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Immigration: Another 20m Invitations?
The European Commission is studying proposals to bring another 20 million economic immigrants from Africa and Asia over the next two decades.
Currently, there are 18 million non-EU residents in the European Union: The new proposals, if enacted, could more than double this. Europe, the Commission said, "has to compete against Australia, Canada, the USA and the rising powers in Asia.”
In a brilliant stroke of EU Newspeak, the Commission proposes to drop the word "immigration" with its "dark associations" from the discourse and replace it with "mobility."
Of course, the European Commission has no power (yet) to enforce immigration policy for the entire EU. However, a unified immigration policy is high on the wish-list, and the proposals under considering are among the first glimpse we've had of what such an EU-wide policy might look like.
The scheme, the Telegraph says, is based on the US system of Green Cards, though Eurocrats have named it a "Blue EU Labour Card" scheme. Qualified immigrants would be allowed to live and work in a EU nation for two years, initially. After being resident in one for five consecutive years, they would have the right to live anywhere in the EU.
EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini outlined the proposals yesterday. He argued that Europe needed more workers because of falling populations, but he said that immigration should be more "targeted" to ensure the best people are welcomed while illegal immigrants are deterred.
"We have to look at immigration as an enrichment and as an inescapable phenomenon of today's world, not as a threat," he said,
"We should take more account of what statistics tell us: 85 per cent of unskilled labour goes to the EU and only five per cent to the USA, whereas 55 per cent of skilled labour goes to the USA and only five per cent to the EU. We have to reverse these figures with a new vision."
He added that all skill levels were required.
While many governments admit privately the need for higher levels of immigration to balance ageing populations and sustain growth, it is unlikely that the Commissioner's proposals will be warmly welcomed in government offices. Voters object to handing over control of their borders and immigration is a sensitive political issue.
Germany is reported to have rejected the proposals already, arguing that it cannot take in massive numbers of workers to fulfil current needs, particularly as it has unemployment among its own citizens running at 9 percent.
Governments have regularly used the EU as an excuse for enacting unpopular legislation. French ministers in particular have shrugged their shoulders and told citizens that the liberalising measures they've introduced were part of the cost of EU membership, which accounts for some of the strong anti-EU feeling in that country.
Cuts designed to ease the birth of the single currency were one thing: Bringing in 20 million immigrants could be more costly politically.
Britain is implementing a points-based system as of next year. Few would object to inviting those remaining Korean computer geniuses and Indian software entrepreneurs who haven't gone to California to come to live in Europe, but would they want to migrate to Poland? And are there really 20 million of them? Voters will be concerned that as well as those who will produce gains for the economy, no amount of well-meaning points systems will stop those who would be a net drain: And no-one, as yet, has come up with a means of either barricading the doors or ejecting unwanted migrants that doesn't offend human rights watchdogs.
For example, this week Nicolas Sarkozy's government in France announced plans for DNA testing for migrant families. France is also considering a points system for immigrants, but is worried that even this is open to abuse by those bringing "families" with them. A French senator claims that in "African countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo, between 30% and 80% of birth and marriage certificates were forged." While the tests will not be compulsory, migrants with dodgy documents will be responsible for the cost themselves and some fear they will be turned away if they elect not to have them.
Opposition groups have reacted furiously - tests in France are generally only allowed after a magistrate's order, and there are fears that a DNA database of immigrants could be developed. Welfare groups oppose the move, while others worry that it could damage French links with other nations.
