Refugees and migrants: Hope nonetheless

The best thing for Europe would be to welcome refugees and migrants, not only for moral reasons but also for selfish ones too.  Just like the United States did with successive waves of refugees in the 20^th century, a more open Europe with more flexible labor markets could turn this refugee and migrant crisis into a rewarding opportunity.

The fuse that led to the current influx of refugees and migrants in Europe was lit in Syria in March 2011 when an anti-regime uprising spiraled into civil war.¹ The situation became worse when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) came into the picture.² ISIS, a vicious terrorist group that is now realizing that sustaining a caliphate is much harder than declaring one, does not hide its brutality. On many occasions, it had burned men alive or impaled their heads on spikes and posts the videos online. And its fighters boast that they are doing God’s will when they rape and enslave infidel girls and women. So naturally, the fugitives or refugees from ISIS-occupied Syria and Iraq would be frightened to return home.  And the world governments, especially that of Europe must believe they are telling the truth and welcome them into their territories.³

European Union: Live and let live

The citizens of the European Union (EU) are lucky to be living in one of the richest and most peaceful regions on Earth. They also like to think that they set the standard for compassion. Generally speaking, all the countries that make up the EU accept that they have both moral and legal duty to grant safe harbor to people with a well-founded fear of persecution. The problem, however, is that the recent surge of asylum-seekers – about 300,000 migrants (see table 1)⁴ – has tested Europe’s commitment to its ideals. In Germany, the government’s effort create a welcoming atmosphere for refugees has sometimes being thwarted by Neo-Nazi thugs who have torched asylum-seekers’ hostels on many occasions. In Sweden, an anti-immigrant group is now the most popular political party in the country. The story is the same in Hungary, where the prime minister warns that illegal immigrants, which he considers a burden to the country’s public services, threaten his nation’s survival.

Table 1: Migrants and Refugees Detected Entering EU Illegally, Jan. –July, 2015

Nationality of Migrant/Refugee	Number of People
Syria	106,939
Afghanistan	61,826
Eritrea	23,878
Nigeria	10,747
Pakistan	6,641
Kosovo	23,260
Other Sub-Saharan Countries	9,766

Source: Culled from BBC Data, 2015

So far, almost 270,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe by sea this year. This means that more refugees and illegal immigrants entered the continent this year than last year. But that number merely represents one asylum-seeker for every 1,900 Europeans and, unfortunately, many of them will be turned away by their host countries.  It is important to note here that helping refugees and asylum seekers hold more pluses than minuses. And, when it comes to being nice to refugees and asylum seekers, the evidence of history seems to be on the side of some  nations that are even poorer that Western European countries. Lebanon, for instance, has welcomed approximately 1.1 Syrian refugees into their territory. This means that the size of Syrian refugees welcomed by a tiny and poor country like Lebanon is so large that it is almost the size of a quarter of the country’s local population. Turkey has also taken in 1.7 million refugees. Even Tanzania, a poor African nation whose average income is less than one-fiftieth of EU nations, has hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Congo and Burundi  for decades without complaining like Europe is currently doing. By contrast, when the European countries like Greece and Italy where Arab and African refugees first arrived asked for help with looking after them, the responses of other EU states has exposed them to a well-founded charge of hypocrisy. As of last week, they grudgingly agreed to take only 32,256 refugees over two years.⁵

What Europe must do now: The economics of generosity

The best thing for Europe would be to welcome the refugees and migrants, not only for moral reasons but also for selfish ones too.  First, Europe’s labor force is ageing, which means that it will soon begin to shrink.  European governments are also drowning in debts, which they plan to dump on future generations. But if those future generations are smaller in number, it will be a challenge for them to manage Europe’s debts.  This is where the refugees and immigrants comes into the picture: they are typically young and eager to work. In other words, these refugees and immigrants (including the asylum seekers) can help Europe ease this problem once they are re-settled. Simply put, the refugees and immigrants can help care for Europe’s elderly as well as help the region shoulder a share of debts they had no role in running up. As an example, Arabs and African refugees and migrants are usually young. So if European governments handles this refugee crisis and all types of migration sensibly, they can borrow some of their vitality. For Europe, this may be a politically hard decision to take, especially given that it will also require a reform of the region’s labor markets.⁶

