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Title: The Migrant Crisis Upended Europe
Source:
Gatestone Institute
URL Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11282/migrant-crisis-europe
Published: Feb 24, 2018
Author: Giulio Meotti
Post Date: 2018-02-24 17:43:13 by IbJensen
Keywords: None
Views: 410
Comments: 6
"The migrant crisis is the 9/11 of the European Union... That day in 2001, everything changed in the US. In a minute, America discovered its vulnerability. Migrants had the same effect in Europe... The migration crisis profoundly undermines the ideas of democracy, tolerance and... the liberal principles that constitute our ideological landscape." — Ivan Kratsev, Chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and a member of the Institute of Humanities in Vienna, Le Figaro. The European public now looks at EU institutions with contempt. They perceive them -- under multiculturalism and immigration -- not only as indifferent to their own problems, but as adding to them. "We are a cultural community, which doesn't mean that we are better or worse -- we are simply different from the outside world... our openness and tolerance cannot mean walking away from protecting our heritage". — Donald Tusk, President of the European Council. A few weeks after Germany opened its borders to over a million refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that the migration crisis would "destabilize democracies". He was labelled a demagogue and a xenophobe. Two years later, Orbán has been vindicated. As Politico now explains, "[M]ost EU leaders echo the Hungarian prime minister" and the Hungarian PM can now claim that "our position is slowly becoming the majority position". Many in Europe seem to have understood what Ivan Krastev, the Chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and a member of the Institute of Humanities in Vienna, recently explained to Le Figaro: "The migrant crisis is the 9/11 of the European Union... That day in 2001, everything changed in the US. In a minute, America discovered its vulnerability. Migrants had the same effect in Europe. It is not their number that destabilizes the continent... The migration crisis profoundly undermines the ideas of democracy, tolerance and progress as well as the liberal principles that constitute our ideological landscape. It is a turning point in the political dynamics of the European project". Migration is having a significant impact, for instance, on Europe's public finances. Take the two countries most affected by it. Germany's federal government spent 21.7 billion euros in 2016 to deal with it. Also reported was that Germany's budget for security this year will grow by at least a third, from 6.1 billion to 8.3 billion euros. In Italy, the Minister of Economy and Finance recently announced that the country will spend 4.2 billion in 2017 on migrants (one-seventh of Italy's entire budget for 2016). Spain recently announced that in North Africa, the fence around its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which keeps migrants out of the Spanish territory, will be funded through a further infusion of 12 million euros. Everywhere in Europe, states are allocating extra resources to deal with the migrant crisis, which has also changed Europe's political landscape. The recent election victories of Sebastian Kurz in Austria and Andrej Babis in the Czech Republic have potentially enlarged the group of Central and Eastern European countries that oppose Brussels -- countries that do not want to accept the number of migrants that the EU is demanding. The topic of immigration is fracturing Europe along ideological lines. Not only fences, but rivalry, mistrust and hate now divide the European project more deeply than ever before. The European public now looks at EU institutions with contempt. They perceive them -- under multiculturalism and immigration -- not only as indifferent to their own problems, but as adding to them. Another political earthquake linked with the migration crisis is "the decline of social democracy in the West", as Josef Joffe, Editor and Publisher of Die Zeit, recently called it. Everywhere in Europe, the migration crisis has all but killed the social-democratic parties, long perceived as unable to cope with it. Twenty years ago, these left-liberal parties governed almost everywhere -- Spain, Britain, Germany, for instance -- but now they are in the opposition almost everywhere. Most of Europe is now led by conservative governments. More than half the terror plots in Germany since the onset of the migrant crisis in 2014 have involved migrants, according to headlines as well as a study by the Heritage Foundation. In addition, ever since the Islamic State -- now defeated in Raqqa -- took advantage of the destabilization caused by Syria's civil war to become a major driver of the migrant crisis, migration has been a major concern for Europe's security. From the territory it conquered, ISIS launched major terror attacks on Europe. The migration crisis has also led to the strategic strengthening in Europe of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has been blackmailing European countries by threatening that if billions of euros and certain political concessions are not given to him, he will open Turkey's borders to let millions more migrants flood into Europe. Erdogan has not only demanded that Europe jail writers and journalists; he has also tried to influence elections in the Netherlands and Germany by appealing to his Turkish constituencies there. A Pew Research report shows how