Europe hit by refugee fatigue as migrants struggle to integrate
After a surge in refugees not seen since WWII, Europe is now trying to find its footing as the flood of migrants abates. Both nations and new arrivals are grappling to come to terms with what happened, but it is clear the impact is so massive that even finding useful ways to measure it is proving difficult. It’s not surprising given the multitudes involved and the multiplicity of countries affected. Economic migrants have come from as far away as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, while those fleeing conflicts have travelled from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa. The routes they took ranged from eastern and southern Europe to overland Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. How the new arrivals are doing is hard to quantify.
Germany has perhaps the best records on immigrants and their present status. Statistics show that more than 1.16 million were living in the country last year without a residency permit, just 154,780 of them under what is known as a “toleration allowance”, indicating about 13 per cent have begun to be absorbed legally.
How well are these migrants accepted by the general populations in countries varies but the rise of anti-immigration parties across Europe shows there is stiff opposition.
Even once-tolerant Swedes have changed their outlook, according to a study by British think-tank Demos. Its analysis shows an increasing use of “exclusionary nationalist rhetoric” in 2015 and 2016 by Swedish politicians across the spectrum, noting that “ethnic conceptions of Swedishness go hand in hand with anti-immigrant sentiment.”
Emanuele Selleri, director at Casa Scalabrini 634, a programme by the Scalabrinian Agency for Cooperation and Development-ASCS Onlus in Rome, has first-hand experience working to integrate immigrants into real society. He says finances, work, housing and autonomy in relationships are all important for immigrants “because they all in synergy establish communication bridges that facilitate inclusion”.
“It is difficult, but in our small reality results are pretty good, encouraging,” he says.
“Refugees have to accept that they must take their life into their own hands, taking the initiative and beginning to abandon the idea there is a welfare system,” says Selleri. “They have to jump into real life, begin to stand on their own legs. We see that not everyone is willing to do this, but whoever does reaps the fruit. They taste the sense of freedom and responsibility.”
Just under 650,000 people sought asylum in the EU last year, an almost 50 per cent decrease from the peak of 1.26 million in 2015, according to the EU statistical office Eurostat. They included more than 100,000 Syrians, 47,500 Iraqis and 43,600 Afghans.
Selleri notes organised and lucrative human trafficking has at least in part driven the mass migration. “Sure there is planned human trafficking,” he says.
“In the past months one of the biggest flows from Bangladesh arrived in Lampedusa (Sicily),” he notes. “It does not make sense to get to Lampedusa from Bangladesh — those are flows organised by traffickers through Libya instead of passing through Iran, Turkey and Greece. When you listen to (the refugees) stories they are often very similar as if a script has been learned.”
Counties that remain on the front lines in dealing with the influx include Germany (about 30 per cent of asylum-seekers last year), Italy (20 per cent), France (14 per cent) and Greece (9 per cent). According to a recent survey of more than 10,000 people from 10 European countries by Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs, public opposition to Muslim immigration is high.
Of those surveyed, an average of 55 per cent agreed with the statement “all further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped”. Poland was most in favour of a ban on Muslim immigration with 71 per cent of respondents agreeing with the statement. Austria was close behind with 65 per cent.
“Public opposition to further migration from Muslim states is especially intense in Austria, Poland, Hungary, France and Belgium despite these countries having very different-sized resident Muslim populations,” said the report.
Selleri says he has seen it in his own work. “There is so much intolerance out there in society toward migrants. People project their fear on those who
How well these migrants are accepted by the general populations in countries varies but the rise of anti-immigration parties across Europe shows there is stiff opposition.
represent the last,” he says. “There is a lot of fear, often unrealistic, broadcast on social media networks.”
He says, “The immigrant has never been really welcomed — they are welcome where their workforce is needed, but when there is no longer that working option, no one wants the migrant, the refugee, the different.”
Yet there are heartwarming stories as well. “We are happy these days at our Casa,” says Selleri. “A young Afghan guy fell in love with an Italian girl and they are going to get married in few days. Another Afghan has found work in the heart of Rome, in a fancy hair salon. There are so many beautiful stories. These are dignified lives, but that implies tenacity, awareness, a desire to do, being enterprising and proactive, and a shred of luck.”
“When the autonomies I spoke of are reached the real opportunity of feeling good in Europe can become a reality,” he says.
Mariella Radaelli and Jon Van Housen are editors at the Luminosity Italia news agency in Milan