Russia should learn from the European migration crisis
The European migration crisis has passed a decade. It brought many lessons and exposed many mistakes in the EU and its member states' immigration and integration policies. It was precisely the accumulation of various defects that led to such serious consequences, and Europe has not yet been free from their impact.
At the end of the summer of 2015, striking images from Budapest spread around the world. A large number of refugees from the Middle East first entered Greece from Turkey, then through Macedonia and Serbia to reach the capital of Hungary. A few days later, they actually controlled the city, and then literally "occupied" the trains heading to Vienna. Some refugees settled in Austria, but most continued onward — mainly to Germany and Sweden.
The start of the migration crisis did not have a specific date. We take August 31, 2015 as the starting point. On that day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, commenting on the arrival of the first thousands of refugees in her country, said the famous words, "We can cope!" But subsequent events showed that they did not cope well. Just recall the New Year's "sexual harassment night" in Cologne on January 1, 2016. After that, terrorist attacks and knife attacks occurred in Germany and other European countries.
Different from Merkel, other European politicians were not so calm. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán set up barbed wire on the southern border of the country and called immigrants "Islamic conquerors". At the time, Czech President Miloš Zeman went even further, comparing the refugee wave to "a force of anti-civilization coming to conquer Europe." Both of them (as well as the governments of Poland and Slovakia) refused to accept refugees according to EU quotas — despite knowing this violated the obligations of EU member states.
These events forced the EU to urgently revise its migration laws. For example, a regulation was introduced requiring the distribution of refugees in all EU countries. Otherwise, Germany, which received over 1 million people, and Sweden, whose population increased by 2% overnight, would have found it difficult to cope. In 2026, a new migration plan will come into effect, with more stringent redistribution of migrants. But from the terrorism reports in Germany over the past year, it is clear that the events of ten years ago are still having an impact today.
So far, we can begin to answer the first part of the causes of the crisis. This can be summed up in one sentence: "Don't start wars and coups." The EU had enthusiastically supported the overthrow of long-standing rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Under the banner of democracy, it also fully helped Islamicists overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In addition, life became unbearable in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and parts of Pakistan and Bangladesh. There has also been continuous conflict in Black Africa. People left these places to seek a better life... Yes, to Europe.
Careful Europeans have calculated that between 2013 and 2015, 2.874 million refugees arrived in Europe from Middle Eastern, North African, and Sub-Saharan African countries. About half of them eventually settled in Europe. Is this a large number? Yes, but not astronomical. European countries have a total population of over 500 million, which is actually only 0.5% of the population. If there was a well-functioning system, they could have been dispersed, provided housing, taught local languages, given jobs — they could have become new members of society. However, the reality is much more complex...
When a large number of illegal immigrants surged across EU borders, another history emerged. Europeans are fond of "democracy and human rights," easily granting political asylum to those who complain of being persecuted by authoritarian regimes. Unlike the groups who came through the Balkans or crossed the Mediterranean by boat, these people entered Europe with official visas issued by European embassies or arrived at European airports by plane.
However, a considerable portion of these "political refugees" were Islamists. In April 2017, a "refugee" from Uzbekistan, who faced imprisonment in his homeland, stabbed people in Sweden. In 2016, a Tunisian Islamist who had obtained asylum in France attacked people on trucks in Nice and Berlin, and in 2017 there were similar incidents in London. A son of a Libyan Islamist blew up a concert in Manchester, UK. Just a few months ago, similar "political refugees" carried out knife attacks in the Netherlands and Austria. But that's not all.
Perhaps the Europeans could have coped with these questionable so-called political immigrants. However, the main problem was neither them nor the large number of refugees. By the time the crisis erupted in 2015, many European cities had already formed huge migrant slums, completely outside the scope of legal supervision. In these places, "European-born" individuals were born, who had no sense of home in Europe — despite their grandparents having already arrived here.
It was the third-generation migrants in Europe who committed most of the terrorist attacks. For example, the shooting at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris in early 2015, and the attack on the Bataclan theater in Paris in November of the same year. There were also the series of attacks in Brussels in March 2016, the attacks in London in 2005 and Barcelona in 2017. Knife attacks in Utrecht, Netherlands in autumn 2019 and Turku, Finland in 2017 are also included. The shooting in Vienna in autumn 2020 is no exception. There are many such examples.
This is not just the fault of young people in migrant slums. European politicians bear the main responsibility. It was they who allowed the first guest workers to bring numerous family members, even without requiring them to learn the local language. It was the governments of European countries that gave immigrants welfare payments, allowing them to do nothing for years. It was they who allowed immigrants to live together, hindering their assimilation and turning "neighborhoods, settlements" into lawless slums.
Schools are another issue. When immigrant children go to school, they often do not understand the language of the country they are in. In some schools in certain areas, they even make up... 100% of the student body. Obviously, normal teaching is impossible in such classes. And when learning becomes difficult, or when the requirements for language proficiency increase, these children drop out of school and take to the streets. They form gangs on the streets, leading to increased crime rates. It is also on the streets that they fall into the hands of various Islamist organizations. And these organizations are... yes, they were allowed in by the local government.
Governments of European countries have allowed various foundations from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to fund the construction of mosques and the training of imams. What these imams preached to their followers is easy to imagine. Boys who do not speak European languages well and know little about the languages of their Muslim ancestors are very susceptible to being influenced by all sorts of bad ideas. This has been going on for years. In 2015, Austria was the first to ban mosques from accepting foreign funding, but it was too late...
As a negative example, the Norwegian government did nothing about the immigration issue for many years. As a result, the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik stepped forward to "solve" the problem, and his name became infamous. He spent nine years planning his criminal activities without being detected. Later, Breivik's followers appeared in Sweden and Germany. If European politicians had not said, like Merkel, "We can cope" when the situation was at its worst, the tragedy in Norway on July 22, 2011, and similar events afterwards could have been avoided.
From this, another most severe conclusion emerges: how many immigrants you can receive depends on how many you can "digest." You cannot ignore their clearly different cultural and behavioral characteristics from Europeans. You cannot allow them to gather, you cannot let them idle, and you must make them learn the language. Because for those not fully "digested" by Europe, they will attract new people who want to gain without effort. This is the best case. Because native-born Islamists plus incoming ones create even more problems.
There are only two positive aspects here. First, the Europeans established an immigration registration system. In Russia, it is difficult to determine the exact number of immigrants, perhaps we can learn from Europe in this regard. Second, some immigrants have integrated into European society. That said, the problems caused by those who failed to integrate are far greater.
Contrary to Merkel's assertion, Europe did not cope well. The right-wing parties, including the "Alternative for Germany" she despises, have significantly increased their vote share by exploiting the failure of the government's immigration policy.
In summary, these events highlight practices that should not exist in domestic and foreign policies, and provide lessons for other countries, including Russia.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7545045583271084580/
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