Lee Hsien Loong Quotes

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization.

Immigration provides further justification for multiculturalism by creating an ever larger aggrieved class …. If we don’t significantly reduce immigration numbers, the assimilation problem will only get worse.

There is nothing more important for us in Maine than to welcome immigrants and help them not only become part of our community but for us to become part of their communities.

We must honor our country's tradition of openness and continue to welcome new immigrants.

The attitude of America toward the ever increasing flow of immigrants to its shores, has gradually changed from indifference to concern. The problem, from a sociological point of view, seems to be whether or not so many diversified races can make for national solidarity. An answer is found in assimilation, not by force or coercion, but rather by guidance, understanding, and protection.

The world's moving; people move around the world. A lot of people coming to this country have terrific talent to bring to the country - not just in business and in the professions but in Parliament as well. And we need some failsafe system so that, right at the outset, they are aware that they have to drop any other citizenship.

Immigrant communities have been genuinely accepted in London.

Our forefathers increased and decreased the influx of peoples because America was building a melting pot and because certain ethnicities often brought with them certain securities and degrees of productivity.

Why can't you ask people if they want more or fewer Germans or Belgians or Moroccans?

I don't want our country to be like other countries in Europe in having a challenge to integrate their new immigrants.

I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 per cent of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate.

We need to remain a nation that doesn't just welcome but that celebrates legal immigrants who come here seeking to pursue the American Dream.

We should embrace our immigrant roots and recognize that newcomers to our land are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution.

It may be the optimist in me, but I think America has a uniquely powerful and capacious glue internally. The American identity has always been ethnically and religiously neutral, so within one generation you have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Jamaican-Americans - they feel American. It's a huge success story.

I am in favour of the notion of Australia as an immigrant society.

Our nation is built upon a history of immigration, dating back to our first pioneers, the Pilgrims. For more than three centuries, we have welcomed generations of immigrants to our melting pot of hyphenated America: British-Americans; Italian-Americans; Irish-Americans; Jewish-Americans; Mexican-Americans; Chinese-Americans; Indian-Americans.

We must insist on assimilation - immigration without assimilation is an invasion. We need to tell folks who want to come here, they need to come here legally. They need to learn English, adopt our values, roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Both my parents were immigrants, as were many of their friends, the parents of the children with whom I grew up. Of course I respect and admire immigrants and their undeniable contributions to America, as we all should.

That should be our test regarding immigrants. Those who come to America to tear it down or live off of others should not be welcomed.

America was born as a nation of immigrants who have always contributed to its greatness.

The American story is a story of immigration. I would be the last person who would say immigrants are not important to America.

But then I came to the conclusion that no, while there may be an immigration problem, it isn't really a serious problem. The really serious problem is assimilation.

The U.S. is a complex country. It has a high predominance of immigrants who have been eminently successful.

For the tidal wave of new immigrants Canada is more a land for the realization of private dreams than for maintaining a ... compact between founding races. No common identity was provided for the millions of new Canadian immigrants other than a week vision of mutual multi-cultural indifference.

Traditionally, the ideology of the United States nationhood perpetuated the myth that immigrants would shed their particularistic ethnic identities and loyalties. Eventually these “strangers” would be assimilated into a homogeneous body politic that was based on the equality of individual rights.