Immigrants?

Usually I agree with Mark Steyn, but in Macleans he questions why there are 50,000 Canadians living in Lebanon.

Ummm...probably for the same reason there are 100 000 US citizens here in the Philippines...

We retired here because my husband wanted to be near family.
It's cheaper to live here, so not only do a lot of Philippinos come back to retire, but so do a lot of ex servicemen, especially those married to a Filippina. (They even advertise for US citizens to retire here LINK)
And many of our relatives send their kids to go to college here, and invest their money into local businessesm here. (you'd be surprised to find how many American doctors study overseas because of the high tuition in US medical schools).

And with the Lebanese there is probably another reason: safety... many who left were Christians, worried about what would happen if Islamofascism takes over that country...If that should happen, the "anchor" immigrant would enable his entire family to move to Canada.

Steyn (ironically, a Canadian who now lives in NewHampshire) worries about multiculturalism, which is thinly disguised Marxism that uses immigration as an excuse to destroy western values.

But true multiculturalism, i.e. mixing of cultures and religions, can be done without destroying the ideas of America. After all, these worries aren't new: They inspired the Know-nothing riots, the anti Irish sentiments, and the 1920's immigration laws that kept out a lot of Jews, Italians, Indian, and Asians (so, you want to tell Guilliani, Wolfowitz, D'Sousa or Inoyue they are not good "americans"? Good luck, and I'll patch you up when you are done).

And what Steyn doesn't see is that the pollination of ideas work both ways...

Eamon DeValera, call your office...some Brit says you aren't really Irish...