As of this morning, the British media are full of news about the last census, which took place last year. And the focus is squarely on immigrants. The number of people living in England and Wales who were born oversees has risen by almost three-million, the data shows. Goodness gracious! Every single newspaper I have browsed through today insists on this precious bit. Everything else, such as the growing number of pensioners, as well as the growing number of the unemployed, is of little interest at this point. In this respect, at least, the British media follow the main concern of the rest of northwestern Europe. The census is about immigrants, immigrants, and immigrants. As though they are a new and unprecedented species of the plague, the immigrants attract all the attention nowadays. As for why their number is rising across the richest parts of the sub-continent, there is not a word. On the one hand, the world is in turmoil, and many people are looking for a new home. On the other, few people in the countries they think of as safe are willing to do so many things the newcomers consider a privilege. So, where is the problem? Ah, they look and talk and smell so weird! The 2011 British census cannot but feed a new wave of resentment that increasingly smacks of racism. Nay, fascism. As though Britons are not immigrants one and all, albeit at different times over a long stretch of Britain’s checkered past. The same goes for the rest of northwestern Europe, of course. No immigrants, please, we are died-in-the-wool Europeans!