Richard Lynn

Byron M. Roth, The Perils of Diversity: Immigration and Human Nature. Washington Summit Publishers, 2010, 577 pages.

Dr. Byron Roth, Professor Emeritus of psychology at Dowling College on Long Island, has written an important book on the damage that has been done to the United States and Europe by the large scale immigration of non-European peoples that has taken place in recent decades.

Roth begins The Perils of Diversity by documenting how elite opinion-makers in academia and the mainstream media almost all assume that the peoples of all races are similar, and therefore that they can all be accommodated in the United States and Europe. The principal “debate” is between those who advocate assimilation and those who advocate multiculturalism. While acknowledging that different racial groups can sometimes be in conflict, assimilationists argue that these ethnic problems can be solved through “the magic of assimilation,” in which all races and religions are gradually transformed into Americans or Europeans. The multiculturalists argue that we should let the immigrants keep their culture, beliefs, and practices; this can be accomplished, they say, peacefully, and different communities can live in social harmony. They blame the intolerant attitudes of the host populations in the United States and Europe for the discord that is frequently present: It is the fault of the indigenous American and European peoples, who do not do enough to accommodate immigrants.

Roth argues that both the assimilationists and the multiculturalists fail to understand human nature.

Assimilationists believe that all races have the intelligence and values required to maintain Western civilization, while multiculturalists believe that all races and cultures can live together in social harmony. These beliefs are, Roth argues, seriously incorrect in the light of historical experience and scientific evidence.