Europe And Immigration, A Peril Or A Need?

By Aldo Bum詍
The news that has reached us these days from our neighbor to the West, Italy, speaks ofŠan accentuated austerity of the policy towards immigration, in general, and illegal immigration, in particular. The new Italian government is enforcing stringent measures, not only including eviction, but also penalizing those discovered to be illegal emigrants. In fact, Italy’s demographic data should have guided its policy towards immigration in a different and far more liberal direction. Italy covers second place in Europe for low birth rates and it has the lowest population percentage below 20 years of age. At the same time, Italy is one of the Western European countries with the smallest numbers of immigrants, as a percentage of its population, with only 2.8 per cent, says the data of the World Bank for 2000. What we have here is a contradiction between the demand of the Italian economy and the society for immigration and the current policy implemented against immigration. That is a contradiction that can be seen all over Western Europe and not exclusively in Italy. As a rule, when immigration to the western countries is talked about, there is very little mention of the benefits that actually brings to the countries of Western Europe, but only the importance it has for the countries of immigrants’ origin. Immigration is not “charity” that the Western European countries extend to immigrants from other countries. Europe has an enormous need of immigration, and undoubtedly it would not be what it is today without the contribution of millions and millions of immigrants, and it will not continue to be what it is if it fails to keep its doors ajar for emigrants to enter. In studying demographic trends in Europe, from the decline of the birth rates and the aging of the population, it is expected that in the year 2050 the population of EU 25 countries will decline by about 40-50 million people. To maintain a stable labor force, the annual admittance of emigrants into Europe should be around 1.6 million persons. The 60 years old and above that age group as a percentage of the overall population in comparison with the 15-59 years old age group percentage in the overall population has increased from 26 per cent in 1990 to 35 per cent in 2000. That has risen even more in the ensuing years. Demographic developments have a direct impact on living standards. Failure to maintain a sufficient labor force would lead to economic shrinkage and the failure to provide many services and the incapacity to sustain current pension, social insurance and healthcare schemes. Considering that demographic trends are a product of gradual development in a society, in other words stable trends, they cannot alter overnight. That means that Europe’s need for immigration will also be stable. Logically speaking this overall view calls for Europe to maintain a different stand towards immigration. In fact, that is not how it happens. Europe has adopted an aggressive policy towards illegal immigration, which is not in compliance with its needs. That means it is not applying a realistic stand towards the issue. That is admiringly illustrated by the 2003 Europol Report on organized crime which says, “Although the negative impact of drug trafficking should not be minimized, it appears that the impact of annual illegal immigration to the EU countries of hundreds of thousands of persons, is broader and more tangible in the political, social and economic sense. At EU political forums, this kind of crime has now been classified as a priority field for the member states.” The fact that illegal immigration is perceived as more dangerous than drug trafficking is sufficient to comprehend the overall political and social situation in Europe. Policies of Western European countries towards immigration have changed with the times. The re-construction of post-World War Two Western Europe and its high rates of economic development visibly raised the demand for labor power which could not be met by its own population. Subsequently, the Western European countries began admitting labor power from other countries. During the 1950-70 time period the main EU countries applied liberal immigration policies with a standard practice. Approximately ten million immigrants came to Europe at that time. Due to a multitude of developments, the Western Europe countries began introducing some measures to tighten up their immigration policies. The first factor that influenced that trend was the economic slump of the seventies. From the eighties onwards, immigration issues were politicized in the majority of the West European countries. That was reflected with the growth of the extremist right-wing political parties that used the immigration issue to win votes. Hence, from a liberal stand towards immigration that gradually became a closed-door policy and now it is being identified on the same level as crime. As pointed out by many researchers, that transformation was not so much the result of real changes in the cost and level of immigration as it was the reflection of a growing trend to channel social-economic and cultural problems in the direction of immigration. Italy’s example we mentioned at the beginning illustrates those contradictory developments perfectly. Whilst it has one of the most aged populations in Europe and the smallest percentage of immigrants, it is adopting austere immigration policies. In fact, it is these harsh policies, in combination with demographic trends we mentioned above, – Europe’s ageing – which exert and influence on, and contribute to such phenomena as illegal immigration. As former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated in an article entitled “Don’t demonize emigrants,” the demands or labor power, on the one hand, and the embracing of austere policies. On the other hand, have always forced immigrants to use illegal paths provided by traffickers and smugglers. The level at which those austere policies have progressed is also indicated by the stand of the West Europeans towards the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, which have become EU members. EU membership did not bring about an immediate opening up of the labor markets to the citizens of these countries. As the Romanian foreign minister has stated, “If Europe waits seven or ten years before it opens up its labor markets, the workers it will get from my country will be less qualified because, by that time, engineers, architects and doctors will have immigrated to the United States.”
Europe needs a far more realistic policy on immigration taking into consideration the demographic developments in the EU countries themselves, and not at all playing a role of charity-provider to other countries. Despite all that, the general climate prevailing nowadays in many countries of Western Europe does not appear to be helping in the slightest way towards reaching a more realistic and rational stand.