Legal immigration benefits Europe
BRUSSELS – Most European governments have tried to slam the door shut on immigrants rather than convince their citizens that some legal migration may be a way to boost the economy and maintain high welfare standards and pensions as birth rates dwindle. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Commission say managed migration is essential, but many European Union governments remain fearful of public opinion, which polls suggest is hostile to more immigrants. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of poor migrants die every month trying to slip into «fortress Europe.» Many drown crossing the Mediterranean, others suffocate in the back of sealed container trucks. «Without some legal immigration, Europeans will be forced to work longer hours, retire later and probably have to give up some state pension and health care, because fewer workers will pay less taxes and contribute to the systems,» IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy told Reuters. «It is all down to how you package it. You have to convince your public opinion that immigration is an advantage…If migrants are perceived as useful and making a contribution to the host economy, then they are more accepted,» he added. After years of «zero immigration» policies, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain all granted amnesties to illegal immigrants during the 1990s and offered more than 1.2 million people legal residency. According to Chauzy, the scale of the amnesties proves that zero immigration policies don’t work. They only force economic migrants into the hands of criminal networks, which make billions of dollars smuggling people into Europe. Illegals flood in There are no European statistics, but the German Police Union has said experts believe between 500,000 and 1.5 million illegal immigrants live in Germany and another 100,000 are smuggled into the country every year. In 2001, Greece detained over 5,000 illegals, more than 100 suspected people smugglers and 83 vessels carrying illegal immigrants. Spanish police detained more than 18,000 would-be illegals last year. Europol, the EU’s fledgling police agency, which investigates illegal immigration, says that managed legal migration would not necessarily stem the flows of clandestine migrants. «We could maybe have an over-expectation of the impact of legal immigration and a possible decrease of organized illegal immigration,» said Christian Bratz, illegal immigration group leader from Europol. «The connection between the two is not yet statistically confirmed.» Some EU member states are taking tentative steps toward attracting selected newcomers. Chauzy cited a labor migration program launched by Italy as an example. Rome invited Albanians to seek work in Italy as paramedics and construction workers and in the tourism sector. Out of some 13,000 applicants, 3,000 landed jobs. Germany has also launched a labor migration program, aimed at attracting skilled information technology workers. «Ad-hoc programs show that if migration is managed, it can be valuable,» Chauzy said. Demographic trends proved Europe’s need for more legal immigration, he argued. Economic growth at stake The EU has pledged to make its economy the world’s most competitive by 2010, but the European Commission says Europe will not catch up with the United States if its birth rate goes on falling. «Real gross domestic product growth in Europe will always be lower than in the United States as long as the (EU) population grows less,» said Klaus Regling, director general of the Commission’s economic and monetary affairs department. The population in the United States, where immigrants account for more than 10 percent of residents, increases by about 1 percent annually, compared with just 0.2 percent in the EU. Many illegal immigrants end up working in Europe’s shadow economy, which the Commission estimates accounts for 27.2 percent of GDP in Italy, 23 percent in Spain and 14.7 percent in France. Chauzy said that given the choice, illegal migrants would rather have legal employment, where they would have the chance of improving and acquiring new skills. «Once they have acquired skills, they return home to better opportunities,» he said. «They only come because they believe their economic prospects will be better. If people believe that they have the same kind of perspective in their home country, they stay.» European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino believes the fight against illegal immigration is linked intrinsically to asylum and legal immigration. «The reality is that if we do not manage migration, we have to deal with illegal migration, trafficking in human beings and non-declared work, and those are major threats to the stability of our social model and our democratic societies,» he said. The Commission has proposed a threefold policy on asylum and immigration – reshaping the asylum system, tighter controls and managed immigration. It aims to create a generous asylum system for genuine refugees with control measures including a database with fingerprints to prevent «asylum shopping» – seeking asylum in more than one member state – and false claims for shelter. It is also proposing tighter border controls and enhancing the EU’s current visa regime to counter illegal immigration. Member states have agreed to share data and best practices on how to manage immigration and integration policies. EU leaders have set 2004 as the deadline for enacting a common asylum and immigration policy, but national sensitivities, notably in Germany, could delay this. In general elections across Europe, anti-immigration parties have made gains in Austria, Italy and Denmark, bringing center-right governments to power. «National politics may delay things, but we see the daily tragedies that prove the need for a common policy,» one EU diplomat said, referring to the hundreds of economic migrants and refugees who lose their lives trying to enter Europe.
