Everyday the news headlines tell about the exponentially growing problem of migrants in Europe and about the gravity daily becoming greater than before. The number of migrants today has already exceeded several hundred thousand, and the number of dead has reached at least several thousand. Europe has no solution to this migration crisis and is without any clear strategy, policies, or ideas. Politically, many European countries are having a hard time dealing with this problem. However, when the Turkish government suggested forming a buffer zone in northern Syria that would shelter millions of Syrians in refuges camps and whose airspace would be closed to military aircraft, European countries objected to the idea. If they had tried to participate in Turkey’s suggestions, many Syrian refuges lives could have been saved. However, even this would have been only a short-term solution.
For a long time Italy has been calling for changes to be made in European Council on Refugees and Exile (ECRE)’s regulations from the Dublin Convention, which ruled that asylum applications can only be processed in the country where refugees first set foot on European soil. But the Italian government wants other members of the European Union to come up with some kind of solution because this is not an Italian problem. Refuges are in the EU as soon as they arrive in Italy. The EU policy toward migrants is deporting them, making the asylum laws more difficult, or shutting the borders in some cases, for example, in Hungary that shut its southern border to Serbia and to Bulgaria. According to the EU’s rules, the country in which migrants first arrived is supposed to deal with them, give them a temporary authorization to stay, or grant political asylum. But many immigrants want to travel to Germany and to other countries to find better jobs.
Every country in Europe wants to be a transit point, but none want to be the point of settlement. It is also very odd because Europe always champions human rights and immigration rights, but rich Europe is unable to cope with a couple hundred thousand migrants and refuges while Turkey has accepted more than 2.5 million refuses from Syria. Granted, Turkey has more stringent policies toward outsiders. Many consider Europe to be comprised of rich countries and as such is able to accept a couple of thousand refugees. However, Germany is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum applications by the end of the 2015, four times the number of last year. Conflict in the Middle East and Africa has led to an increased number of migrants to Europe, mostly Muslims. According to report, in 2014, 626,000 migrants applied for asylum in 28 EU member states. However, Slovakia is the one nation where the government announced it would only accept Christian refuges.
Most of the European liberal left’s desire to give everything to everyone does not work anymore. The concept of a multicultural society was originally centered on compromise, universalism, interdependence, and interfaith that would lead to some kind of intercultural community, so that everybody will respect and understand each other better. But immigrants in the EU have an integration problem; many immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, want to have their own rules and laws. For example, Muslims in the UK have started asking for Sharia law, and thus the idea of a center of multiculturalism resulting from the EU immigration policy has failed. The migration crisis is clearly a great challenge for Europe today.
The facts are that immigration poses a threat in many different respects, some that are immediately apparent and others that will appear over time. It is true that during this kind of human crisis, other humans should offer help. The reason the EU is very hesitant about migrants is because many migrants in Europe have established bad records in their host countries, causing some of the EU countries to be cautious about permitting more to enter. Europe already struggles with high unemployment, a condition that leads anti- immigration policies to become mainstream. Also, because many Muslims are not integrated into society but instead are hostile to their host country, the climate gives rise to new center-right parties as has happened in France, Denmark, and Sweden, and this phenomenon will gradually spread to all European countries.
Europe has an immigration problem as it is by fear of terrorism itself. Currently immigrants who live in Europe already have assimilation problem, not wanting to assimilate or integrate into the European cultures. Indeed, as mentioned, they are openly hostile to their host countries, so adding more immigrants will only exacerbate the problem and cause more headaches for the European countries. According to the Pew Research Center, Germany, France, and the Netherlands have the largest Muslim population among the European countries. Approximately 4. 8 million Muslims live in Germany with the majority of them coming from Turkey, and 4.7 million live in France. The majority of Turkish immigrants do not want to integrate into German culture and society but instead want the German population to adopt their way of life. The majority of the immigrants in France come from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. In the UK the majority are from India and Pakistan. In addition, the Muslim populations in Europe are younger than other Europeans, and with more than 13 million Muslim immigrants living in European countries the face of Europe has changed dramatically.
Many Muslims always claim that Islam is a religion of peace and harmony, but the problem with that position is that Muslims do not have any record or evidence of living in harmony, caring for each other, or providing any solutions to their problems. Even the Ottoman Empire forced other faiths to convert or pay heavy taxes. Political Islam always produces empty statements. It is time for Muslims to stop using hollow rhetoric and show some action. It is time for Muslims to focus on where they are going ultimately and not on others as their opponents because many Muslims cannot speculate who is going where in the next life. For them, it is Allah’s business to decide who is going to heaven or hell. Political correctness has poisoned the minds of educated Westerners to be self-destructive for fear of being labeled as a right wing zealot, a racist or a xenophobe. Europe ‘s multiculturalism has shown to be a failed sociological experiment. The reason many Muslims do not want to integrate into the host cultures is because they believe that Islam is the truth and that everything else leads down a derailed path that will ultimately lead to surrender. Therefore, they embrace Islam as the only way to success in this life. Most Muslims who live in Western countries or in the United States do not want to be friendly with anyone other than Muslims. They isolate themselves in their own society, living in enclaves, and not associating with non-Muslims, but instead adhering to their own practices and laws.
I have a hard time understanding why many Muslims are leaving repressive home countries where most of the people practice their beliefs and why they want to immigrate to western infidel nations that they deem too decadent, yet they criticize the host countries’ clothing and culture, not wanting to adopt anything from them. Now, Muslims are challenging Western Civilization via immigration, democracy, and human rights. Western ideas of liberalism will ultimate put an end to Western civilization, because many Muslims are shifting the definition of cultural integration by relying on the political liberality of western society. For example, we have heard the news about Muslims from Europe traveling to Turkey to go to Syria to join ISIS to fight against their host nation. Europe should recognize the facts that religions have played an important role in the development of humanity. Mankind has always used and appropriated religion for its own interests. Multiculturalism may, like Utopia, be elusive.
The immigration challenge is not going to go way any time soon. Consequently, the immigration problem should be solved in the countries of origin. So far, however, the European response has focused on enforcement and crackdown on traffickers or stopping boats carrying migrants and returning the refuge seekers to their points of origin. This kind of approach shows that the EU does not know how to respond to the crisis, ignores the real causes of migrations, and jeopardizes millions of people who are seeking better lives in Europe. Europe has generally been a champion of universal human rights, but if Europe fails to address the refugee problem, then it will not be Europe, as such, anymore.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
