Half a thought...

Inspired by this piece in the economist. It's talking about America's relative lack of an Islamist problem.

Three things account for America’s relative security... By far the most important reason, however, is that American Muslims are less interested in being radicalised than their European counterparts. They are richer, better educated and altogether better integrated into the mainstream. Though less than 1% of America’s population, they account for 10% of its doctors; in 2011, less than half said that most of their closest friends were Muslims.

Often, immigration is defended as necessary because immigrants will do the dirty jobs we coddled Westerners won't touch. Or because immigrant labour provides a cheap, semi-skilled force that can keep otherwise unproductive industries going for another generation. But there must be an argument that by sourcing immigration from low-income, low-education areas (even comparatively within the countries of origin), host countries make it much harder for assimilation to take place.

I'm not quite a Marxist on this, but I do believe that class (as expressed in economic and educational attainment) is at least as big a factor as race in assimilation and development. Unless we're honestly suggesting that we as a society were more racist to Indians from India than we were to Indians from East Africa (or, now, are much more racist to Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh than we are to Muslims from India) it must be to class that we should look, rather than race or religion.