Nationalist Contradictions: Healthcare and Immigration

Obviously this piece doesn’t cover the view of every nationalist. The Scottish Nationalist Party, for example, is both progressive in these issues whilst retaining foundational nationalist tendencies. But certainly in its more extreme forms, nationalism holds these contradictory opinions on healthcare and immigration.

Healthcare

Right-wing individuals are often against universal healthcare provided freely by the state. Yet it baffles me that nationalists on the Right of the political spectrum can be against paying for the healthcare of their fellow citizens.

            Being proud of your nation, being proud to belong to your country, surely implies that you are proud of a collective identity. How, then, is it possible that this very pride makes you fundamentally against anything that could help the collective identity and willing to let it suffer?

            This simply does not make sense. It’s not true love if you don’t do your best to eliminate unnecessary pain. People not having access to healthcare they need to survive? That is unnecessary pain.

            Also, just a side-note for the politicians of the USA: you have the largest economy in the world so you have no excuse for not providing free universal healthcare to your citizens. Humans are meant to be humane. Act like it.

Immigration

Whilst it’s common for nationalists to be anti-migration, this stance seems almost bizarre when following nationalist logic. If you are proud of and love your country, surely you’d want to share it with others? Especially if you thought the migrants’ countries were worse than your own.

I’m not calling for uncontrolled migration but equally it’s nothing to be worried about. Countries are designed to accommodate a growing population, whether that’s newborns or adult migrants. With migrants, you get someone who doesn’t need the state to support them in education yet pays taxes anyway (not to mention they’ll do jobs that the local populous usually refuse to even consider).

Responding to this saying that, “But we don’t want to support their children.” Come on, people. They’re children. Do you really want to be responsible for innocent children not getting the education and help they deserve as a human right? I’m sure this barbaric opinion is far from your mind.

If you love a particular film or book or restaurant, you’d take someone to see it/borrow it. If you’re feeling proud of a family member or friend, you share that joy with everyone. Naturally, you share these resources with those that haven’t experienced them (i.e. the less fortunate).

I applaud Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany for all she’s done for migrants. Being humane is the aim of the game: you can’t claim to be human yet dissolve humaneness from yourself.