahead than London in a race to integrate the second and third world. Entire regions of the city are now Turkish and Arabic.
Meanwhile, I know English-Argentine couples with children in Buenos Aires who are desperate to move here but cannot.
This Makes No Sense
That is why I am astonished that millions of people with no connection to Britain, and with no British spouse, manage to enter each year from far more distant countries. In 2024, 1.2 million people came here legally, most of them from India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. I know many people from these backgrounds who are remarkable individuals, devoted to their families and appreciative of this country.
However, if we import entire cultures on this scale, we will inevitably adopt elements from societies that are poorer, lower in trust, and less liberal by Western standards.
The answer, as Rupert Lowe suggests, is a green list of countries whose cultures Britain can actually benefit from. It would be an objective list, based on similarities in GDP, religion and freedoms.
At the top would be Australia, the United States and Canada. A second tier includes Argentina, and, off the top of my head, Japan, Chile, Uruguay, Switzerland or Israel. On the red list would be countries where Sharia law is enforced, or where women, gays and Jews are treated as second-class citizens, or worse.
If we do not take this approach soon, then just as Argentines became Italians 2.0, Britain risks becoming India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. And even people from those countries don’t seem to want that - otherwise, they wouldn’t be so desperate to move here.
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