The refugee crisis is shredding the cords that bind Europe
The refugee crisis is shredding the cords that bind Europe
By Kelly McParland, National Post, January 29, 2016
In Europe, one flood is running into another. The tide of refugees pouring across the Mediterranean in search of a new life is meeting a counter-flow of antagonism from countries increasingly unprepared to grant them their wish.
Dishearteningly, staunch resistance is now coming from some of the wealthiest countries. A Dutch proposal would have Syrians landing in Greece put on a boat straight back to Turkey. Denmark has passed a law allowing it to collect valuables from refugee claimants to pay their costs. Sweden’s Interior Minister said this week some 80,000 asylum-seekers – about half the total – could be deported if Stockholm can find enough planes for them. Not to be outdone, Finland revealed it expects to reject 65% of asylum applicants. Each display of impatience validates the next.
A poll released Friday found 40% of Germans feel Merkel should resign
While the boatloads of migrants continue to float up to Greek shores, European reaction has grown darker and more cynical. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron this week dismissed refugees gathered in France as “a bunch of migrants” and rejected any suggestion they should be allowed into Britain. Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union, and, perversely, appears to hope attacking its refugee policies will strengthen the “yes” vote. The EU government in Brussels, meanwhile, has taken to blaming Greece – easily it’s weakest member – for failing to keep the tide from spreading beyond its borders. Apparently having forgotten the budget crisis that saw Greece on the verge of bankruptcy last year – to be saved only by a massive EU bailout – Brussels is now threatening to impose border controls if Athens can’t find a way to save the other 27 member countries from being afflicted with the migrants.
The most dramatic shift remains in Germany, however, where there is a very real chance the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel could unravel. During the Greek debt talks Berlin was denounced as an over-powerful bully imposing its dominance on Europe; today Merkel is scrambling desperately to convince other European powers they must act together if the EU is to survive. A poll released Friday found 40% of Germans feel Merkel should resign over her handling of the situation. She was able to hold her government together this week only by agreeing to new restrictions demanded by her two main allies, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, and Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer.
Seehofer in particular has pressured Berlin to tighten the liberal policies championed by Merkel, who argues that Germany has a historical responsibility to aid as many asylum-seekers as possible. He wants a cap on the number Germany will accept, and an expanded list of “safe” countries from which applicants will be rejected. Critics complain that thousands of people from North Africa have sought to take advantage of the chaos to claim refugee status in wealthier European countries. Norway said recently it would send home thousands of Russians who have crossed into the country by bicycle after spotting a loophole in immigration laws.
The intensity of the conflict escalated dramatically following the reports from Cologne of a series of New Year’s assaults involving migrants and refugees. The stories have been seized on by anti-immigrant groups to justify accusations linking refugees to crime and cultural incompatibility, and unleashed the fears of Europeans who feel uneasy about the impact of the overwhelmingly Muslim arrivals on local practices and customs. While those worries may be overblown, the danger to the survival of the EU is real. The Greek debt crisis came close to pulling the union apart, exposing the resentment and bitterness separating the wealthier northern powers from weaker countries in the south. Berlin now finds itself facing a similar division that leaves it even more isolated within Europe and divided at home.
The two cords binding Europe together are the shared currency, the euro, and the open borders known as the Schengen system. Greece pushed the euro zone to the brink. The refugee influx is having the same effect on the borders: Berlin has threatened to impose its own border controls if a shared response can’t be reached. A columnist with Britain’s Financial Times warned that the choice now lies “between orderly suspension and disorderly collapse.”
Merkel has shown herself to be among the most adroit leaders in the western world. But after more than a decade at the top of the European pole, the ground beneath her may be collapsing. It could swallow her, as well as Europe as a union. Built to avoid war, it could fail over the limits of human compassion.
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Merkel's solution to lessen the opposition to her big-hearted intent is to state that when the ME war is over, the refugees must be made to return to their countries. Another article indicated that at least 500,000 refugees who were already required to return could not be located. So much for Merkel's intent.
IMO Europe is on its way to being destroyed, and England is showing it what to expect.
I think Europe is experiencing karma.
I can hardly restrain my excitement to hear what The Russell "thinks" is Karma for the US . /*S
Maybe we can escape karma Petey.
Even you would have to see the irony in the European former colonial powers now being "colonized" themselves in another way.
Sorry John. Your big "Hero" in the sky, the 1/2 white/1/2 black president, has already given the U. S. over to the illegal aliens.
Oh yeah, Barry can do no wrong, right? Think he and Merkel are twins from different mothers???
It's probably too late. Their ignorant policies and dedication to false PC principles may have already doomed them. They brought it on themselves. Millenia of civilization destroyed in one generation by barbarians.
Although I didn't see all of Europe in my lifetime, I did travel in Switzerland, Spain, England and Wales. Due to what is happening there now I don't intend to return, although I would have liked to travel through Italy.
I've been to Europe once and plan to travel there in the future. Hope I don't have to wear a hijab to do it.