By Alexander Perepechko

Published on September 13, 2015

Limitations of the Gurkha and Foreign Legion Models

We continue investigating an unheroic realism in America during Late Modernity. In my two previous research essays, I showed how small families and refusal to tolerate combat casualties impact the securitization of the West. It was conjectured that the Gurkha model of the British army and the foreign legion model of the French army can potentially be copied by Americans to circumvent the intolerance of casualties. Both models have, however, drawbacks and consequences.

A segmented labor market is part and parcel of life in western societies. Segmentation can result in different groups, for example foreigners and native born, receiving different wages, benefits, and privileges. Gurkha veterans continue fighting for equal pensions with the British soldiers they serve alongside (Who are, 2010). In 2007, these veterans won a partial victory when pension rules were changed to give serving Gurkha soldiers equal pension rights with other service personnel in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the British Gurkha Welfare Society claimed that about twenty-five thousand men, who had retired before July 1st, 1997, were denied the opportunity to transfer into UK armed forces pension schemes. This organization stated that the government had acted unlawfully by paying Gurkha veterans only a third of the income of UK-based soldiers.

Gurkhas are not the only “martial race” on the earth. During the Vietnam War, the United States used the Nungs, a Chinese mountain people. As a result of dynastic rivalries, a part of the Nung people found itself in Vietnam about 300 years ago and partially mixed with the Tay. These Nungs in Vietnam were hired and organized by the U.S. Army as an ethnic mercenary force. Fearsome and vicious fighters, the Nungs served in the U.S. Army Special Forces throughout Vietnam and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Nungs performed reconnaissance and other dangerous missions.

American military and security services as well tested the foreign legion model in Afghanistan. This model combines American officers and non-American volunteers. After they renounce the citizenship of their country of origin, temporary immigrants and mercenaries become a pool for the Army and Marine infantry. Temporary immigrants are also required to live in the United States for a minimum of two years before the armed forces are opened to them (Preston, 2009). These volunteers first get the chance to become U.S. citizens in six months. Many of them come from Latin America and the Caribbean…

This essay will describe a model that, like the Gurkha and foreign legion models, does not sacrifice lives of American citizens. Many leftist politicians, institutions, networks, and organizations and their sponsors from international banks, globalist organizations (e.g., Rockefeller Foundation), and some IT businesses probably have in mind new migrants from different civilizations as the core of military and security services. It is up to military experts to evaluate the technical, operational, and other combat related components of the Gurkha model, the foreign legion model, and other approaches and to find out how well these models suit military and security tasks. My job here is modest: to probe the geopolitical prospects of immigrants in the Army and Marine infantry today and in the future.

Minorities, Immigrants, and Combat Specialties in the U.S. Armed Forces Today

For immigrants, segmented assimilation and non-assimilation are among alternatives to Americanization. Recall that segmented assimilation is an assimilation not into mainstream American culture and society but into a subnational, often marginal, segment of the American society. Non-assimilation (“in-but-not-of”) is the maintenance in the United States of the culture and social institutions that immigrants bring with them (Woldemikael, 1989: 81-94). Therefore, segmented assimilation and non-assimilation reflect the persistence of nonnative subcultures in the larger American culture. What are the sources of these subcultures?

They are initiated by American legislation. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act de jure ended a quota system based on national origin. Instead of the quota system, this act favored an approach that considers occupational skills, relatives living in the U.S., and political-refugee status. Since then, the ethno-racial structure of immigrants has changed dramatically. In 1970, 58% of immigrants came from Europe. In 2013, 55% of immigrants were of Latin-American/Caribbean origin; 27% were Asian; and only 13% came from Europe (Kohut, 2015). If new immigration laws are not passed, in a few decades we will be living in a new America. Scholars agree (see figure 10) that the first and second-generation immigrant segment of the American population can reach 40% by 2050. At the same time, little shift is projected for the ethno-racial distribution of the foreign born (Colby & Ortman, 2015). Latin-American/Caribbean immigrants will remain the largest foreign-born group, followed by Asian immigrants. What do these well known facts mean in terms of this research?

They suggest that intra-civilizational migration within the West (the migration from Europe to the United States) as a major source of population growth in the United States is almost over. The share of westerners in the world population is getting smaller. Mass immigration from different civilizations is becoming the major source of population growth in the United States. In their endless debates about immigration reform, American political elites and mass media often neglect to inform citizens about this trend. It is hard to overestimate the importance of mass immigration because many newcomers from different civilizations do not believe in and are unwilling to accept core American values, norms, and attitudes.

 

Figure 10 . Demographic projection due to mass immigration (Source: Generated by the author based on Kolankiewicz, 2010).

