Forget the Greek Crisis, Immigration Will Divide Europe Against Itself
Europe has complex immigration rules. As the EU web site shows, there are multiple layers of immigration regulations encompassing both the local national level and the EU level.
But, as the recent influx of refugees and economic migrants has shown, the EU government is able to flex its muscle in an ad hocfashion in the service of compelling member states to accept the migrants and refugees. The “quota plan” being forwarded by the EU government would divide up migrants and refugees among the EU member states, and, of course, over time, these migrants would qualify for those member states’ taxpayer funded public benefits. In Germany, for example, officials “estimate that as many as 460,000 more people could be entitled [next year] to social benefits.”
Big Countries vs. Little Ones
The proposal could become a mandate if approved by a “qualified majority” of EU member governments, a type of majority that is weighed in favor of the larger members. Most of those larger members are in favor. If adopted, however, one doesn’t need to be exceptionally perceptive to see how mandates apposed on dissenting member states could be a source of significant division among member states, and especially, their populations.
Writing in the UK independent yesterday, John Lichfield avers:
North vs south; east vs west; Britain vs the rest; German leadership or German dominance. The refugee crisis is like a diabolical stress test devised to expose simultaneously all the moral and political fault lines of the European Union.
Germany leads to way in calling for more migrants. While part of it is no doubt Germany’s ongoing attempt to rehabilitate itself from its fascist past, there may be other considerations as well. Claire Groden in Fortunenotes:
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