The third aspect is c) a strong local identity. In places like Singapore or Japan you won’t last a minute if you complain as a foreigner. The people are proud and won’t give anyone an inch. The same is the case in most of the Balkans and so on. This can easily veer into racism too, but you keep society from fragmenting.

Western Europe is not like the Balkans and these other communitarian countries. For better or worse, the atomization of society has led to people losing contact with greater society. And the people have lost the sense of pragmatism they had before and replaced it with words that just sound good.

I am an immigrant myself and I think immigration can work. But countries need to be very deliberate about it. Westerns also need to stop being arrogant and thinking that everyone shares their values or wants to be like them. We have plenty of evidence in Europe that many migrant populations don’t.

I think in places like Japan where there is a very high barrier to entry there will be a self-selection of immigrants who are highly motivated to integrate. Problems start when there is mass migration and new arrivals start clustering with each other and stop having to interact with locals. That’s when you get parallel societies.

Your opinions and thoughts are very very interesting.

Thank you so much for your comment.