-Stefan Theil on Europe’s immigration problem
As bad as the surge of intolerance is for the foreigners who are its targets, it’s a disaster for Europe. The continent is heading for serious long-term economic trouble unless it learns to manage immigration intelligently. Deaths are expected to outnumber births this year in 10 of the European Union’s 27 member states. As of 2015 the EU as a whole will experience negative natural population growth, demographers say, and the gap will grow to 1 million excess deaths a year by 2035. By 2050 the EU will have 52 million fewer people of working age, the European Commission warns. Businesses across Europe are already facing severe shortages of engineers, technicians, craftspeople, and other skilled professionals, with 4 million unfilled jobs across the continent. “Every one of our clients in Europe has positions they can’t fill because of continentwide shortages,” says Barbara Beck, European head of the employment service Manpower. And the problem will only worsen as the job market recovers.
The trouble isn’t a shortage of immigrants. The European Union has attracted 26 million migrants in the past two decades—a full 30 percent more than America’s 20 million over the same span. But most European countries tried to protect homegrown labor by shutting out foreign workers. The efforts mostly backfired, encouraging a massive influx of illegal aliens, who tend to accept rock-bottom wages and benefits because they have no legal recourse. At the same time, Europe’s generous social benefits encouraged a massive surge of “welfare tourism.” As a result, Europe has ended up with 85 percent of all unskilled migrants to the developed countries but only 5 percent of the highly skilled. Compare that with the United States, which has honed its innovative edge by attracting 55 percent of the world’s educated migrants.
