欧洲的移民挑战

Jul 20, 2012 Peter Sutherland , Cecilia Malmström

伦敦—欧洲面临着移民困境。主流政客囿于“恐外症”党派的要挟，不得不用反移民口号来取悦忧心忡忡的公众，而外国出生的公民则在学校、城市和工作单位日益受到边缘化。然而，尽管欧洲大陆很多国家面临着高失业，大量雇主却找不到他们所需要的员工。工程师、医生和护士均存在供给不足，农场工人和健康护理师也是如此。欧洲的企业家也总是处于不足的状态，而他们的新思想正是驱动经济和创造就业的动力。

流行的质疑移民的观点并不是一无是处。许多社区确实被极化了，无怪乎欧洲人会对此忧心不已。但把这一现象归咎于移民并不正确，只能让问题扩大化。我们所有人都有责任。

我们没有承担起责任来，这使得移民成了一系列与他们不相关问题的替罪羊。全球经济危机、关乎欧洲存亡的政治争论以及新兴势力的崛起所造成的持久的不安全感总是被说成是移民的结果。这样说不仅不公正，还会分散我们的注意力——我们原本应该专注于构想解决真正问题的办法的。

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Peter Sutherland

Writing for PS since 2011
29 Commentaries

Peter Sutherland, former United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration and Development, was former Director General of the World Trade Organization, EU Commissioner for Competition, and Attorney General of Ireland.

Cecilia Malmström

Writing for PS since 2012
3 Commentaries

Cecilia Malmström is EU Commissioner for Trade and former Swedish Minister for EU Affairs.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 8 in all 8 Comments on this article

David Morgan Oct 31, 2014

Yes we need immigrants admittedly, however, we do not need uneducated illiterates who are sreaming onto our shores from North Africa to escape the wars on their continent. We do not have the resources or the will to support the countless thousands for whom we have no responsibilty for. The best thing we can do is to return them from whence they came.
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Olanrewaju Kamil-Muhammed OSENI Dec 11, 2012

When you sign up to globalization,this is what you get.Mobility of people will continue forever and the european and other western world cannot do anything about this and immigrant will be a major part of their population in the next 50 years.The only way to reduce this migration is to help the developing and under develop countries nobody want to work as a slave in another man land.African leaders are imporishing their people and stealing monies and keeping them oversea.They should help fight corruption and support good leardership in the developing world and when the country are growing lesser number of people want to move out.
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Ralph Musgrave Jul 30, 2012

Another bit of nonsense in Sutherland’s article is the tired old claim he trots out about immigrants helping to solve the aging population problem.

The flaw in that argument should be obvious to the average ten year old: immigrants are human beings - they grow old just like everyone else! Then what? Accept even more immigrants so as to deal with the aging immigrants?

The latter nonsense results of course in an exponential increase in the population. The maths here was actually studied by Frank Denton and Byron Spencer of McMaster University in Canada. The found that if immigration alone was used to deal with the aging population problem, the population would increase twenty to thirty fold every century! See:

http://ideas.repec.org/p/mcm/sedapp/135.html

Or as Frank Denton puts it in the conclusion of another paper, “Immigration is clearly not an effective tool for offsetting the process of population aging.” See:

http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~iesop/papers/iesop_24.pdf

And not only that, but the largest developing country is now facing an “aging population” problem of its own: that’s China. So the whole idea that immigration helps solve the aging population problem is nonsense.
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Harry Davidson Jul 28, 2012

Here in London England politicians are never found on overcrowded suburban buses jostling with immigrants who are pushing a pram containing a baby, another youngster holding the mother’s hand and a third baby due to emerge into the world anytime soon. These are not the supposed professional or entrepreneurial class that we are told are being attracted to other parts of the world like Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia. These are poor, uneducated immigrants that I am referring to and who think that they have never had it so good. They are in heaven compared to the countries like Bulgaria, Rumania, Turkey, Sudan, Afghanistan etc etc where they came from. Generous child-related benefits, social housing provided by the Local Councils, education facilities for the growing children and relatively pristine hospitals in which to give birth to the growing family. Meanwhile, services are being stretched to breaking point especially in these times of austerity.

The politicians and educated, liberal minded people like Peter Sutherland never mix with this class of immigrant. They probably never find themselves on public transport and yet they sit back and formulate endless social harmonization theories and pass laws in parliament
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Ralph Musgrave Jul 24, 2012

It’s pathetic the way Peter Sutherland and other advocates of immigration often start their articles with a series of unsubstantiated insults. According to Sutherland, those opposed to immigration are “xenophobic”: that is the hate or fear foreigners.

In reply, can I suggest that Peter Sutherland is a half-wit or that he wants to destroy Western civilisation by Islamising it and thus that he “hates” Western culture?

Of course I prefer intelligent debate to exchanging insults. But the pro-immigration folk like Sutherland should understand that we opponents of mass immigration CAN DESCEND to exchanging insults if we want to.