Does this mean that American citizens are unaware about this problem? Not at all, even though they express their concern about mass immigration in different words. According to the Pew Institute, a majority of Americans age 18 to 34 believe that at the group level there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between immigrants and the native born (Morin & Motel, 2013). The proportion of Americans who think that there are major disagreements between immigrants and the native born changed from 55% in 2009 to 62% in 2011, and back to 55% in 2012. These conflicts rank ahead of group tension between blacks and whites, between young and old, and in 2009 even between rich and poor. Indeed, the high percentages above suggest that many Americans are simply not interested in the integration of newcomers to American society.

Different agencies see mass immigration from different perspectives and generate different data about the immigrants. According to the Department of Defense, more than sixty-five thousand immigrants (noncitizens and naturalized citizens) were serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces in 2008. This represented approximately 5% of all active-duty personnel (Immigrants in, 2015). Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for the largest percentage of the foreign born, followed closely by Asia. Military personnel from Latin America and the Caribbean constituted 38.7% of all foreign born in the armed forces; 35.9% of all foreign born were from Asia (figure 11). The top five countries where current immigrant service members come from are the Philippines (22.8%), Mexico (9.5 %), Jamaica (4.7%), South Korea (3.1%), and the Dominican Republic (2.5%). Also, Filipino (11.8%), Mexican (7.0%), and Jamaican (3.1%) immigrants are well represented among the veteran population (Barry, 2013).

 

Figure 11. Immigrants in the U.S. Armed Forces by Region of Birth, 2008 (Source: Batalova, 2008).

The ethno-racial and gender structure of military personnel on active duty fluctuates quickly.

For instance, in the course of the Second Gulf War, the number of black Marines significantly dropped. The drop in black Marines and service members in general was due to the increased opportunity for blacks to attend college. But blacks retained a higher rate sergeant major positions than any other group: more than 30% of these positions represented by blacks. The number of Hispanics enlisting in the Marine Corps experienced a steady increase in the course of the war. Hispanics represented at least 16% of all Marines since 2004, with an all-time high of 17% of Marines listing their ethnicity as Hispanic in 2007. Hispanics were looking for the opportunities in the Marine Corps that blacks had already taken advantage of (Mitchell, 2008). After many blacks left, Hispanics, above all Hispanic immigrants, took these new opportunities.

In the course of the Second Gulf War, the proportion of black soldiers in all combat specialties also decreased considerably from 2001 to 2003. To a certain extent this happened because a large number of black women had entered the service. But, as we learned in the previous research essay, women are barred from holding combat specialties (The Army, 2015).

Now, what job opportunities do immigrants have in the United States?

Segmented labor is part and parcel of labor division in the United States. Many reasons explain why the American high-income economy is increasingly characterized by the segmentation of the labor market. One of the reasons is that native born workers tend to stay away from employment with low pay, little security, and low status. Occupations in these sectors are known as 3D jobs – difficult, dangerous, and dirty (Koser, 2007: 32). These sectors are left for immigrants, especially for representatives of partially assimilated and non-assimilated subcultures.

Figure 12 shows the most commonly held job by immigrants in each U.S. state. Immigrants are employed as domestic and health aide workers, cooks, cashiers, agricultural workers, and construction workers. Many domestic aide workers are servants to well-off WASPs. This map suggests that in forty-six states and D.C. poverty and low education are the key characteristics of the most common jobs held by immigrants in the United States. Only four states – Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio – have college instruction as the most common job held by immigrants. Highly educated software developers from Mexico, India, China, and other countries represent the most commonly held job by immigrants in Delaware (Abraham, 2015), a corporate tax haven and one of the world’s leaders in offshore business registration…

 

Figure 12. Most common job held by immigrants by state. (Source: Updated by Yglesias based on Minnesota Population Center “2013 American Community Survey Integrated Public Use Microdata Series,” tabulations by Business Insider).

Combat Specialties as a Mechanism of Upward Social Mobility for New Immigrants: Geopolitical Scenario

At first glance, the data, facts, and concepts discussed above might not look interconnected. However when properly linked, they help to draw contours of the new immigrants model. This model can be considered in future foreign wars to circumvent the intolerance of casualties in American society.

Recall that after the Second World War, poor, low-educated Americans have fought and died regardless of their race, ethnicity, or immigration status. These young Americans join the service because they anticipate that the resulting money, college education, and better jobs will lead to a better life. They want a better life. In the 21st century, poverty increases, middle class jobs shrink, and the cost of college education skyrockets. The risk of casualties among ground forces – the Army and Marine infantry – remains high. And we can see a new trend: during the Second Gulf War one of the most dangerous jobs – combat specialties – was highly represented at first by blacks and later on by Hispanics.

Does this mean that combat specialties become a mechanism of upward social mobility for non-assimilated or only partially assimilated subcultures? If the answer is yes, the following considerations need to be taken into account. On the one hand, as the percentage of minorities in the total population grows, it is reasonable to expect that more representatives of these minorities take jobs in the Army and Marine infantry. On the other hand, this tendency might indicate that the current majority does not mind to “delegate” combat jobs to current minorities and to narrow down the window of opportunity for middle class jobs for these minorities. More data and research are needed to clarify these issues. In the meantime, the current model, in which the presence of native born ethno-racial minority subcultures in the Army and Marine infantry is very significant, will probably continue for a few decades.

