A cura di @Quantus.

Lo storico David Wootton va alle radici del pensiero liberale, in cui si riconosce egli stesso, per capire quale sia la mancanza che sta impedendo al liberalismo di confrontarsi in modo valido con le più cruciali questioni della contemporaneità, e quale cambio di mentalità sia richiesto ai  liberali per rispondere alle sfide quali la questione migratoria, che orbitano intorno al tema dell’identità.

From a Benthamite perspective, immigration is irrelevant: all economists agree that it is economically beneficial and unemployment is, by historical standards, low in all the countries where populism has taken hold. But opposition to immigration is strongest, not where immigrants are most numerous, but where people believe it will increase in the future. There is a tendency to think that hostility to immigration is about race: sometimes it is; often it isn’t. Hostility to white, middle-class incomers and gentrifiers mirrors hostility to immigrants. The issues raised by immigration are not just about income or race, but identity. Populism marks a new phase in identity politics for the simple reason that people fear not only poverty, but also identity deprivation.

Immagine da Wikimedia.