England is a land tailor made for upwardly striving immigrants.
Two thousand years ago the nation was created by an influx of tribes from mainland Europe.
Saxons, Angles, Picts, Celts and Jutes entered the country to exploit its mineral wealth and rich farming land.
Rather than squabble over the goodies, the various ethnic groups worked together and by the fifth century AD started to think of themselves as a united tribe, the Angelcynn.
Ever since that time the country has served as a racial melting pot.
Our language contains words drawn from over seventy foreign languages.
Even an everyday word like 'admiral' comes from the Moorish amir al ma, which means 'commander of the water'.
Our patron saint St.
George was a Roman soldier, our Royal family are of German descent, and our three major religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism - are all of Mediterraneaon origin.
Even our dress is cosmopolitan.
We adopt exotic items of clothing like pyjamas, the outdoor garb of the Persians, but choose to wear them indoors.
We have one of the finest football leagues in the world, but the majority of the players in our Premier League come from abroad, and at the last count were found to hale from 68 different countries.
We welcome these incomers because they add to our pleasure and raise the standard of English football.
Any foreigner with specialist skills, and a determination to excel, should be welcomed into England with open arms, because their success will add to the growth and prosperity of the entire nation.
It's risky to depend on monocultures, whether they're of people or of essential foodstuffs.
The Irish people endured a devastating famine when blight struck the one genetic strain of potato on which they depended.
Nations are also healthier, and more open to change and evolutional growth, when they contain a varied racial mix.
That's why many of the most prosperous ancient cities have grown up at points where trading routes meet.
For many years the Australians had a strict immigration policy which gave entry permits only to hand-picked white immigrants.
Having opened their doors to people from China, Malaysia and the Philippines they are now no longer so dependant on trade with England.
If nothing else, this has enlivened the national cuisine.
In a country where Irish stew was once the acme of haute cuisine, they now they have Pad Thai and stir-fried vegetables.
'At last we have some decent food to eat', said Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister who is the only Western leader to speak fluent Mandarin.
Mainland Europe is facing a major social change due to the impact of immigration.
In the past thirty years the Muslim population in Europe has more than doubled, and by 2015 it's expected to have doubled once again.
In Brussels the most popular 'baptismal' name for boys is now Mohamed.
In France, a predominantly Catholic country, nine per cent of the population is now Muslim, the highest proportion in the EU.
Unlike cosmopolitan England, these land-locked countries possess more rigid cultural and linguistic traditions, and are likely to find it far more difficult to adjust to an influx of thousands of people who dress, speak, and act in a totally alien fashion.
Xenophobia is likely to rise its ugly head when Muslims in Paris show an allegiance to the ummah, the worldwide Muslim community, rather than to the Vatican or the Assemblée Nationale.
Somehow these different racial mixes must be blended together, so we can create national unity and harmony without sacrificing the benefits of the cultural diversity.
The leaders of the New World achieved this feat, when they turned a racial rag bag of European immigrants into what became the United States of America.
To begin with the dispossessed colonists dressed differently, spoke in different tongues and followed a wide variety of customs.
But they very quickly learnt to speak the same language and share the same culture.
They also adopted the same symbols of nationhood, the Union flag and the Union Constitution.
Every American child learns to pay allegiance to these bonding emblems.
Each school day begins with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
' Maybe it would help if Britain adopted a similar strategy, so its different ethnic groups could become bonded together as one people, united by comradeship, mutual tolerance, shared customs and a wholehearted commitment to the common good.
This would weld us together as patriots, a now discredited word, but one derived from the Greek term for a people united by the love of their homeland or patria.
Is that something to be ashamed of?