Actually, the American ruling class can keep this model for longer by imposing strict limits on new mass immigration and deploying effective family support policies for American citizens. To temporarily increase fertility rates (we already found out that in the long run the slow population decrease in western countries is irreversible), these policies should include the following: 1) family benefits (e.g., housing benefit, family allowance, early childhood benefit); 2) maternity and paternity leave; 3) tax allowances for large families; and 4) child care facilities available from a very young age (Bilan démographique, 2013). Yet these programs are very expensive and require complex expertise. Also, they can be effective only when family and social life are rewarding and the meeting point for citizens of the whole country. I doubt that this policy would work in the American individualist society. Then, we are left with the last option.

Most likely, the number and share of immigrants in America will continue growing fast and in a few decades new immigrants will become the major source of population growth. Not so many will come to America from Europe, although some will arrive from the Eastern European countries. The total population size in the United States will mostly be supported by new mass immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and the West Indies. Not unlike native born blacks and Hispanics in the Second Gulf War and Afghanistan War, representatives of foreign born ethnic and racial groups in future foreign wars will dominate in the Army and Marine infantry. Combat specialties will be taken by the poor and less educated among new immigrants and used as a mechanism of upward social mobility. Indeed, it will be seem attractive for a new immigrant to move from a domestic servant or labor job initially to a military or security service and then – if not killed and lucky! – to the lower middle class.

Since poor and low educated new immigrants will come from different civilizations, it is naive to suggest that after enlisting new soldiers will immediately accept core American values, norms, and attitudes. Emerging alignments between Latin American civilization and the West will not per se guarantee the solution to this problem. Needless to say, a demographic reconquista of regions annexed by the United States from Mexico in the 1830s and 1840s will be a fait accompli in several decades. The consequences of this demographic expansion can hardly be predicted… Will money, education, and upward social mobility be sufficient motivators for the new immigrants in the Army and Marine infantry to fight and die for America? This question is not rhetorical because loyalty bought by money and promises is not equivalent to patriotism.

Fighting and Dying for the Non-Hispanic White Minority and its Old Elites in a non-Democratic America?

Undeniably, Latin American immigrants numbered highly among the casualties of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. These soldiers however fought for a democratic America. And the new immigrants model will operate in a different ethno-racial and political environment. Three considerations pertaining to this future environment need to be kept in mind.

1. In this new America, non-Hispanic whites (total, native born, and foreign born) will become a new minority. Old minorities (led by Latin Americans) will surpass the 50% threshold and become a new majority. Following the logic of representative democracy, leaders of the old minorities will turn into the leaders of the new ruling class. Suzanne Keller (1991: 251), an immigrant from Vienna, Austria, and one of the originators of elitology in the United States, called leaders of the new majority strategic elites. According to Keller, old elites, both successful and unsuccessful, will finally need to surrender their powers and withdraw from the center of the social stage.

2. The new majority will claim power on the social stage by using electoral representation and other power-sharing democratic mechanisms. Non-Hispanic whites (the new minority) and their elites will have to accept the new state of affairs in America. The old elites may continue to have an important place in this country but they will not again act and make decisions for the multitude.

3. Unfortunately, there is always an alternative to this peaceful transfer of power. Old elites are frequently blamed for failures, crimes, and mistakes. Elitologists (for example, Kalashnikov, 2015: 286-296) describe defense mechanisms which can be used by descending old elites. One mechanism is to freeze social mobility vital for democracy. In the worst case scenario this can lead to a varna caste like replica with the immigrants as workers and servants on the bottom, soldiers and policemen right above them, and so on.

Another method can be called a temporary elite-buffer. Again, the old elite can use this technique to avoid responsibility for their failures, crimes, and mistakes. To implement this method, the old elite endorses a real or surrogate minority (e.g., ethnic, religious, or sexual) and delegates some power to this minority. In doing so, the descending elite redirects responsibility for its own wrongdoings at the minority group. History knows many examples of this technique. In the Ottoman Empire, the old ruling class used the Janissaries as a temporary elite-buffer. Before and after the First World War, Polish land nobility hired Jews to manage its estates in Kresy, regions of modern-day Lithuania, western Belarus and western Ukraine. As a result, this Jewish elite-buffer was the first target during numerous rebellions of Ukrainian and Belarusian peasants. After the First World War, Jewish bankers and financial workers in Germany were turned into an elite-buffer and accused in economic crisis. Tomorrow, white heterosexual representatives of the financial sector, political class, and IT business in the West might use representatives of sexual minorities as an elite-buffer responsible for …the end of capitalism in America.

Will the new immigrants in the Army and Marine infantry be willing to fight and die for the new Non-Hispanic white minority and its decaying elites in a non-democratic America?

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