Republicans only want immigrants from woke societies
Are you white or woke?
My article Why Republicans can’t stop sounding racist was about the lack of explicit cultural understanding on the right and how that deficiency causes their rhetoric (and their immigration policy) to sound overtly racist.
This piece is a narrower analysis focused on the specific places and cultures Republicans claim to want. The irony being that these places, while sharing a fundamental culture of openness and change, differ significantly on policy specifics because of those shared traditions.
Republicans favor less conservative and religious groups in favor of more secular and progressive ones who happen to be white.
Sweden or Somalia?
President Trump has intensified his criticism of immigrant communities in the United States. At a recent campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania, he repeated a familiar line: he wishes the U.S. received more immigrants from places like Sweden and Denmark, not Somalia.
Many Democrats interpret this as a straightforward preference for white Christians over brown Muslims. Inside the Republican base, the explanation is usually framed not in racial terms but cultural ones. They believe immigrants from Scandinavia share “our” values, while others do not.
Shared culture is a reasonable criterion for immigration. But culture is not determined by race or birthplace.
The irony in the Republican position is that the very societies they want immigrants from are the same societies they the most time condemning.
The traits Americans generally prefer should be those composing open societies; liberal democratic institutions, respect for individual rights, and traditions of self-critique and course correction. These traits make societies adaptable and prosperous. But they also happen to be the traits that distinguish Scandinavia from the societies the American right disdains.
Republicans will praise Northern and Western European societies for their cultural closeness to America while attacking them as “socialist” and “woke.”
MAGA prefers the people who don’t prefer them
People tolerant of different religions and sexualities align more closely with the values America claims to uphold. That makes it almost obvious why many Europeans don’t like Republicans.
During both of Trump’s terms, rhetoric and policies from Washington alienated these populations. Tourism and immigration from Scandinavia and Western Europe declined sharply.
Europeans’ approval of universal healthcare, robust welfare programs, and multiculturalism stands in stark contrast to American right-wing domestic priorities, all while the countries MAGA most disfavors—like Afghanistan, Somalia, and Cuba— are placed under total travel bans. Yet those unfavorable nations are more aligned with their own conservative and religious worldview.
And this is where Republicans face a real dilemma: if immigrants are expected to assimilate into American values, then the “host” society must also be recognizable and welcoming to them.
MAGA is a bad reason to become American
Assimilation is MAGA’s central concern, and yet they refuse to assimilate themselves into the progressive, tolerant, and self-critical institutions that have shaped our society. If they will not embrace the culture they claim to admire, why should we expect immigrants to?
The same cultural affinity Republicans want immigrants to possess before crossing the border is the very affinity that keeps them on the other side of the Atlantic.
If you notice in this poll on how other countries view the U.S. (shoutout Josh for the photo), it’s the less white, less “woke” countries that tend to favor a Republican-led America—India, Nigeria, and Brazil. Meanwhile, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia hold very negative views.
Might I just mention that the Republican infighting over migration from non-white, non-Christian societies is an absolute travesty: it makes no sense. But because they view cultural preferences only through identity markers and national historical narratives, Republicans are missing out on a huge pool of talented, tolerant individuals seeking opportunity from places like Japan and India.
Stephen Miller (who is more correct on this distinction than he is often given credit for, though still far from a morally sound position) has recognized the significant impact of “cultural importing”. But when pressed to identify shared cultures across ethnicities, religions, and histories, he can only point to a narrow group whom he’d allow inside the country: white South Africans “fleeing persecution.”
So what is it about these kinds of people that Republicans like?
What do white Christians in South Africa have that the thousands of Afghan women, families in Sudan, and children in Yemen don’t posses?
Republicans admire the principled aspects of liberal societies through order, prosperity, and cohesion, while opposing the values and policies that produce those outcomes. This makes their immigration preferences incoherent: they want people shaped by systems they despise, and they reject people whose conservative nationalism mirrors their own worldview.
In other words, Republicans only want immigrants from the most progressive societies, and people from those societies don’t want Republicans.