by Giles Merritt
All political leaders have one thing in common – they want history to be kind to them. On that basis, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would do well to rethink her position on immigration into the EU. The crackdown on illegal migrants she has championed is a legacy she will come to regret.
Europe needs more migrants, not fewer. Shining the spotlight on the small proportion of immigrants who are ‘irregular’ doesn’t significantly alter the overall picture, but it has created a toxic image of would-be newcomers. Too often branded as benefit scroungers and even criminals, they should instead be welcomed as an antidote to ageing. Europe’s economy already suffers from the shrinkage of its younger, tax-paying population and needs new blood.
Next June, the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum comes into force and will spearhead a drive to boost expulsions of the half-million people ordered to leave every year.
Von der Leyen highlighted measures to combat illegal immigration in this autumn’s State of the Union address to the European Parliament. She and many other mainstream politicians want to be less vulnerable to anti-migrant populist parties, but they pander to prejudices rather than focus as they should on the dynamism migration promises.
It’s a quarter-century since an EU summit in the Finnish town of Tampere declared: “Our aim is to develop a European Union that is open to those led justifiably to seek access to our territory, and which is able to respond to humanitarian needs on the basis of solidarity.” The trend has, however, been in the opposite direction.
Higher external walls and the strengthening of the Frontex border security agency have been the centrepiece of a tougher approach. Next June, the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum comes into force and will spearhead a drive to boost expulsions of the half-million people ordered to leave every year. It may also prove very divisive as it compels member governments to contribute financially to other EU countries’ costs.
Europe doesn’t have the sinisterly masked ICE paramilitaries of Donald Trump’s America, but it is criticised by news media in the Arab world for its tactics – the EU “is just as brutal” the Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera has reported. True or not, the European narrative is skewed towards the undesirable aspects of immigration and not its economic benefits.
The European Commission should be actively confronting opponents of immigration.
The relevant statistics are an unholy mess, and this fuels the heated debates that surround immigration. Budget cuts and manpower issues limit the processing of irregular migrants and asylum applications, thus creating a legal limbo for hundreds of thousands of people. Although insignificant in number compared to the four to five million legal immigrants who arrive in the EU every year, their uncertain status distorts the case for importing manpower.
In the US, the Congressional Budget Office recently emphasised the economic damage being done by the Trump administration’s anti-migrant policies. It said their impact on America’s workforce will negatively affect GDP growth for the next 30 years – a lesson that European policymakers should take to heart.
Equally important is that the European Commission should be actively confronting opponents of immigration. Ursula von der Leyen has been at pains to target people smugglers, but she hasn’t stressed the value of newcomers.
Controversy over immigration is chiefly generated by ignorance. It has long been recognised that regions with comparatively few immigrants are more hostile than those with many. It’s borne out by the small proportion of non-natives in the most anti-migrant EU members – foreign-born people are only 2.6% of Poland’s population and in Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia the figure is around 3%.
Anti-migrant prejudice also challenges the EU itself. Suspicion that illegal migrants cross the EU’s internal borders in search of work has become a threat to the Schengen agreement’s 40-year-old guarantee of free movement of people. Legally questionable frontier checks in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovakia are raising concern in Brussels, while so far these have detected only 0.38% of illegals.
It is understandable that the Brussels executive should want to reassure EU citizens that their external borders are secure. But it’s the wrong message when Europeans must deal with demographic decline. It’s time Ursula von der Leyen looked not only to her legacy but to Europe’s best interests.
The views expressed in this Frankly Speaking op-ed reflect those of the author and not of Friends of Europe.
*Published first on friendsofeurope.org
By: N. Peter Kramer