Credit Image: © Ying Tang/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press

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Martin Sellner, Remigration: Ein Vorschlag (Remigration: A Proposal), Verlag Antaios, 2024, €20, 184 pages (available only in German)

In March, Austrian identitarian leader Martin Sellner was banned from Germany for three years. The same month, he gave a talk in the Swiss canton of Aargau when police barged in and handcuffed him. He was deported and banned from the canton also for three years. The justification for the bans in both countries was his dangerous ideas on “remigration,” which he explains in this book: a short, accessible, and admirably thorough treatment of one of the most important problems of our time.

February 23, 2024, Saxony, Chemnitz: A participant at a rally holds a sign reading ”Martin Sellner is welcome.” Sellner, a right-wing activist from Austria, was speaking at a demonstration organized by the Identitarian Movement. (Credit Image: © Sebastian Willnow/dpa via ZUMA Press)

The author calls the immigration to most Western nations “replacement migration.” The term comes from a 2000 UN policy paper, but the process began decades earlier. As Mr. Sellner puts it, “since the 1970s, population growth in Western Europe can be almost exclusively attributed to immigrants and their birth rates.”

After the Baby Boomers, each generation of native Germans, for example, has been smaller than the one before, while each generation of migrants has been larger. Mr. Sellner includes graphs from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany showing that “asylum seekers” are primarily men under the age of 40, while the median age of the native population is about 60. Some immigrants are pleased. Behzad Karim Khani, an Iranian, writes that “You are dying out, and . . . we migrants will surely inherit this country.”

Not only do immigrants have an advantage in youth and fertility, many have become citizens and can vote. Mr. Sellner estimates that there are 5 million “Germans” of non-European origin, of which 3 million are Muslims. They tend to support politicians who promise more immigration. Germans could therefore become a minority and, as Mr. Sellner notes, “lose the right of self-determination in their own country.”

Although economics are widely used to justify mass immigration, Mr. Sellner argues that moral convictions play a larger role. The Western world now belongs to a “cult of guilt” that teaches us to remember our collective sins and constantly do penance for them. In Germany, the most important aspect of this is universal “Holocaust education,” to the point that the national identity is now based on “deep historical shame.” Replacement migration is often explicitly justified as “atonement.” If it harms the native population, so much the better.

The most immediately obvious damage includes higher crime rates, Islamic terrorism, and the strain on public services. No fewer than 2.6 million non-citizens get unemployment benefits. Mr. Sellner argues that it is becoming socially acceptable to criticize these consequences of immigration, but not their cause. Diversity means not only more crime, but many other consequences of low trust: corruption, welfare fraud, loss of faith in democratic institutions, and lack of identity within the broader society. Europeans are losing their high-trust societies to migration.

Mr. Sellner writes that immigration should not be atonement, but should benefit Germans. It should reduce Überfremdung — the feeling of being overwhelmed by foreigners in one’s own country — and support German culture. Some immigration could be allowed, but much less, and with high standards. Foreigners’ desires for a better life are understandable, but do not outweigh the interests of Germans.

Mr. Sellner draws a distinction between integration and assimilation. Those who are integrated have jobs, obey the law, and speak German, but do not necessarily identify as German. Those who are assimilated think of themselves as Germans, and most of their friends are no longer from the home country. An immigrant is not truly assimilated until natives see him as one of their own. Some integrated but unassimilated immigrants can be tolerated.

In Mr. Sellner’s view, the truly assimilated could become citizens, but only at the end of a demanding “assimilation course.” They would have to demonstrate excellent knowledge of German language and culture, an above-average contribution to the economy, and show no signs of extremism. Only those who had lived in the country for 15 years without interruption (seven years for white immigrants) could become citizens. Finally, they would take an oath of loyalty to Germany, its people, and its constitution. Even those who have been naturalized could have citizenship revoked if, for example, they joined extremist groups.

Of least concern are white immigrants, who are usually integrated, if not always assimilated. They account for at least 6 million citizens, and at least 6 million more non-citizens. Culturally, they are relatively close to Germans. They vote differently from natives only in that they are somewhat more likely to support the AfD. Most have low crime rates, their birth rates are like those of Germans, and they do not burden public services. They do not start chain migration, because they do not have many poor relatives in their home countries, and those countries are safe. Even with no change in policy, Mr. Sellner would expect their numbers to decrease due to easy assimilation, low birth rates, and voluntary remigration.