I also love Sutherland’s reference to “Europe’s existential political debates..” Perhaps he can let us know which part of Jean Paul Satre’s philosophy he was referring to here.

As for Sutherland’s suggestion that European countries are “lands of immigrants” just like America or Australia, that is total and complete hog-wash. Of course European countries are rapidly BECOMING “lands of immigrants” thanks to the desire by Sutherland & Co to see Europe swamped by immigrants. But as of two or three decades ago, Europe was TOTALLY DIFFERENT to America and Australia in that immigrants or children and grandchildren of immigrants made up a MINUTE proportion of the population.
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Bernhard Kopp Jul 22, 2012

Respondig from Germany where we do not have a right-wing populist party, at least not yet. The 'fearful public' is first and foremost angry at the politic elite, immigrants are only secondary targets. For more than 20 years the legislation around refugees and immigrants, how the issues are dealt with, how people are treated and sometimes mistreated, how the system can be abused by some - all of that is a mess. A mess created by conflicting objectives of political parties, sometimes including churches and labor unions. It is not a divine creation that judicial proceedings for 'asylum seekers' can take years, and it is no coincidence that hardly any islamic terrorist (including 9/11 participants) and radical salafists are permanently, or at least for extended periods of time, welfare recipients. This occasionally while comfortably living in a single familie house, rented presumably from relatives, and a Mercedes car, also supposedly borrowed from another relativ, aroung the corner. It maybe understandable, but it is not acceptable, that immigrants are 5-10 times higher in the criminal and welfare recipients statistics than their proportionate share in the population.

Unless the politicians clean up the mess they have created, or have permitted to take such dimensions, the problems will rather get worse than better.
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Eric Urbain Jul 20, 2012

WOW! The authors of this article are severely misguided. In the first place, Europe and the US are apples and oranges so it doesnt help in trying to establish parallels when the only common ground is that there are immigrant destinations (Im half European and half American so know the issues first hand).

Secondly, the authors fail to recognize that many if not most Europeans do not WANT more immigration, and it is there right to feel this way and therefore incumbent on officials/representatives to do the bidding of the people- instead of castigating their opinions. After all, isnt it the right of each household to decide who comes in their house so shouldn't it be the same for countries?

Further, left wing European politicians need to wake up to the fact that although immigration has in some cases helped economies, it has also harmed society. Many immigrants have brought bad habits from their home countries, such as violence and prejudice, and its simply not right to call people xenophobic or racist just because they don't want bad people around.

Immigration is very simple. If the people who come in are 'good apples' and add value to society- are respectful and do their part - they are accepted. However, if they are trouble makers or have any other kind of negative impact, they are disliked or ignored. This is human nature and applies anywhere in the world..so there is no need to belittle Europeans. In fact, more credit should be given to Europeans who have done A LOT to help immigrants integrate, more than in other countries in fact.

Imagine it the other way around- a European immigrating to Nigeria, Iraq or Indonesia. Would he or she be tolerated as much or protected by law? Would Christian religion be tolerated and welcomed, would he/she receive health benefits...even political representation? In some countries yes but the vast majority will be no. Many muslim countries do not even tolerate the existence of other religions and most countries in the world ban foreigners from owning property, voting, etc..so in reality, immigrants in Europe actually have a pretty good deal - not a bad one.

Lastly, the responsibility for the success of integration is a shared one - it takes two to tango. Immigrants themselves need to be willing and able to integrate, not just society at large. There is a lot of evidence which shows immigrants NOT being willing to integrate and being tolerant towards others e.g. attacks on jews by muslim youths. So who's job is it to integrate...I would say the immigrant...if I move to Japan, its not up to the Japanese to change their culture to accommodate me, I need to learn Japanese, learn cultural norms and fit in...if Im not willing to do this, then I probably shouldn't immigrate to Japan!
- Moctar Aboubacar Jul 23, 2012
  
  You write: "So who's job is it to integrate...I would say the immigrant...if I move to Japan, its not up to the Japanese to change their culture to accommodate me, I need to learn Japanese, learn cultural norms and fit in"
  
  I'm not sure about this, on two points.
  
  The first is a point of principle and personal freedom which I defend halfway; if someone wants to hang their store sign up in another language because they think it'll get them more business, then why stop them? On the other hand the question of language and others are essential to communicating and so becoming a functional member of society- and those are indeed of the responsibility of the people who migrate.
  
  The second is more technical in nature. What is, for example, 'french culture'? Doesn't it include immigrants de facto, since they live in France, form part of the society, and have a tradition of some sort in the country? It is not the autochtones who "change" a culture as you put it, but rather the culture that changes naturally to reflect what goes on within national, linguistic, and psychological boundaries. If you name your child 'Mohammed' in France today, I am not convinced that this is not, in a way, a French name.
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