Every year millions of people move from one country in the world to another with the intent to remain permanently in the destination country. Generally such people then congregate in the destination country among others who have come from the same place of origin. In other words, they form colonies of settlers. According to the normal meanings of the words, they are “settler colonialists.”

So how should these “settler colonialists” be treated upon arrival by their destination countries? Oddly, the political left has designated some of the settler colonialists as heroes deserving of an enthusiastic welcome replete with lavish taxpayer-funded benefits — free housing (at least temporarily), free medical care, free education for the kids, even cash handouts for food and incidentals; while other settler colonialists have been designated by the same leftists as the ultimate evil.

In several prior posts (e.g., here and here) I have attempted to discern some way to distinguish between the good and the bad settler colonialists. Is there any distinction between the two other than the obvious one of pure progressive racism? In an effort find the answer, let’s collect some of the latest news about some good and bad settler colonialists.

As an example of obviously good settler colonialists, consider the recent influx of illegal immigrants into New York City. Of the large numbers of people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally in the last three years with intent to settle and colonize, a substantial percentage seem to be making their way to New York (some with free bus rides courtesy of the State of Texas). After all, New York has designated itself a “sanctuary city” since all the way back in the 1980s, specifically to tell such settler colonialists that they are welcome here. According to this New York Times article from December 6, 2023, the number of these settler colonialists (for some reason they use the term “migrants”) that have arrived in New York City since Spring 2022 exceeded 150,000.

Looking around for a statement from the City on what benefits and handouts it provides to newly-arriving settler colonialists, I find this official press release from July 2023, “As Asylum Seekers in City's Care Tops 54,800, Mayor Adams Announces new Policy to Help Asylum Seekers Move From Shelter.” Clearly the number of these “asylum seekers” (another euphemism for settler colonialists) has about tripled since then, but at least this release gives some examples of benefits provided. Mayor Adams states:

“New York City has done more than any other level of government to address this national crisis, providing shelter, food, services, and much more to more than 90,000 asylum seekers since last spring. . . .”

And don’t forget the free medical care:

Ted Long, MD, MHS, senior vice president, Ambulatory Care and Population Health, NYC Health + Hospitals [said] “I am proud to be a part of the Adams administration that has provided life-changing support to many tens of thousands of asylum seekers.”

In the last few weeks it has also been revealed that the City and State of New York are providing generous cash handouts (in the form of pre-paid debit cards) to the arriving settler colonialists. A piece by Nicole Gelinas in the New York Post on February 11, 2024 has the headline “Now it’s free cash: Hochul and Adams’ never-ending migrant-money spigot.” Excerpt:

Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams have been quietly handing out cash to thousands of migrantsfor nine months. . . . The governor’s updated state budget allocates $26 million for this new cost for the current fiscal year, up from zero the year before. For the fiscal year starting April 1, the proposed state-taxpayer cost is $67 million.

What is the total cost to the taxpayers of the various handouts and benefits to the new settler colonialists? The most recent City release that I find on the subject comes from August 9, 2023:

[N]ew cost estimates based on current trends show that the city has the potential to spend upwards of $12 billion over three fiscal years (FY23, FY24, and FY25) without policy changes.

$12 billion over three years would be about $4 billion per year. By contrast, the annual budget of the New York City Police Department is under $6 billion per year. I don’t know how many more settler colonialists they are projecting to arrive, but using the New York Times figure of about 150,000 so far, that $4 billion per year would come to almost $27,000 per capita in benefits and handouts — a multiple of the “poverty line.” Clearly, these settler colonialists must be very good, and deserving of very special and generous treatment.

But then we have the very different situation with settler colonialists over in Israel. Obviously, these are the bad settler colonialists. Late last week it was announced that Israelis were moving forward with building about 3,300 new homes for settlers in the West Bank areas. The Biden administration immediately reacted with a denunciation of the Israeli action and a declaration, reversing a previous Trump administration policy, that the expanded settlements were a violation of international law. Here is a detailed piece from the Times of Israel dated February 23, headline “US revives policy deeming settlements illegal, pans Israel’s plan for 3,000 new homes.” Excerpt:

The Biden administration on Friday restored historic US policy deeming settlements inconsistent with international law, rejecting a stance implemented by the former administration, hours after Israel announced a plan to advance the construction of thousands of new settlement homes in response to a terror shooting in the West Bank.

Funny, but the New York policy of welcoming undocumented settler colonialists is also in clear violation of law, in this case U.S. immigration law; but the Biden administration can’t be bothered to denounce the New York policy, let alone even issue a mild criticism.

Essentially all of the European countries have also condemned this latest round of Israeli construction of settlements as a violation of international law.

I’ve tried to look to find out how much the Palestinian Authority is offering the new Jewish settlers in the way of benefits and handouts like free shelter, free medical care, free food, and free education; but I can’t seem to find anything like that.

What is the material difference — other than race/ethnicity and religion — between the settler colonialists coming into the U.S., and the Israeli settler colonialists moving into the West Bank area?