EUROPE’S REBELLION OVER MIGRANTS
AMERICANS don’t have to surrender their country to the millions wading across the Rio Grande and crashing fences to get in. In Europe, ordinary people are fighting to save their continent and their standard of living from the impact of mass migration.
Americans need to watch these Europeans and be encouraged. Resisting the cost of housing, feeding and educating migrants doesn’t make you a racist or a bigot.
There is a global movement of people who want the richer life they’ve heard about in the US and Europe. They’re forcing their way in, immigration laws be damned.
Most of these migrants are not destitute. According to the Center for Global Development, they have above-average incomes in their home countries and move to gain more.
Migration is the hot-button issue in June’s upcoming European Union parliamentary elections. The EU, a compact of 26 countries headquartered in Brussels, insists that every member country take in migrants or to pay other member countries to do it for them.
Not so fast, say populist politicians in the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland refuses.
Poland “will not have to accept any migrants . . . and the European Union will not impose any migrant quotas on us,” he said last week.
On May 15, the Netherlands assembled a coalition government promising to oppose migration and install “the strictest-ever asylum regime.” That sets up a clash with Brussels. The Dutch government will seek to opt out of the EU’s migration quotas.
Dutch activist Eva Vlaardinger-broek bashed the “corrupt elite” in Brussels that “invites the invasion in and makes the native population pay for it.” Just like the Biden administration makes New Yorkers and Chicagoans pay.
Hungary is also expected to opt out, though Brussels has threatened to hit noncompliant countries with legal action. “Hungary will never give in to the mass migration frenzy,” vowed Prime Minister Victor Orban.
Fifteen EU member countries — more than half the coalition — petitioned Brussels last week to keep asylum seekers out of Europe until their claims are heard and verified. The petitioners, led by Denmark, propose detaining migrants offshore in non-EU countries.
Currently, fewer than half of asylum seekers win their cases, but losers stay in Europe anyway, evading the law. They can’t demonstrate a legitimate fear of persecution based on their race, religion, or political beliefs. Some call them “fakugees.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni cut a deal to house asylum seekers in Albania at Italy’s expense while claims are heard. The 15 petitioning countries suggest Meloni’s policy — call it “Remain in Albania”— should be a model across the EU. Sounds a lot like Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy.
Increasingly, Europeans are asking why they should hand over their continent to whoever manages to get in.
Similarly, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is vowing to “stop the boats” illegally carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel. He insists the British public has the right to determine “who crosses our borders.”
Parliament passed a harsh deterrent, allowing the government to detain illegal migrants and deport them to Rwanda, where their asylum claims will be processed.
Even those who win asylum will have to remain in Rwanda — not exactly paradise — eliminating any incentive to sneak across the Channel. Humanitarian groups are protesting, but on Monday, Austria endorsed the harsh UK approach.
Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, 77% of Americans regard illegal immigration as a “crisis” or a “major problem,” according to Pew. Over two-thirds of Americans, including four in 10 Democrats, disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, according to an AP poll.
The Biden administration has dishonestly portrayed the southern border crisis as unavoidable. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that “we have to contextualize” it, adding “the world is seeing the greatest level of displacement since at least World War II.”
Forget the sob stories. Most migrants come for economic gain, jumping in front of legal immigrants and defying a nation’s right to control who enters.
The left insists migration is a humanitarian crisis. Wrong: It’s a lawless invasion.
Europeans are fighting back. Americans should, too.