People cross borders leaving their home countries for many reasons, but usually it’s motivated by the absence of pathways to thrive. It has always been so. Many of the comforts, prosperity and diverse cultures that compose the United States of America have come as a result of immigrants to our shores. Every sovereign in the world, rich or poor, can boast this same event. An example of when migrants were welcomed to the shores of America was during the aftermath of World War II. This was perceived as a “brain gain”. In this moment southern Europe is experiencing the hardest lesson to be learned during an economic failure, a “brain drain”.
Southern EU is losing its educated youth to stronger economies like Germany, whose employment market suffers under a deficit of skilled labor. Work visas have increased as steady dribbles of economic refugees who need refugee assistance move to a better place. This steady flow of border crossers seeking a better life will increase in the years that follow. Most of these people will never return to their homelands. Time is the enemy of sovereigns struggling to mend broken economies, and those in need of bread and butter relief cannot wait. German leadership, unlike their American counterparts, is almost in universal agreement that responsible immigration policies are monetarily righteous.
In a Der Spiegel article a major component to why Germany will gain the most in the coming decades is the following,
“And the German government? Yet again it is on the winning side. It not only enforces its rigorous view of austerity policies in the EU, but also harvests the ‘fruit’ — young skilled workers hungry for employment that companies here in Germany are desperately searching for. They also give companies here a real advantage because they can cherry pick the very best skilled workers from the growing pool of jobseekers without having to undertake costly qualification programs. The situation could hardly be any more grotesque.” Read more…
This political mind set is merely smart domestic policy. Those social pundits that ignore the absence of sound economic logic pay little service to the populace they claim to serve. In America the phraseology is carefully crafted for those that harbor isolationist sentiments. Hushed tones of fear generated to appease some outmoded concept of political purity has given way in the EU to the cold reality that structural unemployment will kill any economy. Germany has not only thrived under a fiscal policy that embraces a sound monetary system, but has learned to ignore its own isolationist voices. To embrace responsible immigration is merely an intelligent approach to sovereign prosperity.
Besides, the undocumented have contributed to making great nations…ours included. To marginalize rather than integrate both skilled and unskilled labor is simply economically inefficient. To ratify that increase in income will only swell coffers with badly needed tax revenue that will help assuage a liquidity trapped country. Is there ant-immigration in Europe? Perhaps, but it is not evident in government labor practices.
