The end of immigration.

• Author: Howell, Llewellyn D.

IT HAS BEEN increasingly clear in the last few years that migration across national borders is coming to an end. It seems a bit difficult to believe, since migration across land and sea is built deeply into human folklore and has been employed since the beginning of human history to escape physical deprivation and human tyranny.

Many of the forces of human society, physical geography, and meteorology that drew or impelled peoples to spread themselves across the face of the planet continue unabated. The Sahara Desert can expand or contract by as much as 120 miles in a year, depending on rainfall. Political, religious, and ethnic oppression exists in many countries under circumstances where there is no hope of redress for minorities. The forces of the population explosion leave some peoples barely with breathing space in their native lands. Debilitating poverty racks large populations on several continents. The thrust and the desire to move remain.

However, the irresistible force of hope through migration is meeting an increasingly immovable object of foreigner jealousy and hatred. The immigration train is grinding to a halt while the emigration struggle continues. The signs are everywhere.

An anti-immigrant mood proved to be a determining factor in the 1995 French presidential and national elections. Sentiment against Arabs and Africans is widespread and deeply imbedded. The far-right National Front Party has made notable gains at the local level, and favoritism toward native-born citizens has become ever more prevalent in French society. Of seven European Union countries that once voted to give up internal passport controls, only France continues to resist beyond the agreed-upon deadlines.

A spate of Republican candidates for the American presidency have incorporated isolationist and anti-immigrant sentiments into their platforms and rhetoric. The same sectors of the population that find anti-UN arguments appealing also find anti-flag burning amendments attractive and like the idea of Christian prayer in public schools as "a reflection of our cultural heritage." Islamic prayer is not welcome; neither are Muslims or Hindus. Mexican immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are particularly undesirable.

The Vietnamese, another potential "tribe," have found themselves caught in the middle of the changing immigration environment. Many who journeyed to East Germany to fill employment voids in the lesser professions are being repatriated to Vietnam...