In 2014 Europe was under siege, with millions of African and Arab migrants marching into the EU and using asylum claims to quickly enter the region without vetting. With the union facing an unprecedented surge of foreigners not seen since WWII or the collapse of Yugoslavia, some among the public called the event a crisis. EU officials did not see it that way. Instead of securing their borders and repelling the invasion, top representatives like Angela Merkel announced they would open their borders completely to migrants and refugees in 2015.
Many migrants were given the impression that free housing, welfare and easy employment would be made available to them upon arrival in Germany. The reality was far more complicated, but the image of a golden land of ease was all that was needed to trigger a tidal wave. With shared border policies in the EU, Germany’s decision became every other nation’s problem.
At the time, the decidedly socialist European majority applauded the move; with many leftists meeting migrants at train stations to clap and cheer. To grasp the mentality of the political left it’s important to understand that they were not cheering the migrants so much as cheering themselves – Leftists have been conditioned to believe in original sin, and that original sin is to be a white “colonizing” westerner. They were really cheering themselves; they saw open borders as an act of self sacrifice and appeasement to the gods of progressive ideology.
The result has been disastrous.
Ever since this suicidal action Europe has been overrun, with millions of migrants flowing into the region each year. As of 2022, there were “officially” 23.8 million non-citizens living in the EU, most of them entering in the past five years. The majority of them were concentrated in Italy, France, Sweden, Germany and the UK.
All of these countries have seen a spike in violent crime and property theft, with the proliferation of gang violence and increasing incidents of rape. European officials have consistently sought to cover up and hide the exploding crime statistics, including the rising number of child abuse incidents at the hands of migrants.
With stagflation becoming entrenched in the EU and much of the world, the delusion that western countries have the wealth and means to support tens of millions of foreigners seeking welfare handouts is finally waning. The effort to obscure the effects of the population surge and clash of incompatible cultures is losing steam. Now, suddenly, European politicians are at least pretending to care about secure borders.
Italy has approved detention for illegal migrants unless they can provide $5259 as a processing fee for their asylum requests. This action has been taken because of the surge in migrant boats arriving on the shores of the island of Lampedusa from Africa. The non-citizen population now greatly outnumbers native Lampedusa residents. A naval blockade to stop the boats is also under discussion. The French government says they will refuse to take any new migrants from the region.
While citizens welcome government intervention to protect the border, in places like Lampedusa they worry that their home will become nothing more than a sprawling detention center for migrants waiting for their asylum applications to be approved. The solution is obvious – send them packing back to where they came from.
The EU is working on reforms to speed the return of illegal immigrants and prevent them from traveling easily within the union. However, this may be a distraction from their real agenda. At the same time, EU officials are trying to make legal immigration far easier and they are implementing loophole conditions which allow mass migration in the event of an “emergency.” They are shifting the standards but the end result would likely be the same.
The primary rationale presented in favor of mass migration is “population replacement.” Leftists claim that the west is facing plummeting birth rates and migrants are needed to keep the economy robust. This argument holds no water. In every case, countries and states that take on more migrants also witness economic decline and strained social services (just look at what is happening in the US in cities like Chicago, New York and Washington DC). These are not educated workers bringing valuable skill sets to the table, the majority of them are feeding off of favorable welfare conditions. If the welfare did not exist, they would not have migrated.
Furthermore, it’s hard to take leftists seriously when they pretend to be concerned with western birth rates while also aggressively defending abortion practices.
The citizenry of Europe is growing tired after a decade of insurgency and expanding crime. Since at least 2018, polls show the majority of the public is against further open border policies, which progressive leaders and the media have called a “rise of the far right” that they say is driven by “racism.” But the race baiting and old woke arguments are not working anymore. When the consequences of uncontrolled migration hit the doorsteps of the average family, they are not going to be manipulated by emotionally charged labels. They are going to be far more worried about survival.