migration is reshaping European countries. In 2016 alone, Sweden's population grew by more than 1%. The increase is ascribed to mass migration, the second-highest in the EU. The number of immigrants rose from 16.8% to 18.3% of Sweden's population between 2015 and 2016. Austria and Norway, two other countries with large immigrant populations (at least 15% percent in 2016), saw a 1% rise from 2015. The newspaper Die Welt recently reported that 18.6 million German residents -- one-fifth of Germany's total population -- now come from migrant backgrounds. The Machiavelli Center in Italy reported in a study, "How immigration is changing Italian demographics", that an "unprecedented" shift in Italy's demography has been taking place due to the migration crisis. The Pandora's box of a demographic revolution has been opened. Two years ago, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the only voice in Europe speaking of the need to keep Europe "Christian". Now one of his most vocal opponents, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, has said: "We are a cultural community, which doesn't mean that we are better or worse -- we are simply different from the outside world... our openness and tolerance cannot mean walking away from protecting our heritage". In 2015, any talk about "culture" was condemned as "racism". Now it is becoming part of the mainstream. In trying to cope with the Islamists' war on Western politics, culture and religion, and the cultural clash they created, Europe has been upended. Poster Comment: The migrants arrived by boat illegally; therefore they can be put into boats and sent back to the shitholes from whence they came. Crying over the subject does no good - action is what is required, very positive action without delay. The fact is there is no reason to believe they are really needed in someone's the home town. I believe television has taught them a that there's a much better world than the one where they are leaving. Muslims should only emigrate to other Muslim countries......like Saudi Arabia.
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#1. To: IbJensen (#0)
Muslims should only emigrate to other Muslim countries This is not necessarily a bad thing, since social democracy is what has caused the problem in the first place. Allowing muslims to migrate in large numbers to western democracies is a fatal mistake. These people do not understand democracy they only understand they can get something for nothing because the social democracies are willing to take them in, feed and house them under some mistaken idea that this form of charity is a good thing. You cannot send muslims to other muslim countries because they will not take them unless they go as virtual slave labour. Arabs are racist, they have no tolerance for others
That is a flaw in socialism. Allowing a small group to rule the government without limitations. Socialism is really a form of government that is meant to bring peons back under control of a few such as an oligarchy rule. This is why founding fathers went with Constitutional Republic instead. Socialism is chaos on a good day.
and how well dose your constitutional republic work? half of your people are below the poverty line, your government is dysfunctional, governing for the rich and the corporations. How many peons exist in the land of opportunity, many more than you think
OMG socialist/communist are crazy. Poverty is a number these days that doesn't represent anything but propaganda. If you can not make it in America you are lazy or held down by socialist government. The problem is government lies of how it can fix things. Government makes everything worse and less of it the better off everyone even the poor will be. You would be far better off as a poor person in American than any other place. The problem with socialism is socialism. When people learn they can vote other people into modern day slavery it dies. Just wait till EU figures this out and there is no way to send back all those ME and Africans!
Arabs are no less Semitic than the Bolshevik Collectivist Invaders of New Bolostan. It's almost amusing watching Balfour's Zionist imperial vomit ooze back up the ol European elite gullet.
Then they should stay put in the paradise they helped create. Since they're so damned stupid and the only star they have to guide them is the Koran they'll always be of a high negative use to Western nations. Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
"the decline of social democracy in the West"
#2. To: paraclete (#1)
This is not necessarily a bad thing, since social democracy is what has caused the problem in the first place. Allowing muslims to migrate in large numbers to western democracies is a fatal mistake. These people do not understand democracy they only understand they can get something for nothing because the social democracies are willing to take them in, feed and house them under some mistaken idea that this form of charity is a good thing.
#3. To: Justified (#2)
(Edited)
This is why founding fathers went with Constitutional Republic instead. Socialism is chaos on a good day.
#4. To: paraclete (#3)
and how well dose your constitutional republic work? half of your people are below the poverty line,
#5. To: paraclete (#1)
Arabs are racist, they have no tolerance for others
Bon Appetit!
#6. To: paraclete (#1)
You cannot send muslims to other muslim countries because they will not take them unless they go as virtual slave labour. Arabs are racist, they have no tolerance for others
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