A declining birth rate is the answer to all of the world’s problems. In the short run, adding more youth to a country may help economically, but not in the long term, especially with so many jobs becoming automated. Fewer people means more resources for everyone.
I have to believe that Germany’s intentions are good, but it would be more cost effective to fund lives for the refugees in countries where the cost of living is much lower. I think that is the philosophy Britain is following, with its $1B contribution to existing refugee camps, over agreeing to accept more than 20,000 refugees. Germany is now saying it will take 1 million refugees this year.
The refugees are coming mostly from Syria, but also from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria, all of which have birthrates about double (or way more) than that of Germany’s.
It just seems that the “good intentioned” do not think too far ahead in the rush to be politically correct in how they behave and present themselves. In addition to financial and basic cultural issues, there is a greater, much more destabilizing demographic that advocates do not take into account.
With 80% of the these Muslim refugees being males, aged 18 - 24, exactly what is going to happen demographically when they settle and are looking for partners, as there will be a 4:1 ration of Muslim men to Muslim women? Well, the answer is they are going to have children with European women and have children who are now considered Muslims, not of European decent - Muslim male households are patriarchl and the male’s culture and religion rules to roost.
The female children of these unions will not be afforded the freedoms of current Western females if their fathers follow their religious teaching of how females are to be treated. Just wail till this time bomb hits the fan, and Europe finds itself with two distinct sets of females trying to co-exist with vastly different rights, as Muslims do not acknowledge the rights afforded females in Western culture.
France is learning the hard way, as expected behavior is now expected outside the neighborhood, by Western females:
Well, if one has ever been to the Muslim ghettoes of France, Sweden etc, it does not take much to understand that it is much better to have the ghettoes in their own Muslim countries and NOT in our stable Western countries.
Before Muslims in Netherlands, there was no such thing as honor killings, as accepted normal behavior within any community. However, it is established now, as expected, in a Western country, and not much can be done about it, as nothing the West can do will stop said practice.
Do not know about others, but I am thinking that I would insist on assimilation rather than this nonsense of sharing in other people’s crap. Leave your crap in your home country, please.
And if you actually read that article, this was at most 20 murders and I am not sure the Dutch think you need to be a citizen to be a Dutch person. For US cities, this would be a bad month since our disaffected youth are violent too. Sadly, the US is no stranger to domestic violence on spouses and children either. Honor killing or a man beating his wife to death, not really different.
The OC register article’s politics (Trump supporters, clearly) is clear from the picture … but I think the EU is an attempt to move on from rigid nationalist type thinking and become more like … say … the US. So the European culture they are bemoaning is evolving beyond what the American tourist pictures anyway, the Italians with big families drinking wine and the Germans in lederhosen.
And thinking that none of the people going to EU economic powerhouses are willing to work, shameful really. I don’t think it is much different than attitude of Ellis Island people … they want better lives. If they have to sell kabobs, that’s just fine, you ancestors might have done that too, but I am guessing there will also be a big demand for those free college educations and the trade schools that Germany has developed to turn more of their less academically gifted citizens into a strong middle class.
It is difficult to imagine that assimilation and acculturation for Syrians will be more seamless in Germany than in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, with the cultural chasms to cross in Germany with respect to religion, language, food and weather being so much greater. But if the Germans are as rules-rigid and orderly as they are portrayed, perhaps they can force the issue faster than most. They are methodically assigning refugees to their 16 federal states in a mathematical manner, which may prevent ghettos from forming, at least initially. But with 1 million new refugees arriving in this year, plus 500,000 per year thereafter, I assume they will not be able to prevent them from ultimately congregating into areas where their culture will be more easily preserved.
