Time to discuss uncomfortable truths about migrant crime

The recent influx of migrants, mostly but not entirely from the Syrian conflict has seen public concern both rise in sympathy as photographs appeared of dead children on a beach and then change to appalled as stories arise of rapes and sexual harassment not just in Cologne but Helsinki and other parts of Europe,

Vigilante groups have sprung up in Germany and Finland, the latter associated with neo-Nazi groups. There is a quite clear problem. One of gender imbalance. Valerie Hudson writes:

According to official counts, a disproportionate number of these migrants are young, unmarried, unaccompanied males. In fact, the sex ratios among migrants are so one-sided — we’re talking worse than those in China, in some cases — that they could radically change the gender balance in European countries in certain age cohorts.

Hudson also highlights a particular problem associated with the background of the vast bulk of these men:

......societies with extremely skewed sex ratios are more unstable even without jihadi ideologues in their midst. Numerous empirical studies have shown that sex ratios correlate significantly with violence and property crime—the higher the sex ratio, the worse the crime rate. Our research also found a link between sex ratios and the emergence of both violent criminal gangs and anti-government movements. It makes sense: When young adult males fail to make the transition to starting a household—particularly those young males who are already at risk for sociopathic behavior due to marginalization, a common concern among immigrants—their grievances are aggravated.

At the same time care needs to be taken in dealing with this very real problem. Maajid Nawaz makes the relevant call:

Yes, it is racist to suspect that all brown men who look like me are rapists. It is bigoted to presume that all Muslim men who share my faith advocate religiously justified rape. It is xenophobic to assume that all male refugees are sexual predators awaiting their chance to rape. But let me be absolutely clear: What will feed this racism, bigotry, and xenophobia even more is deliberately failing to report the facts as they stand. Doing so only encourages the populist right’s rallying cry against “the establishment.

If liberals do not address such issues swiftly, with complete candor and courage, the far-right and anti-Muslim populist groups will get there first. They have been doing so for a while now.

But it is not just the far-right that we need to be careful with over these issues. The far-left can also be more than a problem with their skewered thinking and opportunist thinking. Any attempt to deal with migrants and sexual crimes will be met with the usual accusations of "Islamophobia" and racism. Women's rights and those of indigenous populations who have been for the most part welcoming so far will be set aside.

The evidence of this is seen on a daily basis as the left try to censor even rational debate in our universities. Marynam Namazie wrote in the Daily Mail

Within our society, there should of course be safe spaces – such as women’s refuges – for victims of violence, discrimination and abuse. But it is wrong to hijack this concept as a means of stifling open debate within the higher education system.

By their very nature, universities should be ‘unsafe spaces’ where orthodoxies are challenged and opinions questioned. Why go to university at all if you feel you have to be ‘protected’ from views you dislike? That is a recipe for intellectual paralysis. Indeed, most human progress stems from a willingness to embrace ‘unsafe’ or ‘offensive’ ideas.

Moreover, what is considered ‘offensive’ or ‘hate speech’ is highly subjective. All too often the limits of speech are set by those with the loudest voices or the most political influence, like religious bodies or student unions or the state authorities. Once the limits are set, it’s a slippery slope. Limiting free speech silences and censors dissenting voices which most need to be heard.

There needs to be an open and rational debate addressing the very real problems of the current wave of (male dominated) immigration that refuses to be sidelined by false accusations of racism from those who would seek to limit debate for their own political ends.

At the same time the real crimes committed by those who have abused the hospitality of their host country must be addressed with full force of the law to protect the innocent victims of their acts. Justice must be seen to be done.

The "Human Rights Act" must not be seen to favour the criminal and allow criminality to hide behind false claims that their rights are under threat when they have abused those of others. Failure to do this will feed the far-right which is a real threat in many countries across Europe.

How we tackle this issue and the general influx of unrestrained immigration may make or break the current democratic balance across Europe.

Only the extremists of left, right & Islamist will again from from our failure.