It is quite understandable why Europe is leery about absorbing these refugees and migrants, given the intensity of global terrorism. To take care of this concern, Europe should be firm when screening the asylum applicants. But the screening process should also be swift and generous.  It will not be an exaggeration to say that these refugees and migrants will not become slackers overnight – certainly not after crossing stormy seas and deserts to get to Europe.⁷ On the contrary, there is documentary evidence that immigrants around the world are more likely to start businesses than the native-born. In the United States alone, large technology companies like eBay, Google and Intel were founded by immigrants. In fact, many of America’s greatest brands – which include General Electric, IBM, AT & T, Budweiser, McDonald, Apple and Colgate – were started by founders who were either immigrants or are the children of immigrants.⁸ Immigrants are also net contributors to the public purse and are less likely to commit serious crimes. Examined against this background, the fear that they will poach jobs or drag down local wages, even though it may have huge resonance with the European public, is also misplaced. Without putting it in so many words, when refugees and migrants are properly settled, they actually tend to raise the wages of the native-born overall because they bring complementary skills, ideas and connections with them. Though their presence may slightly reduce the wages of the unskilled local men, at the end of the day, everyone in the host country will be better off.  What is certain is that these refugees and migrants can become several times more productive, and their wages will rise accordingly if they are allowed to settle in Europe and other advanced countries with predictable laws and efficient companies.

Those Europeans who oppose immigration may argue that the refugees and migrants may bring in new cultures whose effects on the region will be profoundly unsettling. They may equally argue that Europe is neither willing nor able to absorb big inflows of refugees and migrants.  Broadly speaking, Europeans recoil each time they see crowds of unassimilated and jobless immigrants. Also, since the disarming of a gun-wielding Moroccan on a French train last month⁹ and after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo,¹⁰ Europeans have become more scared of Islamist terrorism.

To be fair to the Europeans, their concerns are quite understandable.  And, if the experience of the past few years teaches us anything, it is that monitoring of jihadist groups needs to be stepped up. Nevertheless, Europe still need to figure out a practical and lasting solution to their current refugee and migrant crisis. If I have my vote, the solution is simple: to assimilate them better, European nations should let them work. This formula has been used before in Vancouver, New York and London and it worked well.¹¹ By working together and interacting with the locals at the workplaces, the re-settled refugees and migrants can learn their customs, and vice versa.  The bottom line here is that, just like the United States did with successive waves of refugees in the 20^th century,¹² a more open Europe with more flexible labor markets could turn this refugee and migrant crisis into a rewarding opportunity.

References

¹CNN(2015): Syria Civil War Fast Facts. Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/meast/syria-civil-war-fast-facts/

²Landis J. (2014): The Battle Between ISIS and Syria’s Rebel Militias. The Clarion Project. Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://www.clarionproject.org/research/battle-between-isis-and-syria%E2%80%99s-rebel-militias

³Migration to Europe - Let Them in and Let Them Earn. (2015, August 29). The Economist. Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21662547-bigger-welcome-mat-would-be-europes-own-interest-let-them-and-let-them-earn.

⁴Why is EU Struggling With Migrants and Asylum? (2015, September 1). BBC News.  Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286.

⁵Migration to Europe – Let Them in and Let Them Earn, op. cit., p. 13

⁶Ibid

⁷Ibid

⁸Anderson S. (2011): 40 Percent of Fortune 500 Companies Founded by Immigrants or Their Children. Forbes. Retrieved September 14, 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2011/06/19/40-percent-of-fortune-500-companies-founded-by-immigrants-or-their-children/

⁹Jamieeson A. (2015): How American Heroes Prevented Terrorist Train Massacre. New York Post. Retrieved September 14, 2015 from http://nypost.com/2015/08/22/americans-hailed-as-heroes-for-thwarting-terrorist-attack/

¹⁰The Charlie Hebdo Massacre in Paris. (2015, January 7). New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/opinion/the-charlie-hebdo-massacre-in-paris.html.

¹¹Migration to Europe – Let Them in and Let Them Earn, op. cit., p. 14

¹²Ibid