I’ve read through most of this thread. Everybody’s comments are interesting to say the least. What struck me most, though, was that some of you have little to no understanding of Arab mentality/ Islamic culture, and frankly, obvious disdain some of you have towards them. I agree with some of you on certain points, mainly that it is unfeasible for Europe to support that large a number of refugees. I also agree that if they do extend help it should be limited to women and children/ families only and NOT able bodied young men. Perhaps a screening of the families they’re willing to help is in order (to make sure they have no terrorist tendencies or y’ know, make sure they’re not ninjas). Arab countries HAVE and are taking in refugees from Syria. My own country (which is in the UN poverty index) has taken in over a hundred thousand Syrians till now. We have afforded them equal rights with the citizens and tax reliefs. Funny enough, I don’t see this in the news. I’ve been to Syria - twice- and have had a lot of Syrian friends and neighbours. They’re decent people, and don’t deserve to be spoken of in casual disregard like some of the posters did. Arabs - whatever their faults are - are not primitive apes who live to terrorize others, “listen to music and harrass women”. To condense an entire group of people into such a category is nothing short of bigoted. I’ve lived in the Arab world my whole life and I haven’t seen half the stereotypes that are attributed to Arabs and muslims. Anyhow, I think in a situatioo like this, the matter on whether to allow the refugees entrance to wherever (Hungary, Austria etc.) should be put to public vote. Now to the poster above said about Islam not giving rights to women (I’m on my phone, can’t tag for some reason) a little correction is in order: Islam gives rights to women. Muslim * men * however (specifically arab muslims) are a different matter entirely, unfortunately. Much like the American constitution does not state that women should be paid less in salaries and yet they receive a lower Salary than men in almost all jobs, Islam does not forbid women from driving cars etc. Sexist men exist in all nationalities and in a variety of religions (I’ll stop here coz I’m digressing and getting a little political).
Oh, and in response to a previous post: KSA just announced that they took in 2.5 MILLION Syrian ( they don’t call them refugees). They’re offered free health care, legal residence, and job opportunities. Apparently the reason they didn’t reveal this before is that it’s considered bad in Islam to do a good deed then broadcast the fact. So, yeah, there goes your logic on how Saudi is a heartless, greedy oil state.
I read the original press release in Arabic, but the link you posted from wikipedia has the figure, @DrGoogle. The reports are conflicting, true, but hardly the “0%” figure news agencies tried to paint(my own country isn’t on the list, despite what it has done for the refugees). And whether they’re really 2.5 mil or not is besides the point. The fact that Saudi took in Syrians invalidates half of what was said about it on this thread.
You’ve obviously not spent any time abroad around people w less “advantageous” passports. From an individual’s self-interest perspective: if you held a passport from a pariah state, WHY WOULDN’T YOU jump at the chance to switch it to an EU one? Then you wouldn’t be constrained to living in a crappy country.
We once traveled w a friend who held a “disadvantageous” passport. When we transitted overnight in Vienna, our family breezed thru immigration w our US passports, but our friend wasn’t permitted to enter Austria.
@GMTplus7, that makes sense for an individual who is seeking a better life (as most of us define it), but you didn’t actually answer my question: why would ISIS bother sending operatives this way when they already have plenty of EU nationals? And do you know what someone who would join ISIS wants? It’s not a better economic life.
Actually, what is odd is how stupid one has to be not to listen to the very people doing the activity, i.e., listen to the horse’s mouth as he speaks. Are some people so obtuse, as to their worldview, that they think they know more than ISIS than ISIS itself? Yep, these are the self-proclaimed experts I guess.
And given ISIS’ track record of doing pretty much everything it has said - it killed all the hostages it said it would - on video no less; it killed all the Christians it said it would - and enslaved the females, as promised; and, it blew up all the ruins it said it would - again, on video - then one would think the blind would start to see.
Hum… is there anything that ISIS said it would do that it has not openly tried or has not been successful at? Nope, ISIS seems pretty thorough in carrying out what it says.
Hey, it is just me in that when someone is this ruthless at killing I kind of pay attention when he says he is coming to my neighborhood under my nose and using my generosity as the conduit, especially since he seems pretty darn good at killing.
It is wishful “expert” thinking, such as this, that makes it easy to understand why Europe never got the Nazis and why the US had to bail it out when the stuff it the fan.