Qatar World Cup shows immigration is great for football, but integration is key for society

As Morocco started its startling ascent this World Cup with more than half its squad coming from families who had immigrated to Europe, liberal commentators marvelled at how multiculturalism is making football richer. Indeed, 136 of the 832 players in the Qatar megashow are foreign-born. That is 16.3 percent, more than triple of the 5 percent immigrants who played in the first World Cup in 1930. Of the 59 World-Cuppers this year who are born in France, only 37 percent play for the French national squad, which is inundated with immigrants and their children. A majority played for the African nations: Tunisia, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon and Morocco. And three represented Spain, Portugal and Qatar. The game gains from itinerants as well. The highly regimented, clinical and defensive white European style has started speaking a more creative and aggressive Creole with its boots today. Some of the game’s biggest stars like Kylian Mbappé or Achraf Hakimi are born to immigrants. Football, the planet’s most popular game, makes multiculturalism mainstream more naturally than any politician or intellectual can contrive or force-fit. When one plays or watches the game, one effortlessly gets immersed in a global, cultural melting pot. But then, outside that hypnotic bible exists a world of geopolitics and religion that can be ugly, expansionist and opportunistic of the game’s popularity. When Morocco lost to France in the semi-finals, massive violence broke out on the streets of Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. Molotov cocktails were freely tossed about, cars upturned or put on fire, stones thrown, French flags uprooted and torn. Most of those venting their anger in Paris, ironically, were immigrants from terror-torn Islamic nations that France had given shelter. Instead of even a token display of patriotism towards their new home, a pan-Islamist mindset was at work, setting their host nation on fire. Immigration without integration is pointless and could be seriously damaging. A lack of respect for the host’s culture is a sign of new imperialism. This off-field small-mindedness sometimes infects those on the field as well. Mesut Özil, Jérôme Boateng, and Sami Khedira would not sing the German national anthem despite being held as stars in their host nations. Self-proclaimed liberals, out of touch with reality as usual and consumed with pushing a certain pro-Islam narrative, are missing the point about multiculturalism again in their breathless praise for footballing immigrants this World Cup. Mobs going on rampage on Europe’s streets and demanding Sharia have nothing to do with multiculturalism. They are simply bigoted, brainwashed parasites waiting to turn their host nations into the hell they had to leave behind. Which is why if a Bangladeshi or Rohingya were to play for India one day, the system must make sure that they earned the citizenship through love for this nation, not because they broke into it.