The Refugees Crisis Imperils European Union
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
The independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 was marred by religious and ethnic frenzy, leading to the massacre of an estimated one million people and the displacement of 14 million more. Alan Campbell-Johnson, who served as Lord Mountbatten’s press attaché during the dark days that preceded and followed the partition of India, saw at first-hand groups of desperate refugees streaming across the new borders. In his book, Mission with Mountbatten, he noted, “As we approached the Ravi, we had our first aerial vision of the scale of this desperate exodus. We were looking down on one of the greatest movement of population in recorded history and then only on a small segment of it.”
The world had not witnessed another tragedy on par with the great Indian refugee migration until now. The five-year long Syrian civil war, however, has forced millions of desperate people, men, women, and children, to leave their homes and seek refuge in other countries. According to conservative estimates, nearly 250,000 Syrians have been killed in the ongoing brutal conflict and another five millions driven out of their homes, while some of the country’s most treasured historic sites are in ruins. As of this writing, a fragile ceasefire is in effect in Syria, raising some optimism that the long nightmare may at last be ending.
What started as a popular revolt against the regime of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad degenerated into a bloody sectarian war involving a complex brew of combatants, Shias, Sunnis, Alawites and Kurds. In addition, America, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all taken sides in the civil war, adding to the misery of the populace. Th e Syrian Government is reported to have dropped highly damaging cluster bombs and used chemical weapons against its own people. The rebels have been no less forgiving and have lobbed murderous rockets at civilian populations.
As life grew unbearable in their own countries, many Syrians fled the country. Jordan, a small country with modest resources, has taken nearly one million refugees. Another million have fled to Lebanon. By far the largest number, two million, have been hosted by Turkey. Significantly, some of the richest Arab countries--Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait--have not accepted a significant number of the refugees.
President Obama’s attempts to accept a limited number of refugees have been stifled mainly by the Republicans in the US. They have raised the specter of terrorism, suggesting that terrorists disguised as refugees will sneak into the country, even though all potential migrants have been thoroughly vetted by various intelligence agencies. Donald Trump, the frontrunner for Republican Party’s nomination, has gone as far as to suggest that if elected he would entirely ban the entry of all Muslims into the country!
The tragedy unfolding in the Middle East is critically impacting the European Union (EU). The aspiration of most asylum seekers is to settle in Germany, Sweden or Britain, where they hope to build a better future and take advantage of generous social benefits. There is no legal, safe, and orderly way for them to reach Europe. From Turkey, the migrants--which now include Iraqis, Afghans and even some Pakistanis, seeking employment opportunities--are ferried across the Aegean Sea by smugglers, using fragile rubber dinghies or wooden boats that are unseaworthy. Many families with children have drowned as they could not be saved by rescue ships sent by the Italian and Greek Governments. At least 4,000 drowned last year while trying to enter Europe, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In excess of one million, however, did cross into Europe safely last year.
The enormity of the refugee problem has caused a crisis situation in Europe. Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Markel, has been most generous in welcoming the migrants and her country has accepted more than a million so far. Sweden and Hungary are the other countries that have accepted a large number, relative to their size. However, France has taken only a few hundred and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has promised to take 10,000 refugees in the next five years, but so far only 1,000 have arrived.
European countries greatly differ in their economic and industrial strengths and demographics. Germany, for example, is the continent’s ‘industrial powerhouse, with a robust economy, but an aging population. It needs manpower to support its dynamic industrial base and social structure. France, in contrast, has a high unemployment rate and no shortage of manpower. Also, almost 10 percent of its population is Muslim, drawn from North Africa, which has not been successfully assimilated. Communal tensions were exacerbated by the terrorist attacks last November in Paris in which 130 people were killed by assassins of North-African descent. There is, understandably, no appetite for bringing in additional Muslim migrants.
The infusion of a large number of people with a different religion, culture, and language would create problems in any country, but there are also issues unique to migrants. Until last year, most of them were young single men, unaccustomed to the freedom that women enjoy in the Western societies. An ugly incident in Cologne, Germany, during New Year’s Eve celebrations in which some migrants were accused by German women of molestation and sexual harassment has generated much bitterness against them.
The European Union, a social and economic amalgamation of 28 nations founded in 1993, comprises countries with disparate languages, financial status, culture, and history. Under the treaty of Schengen signed in 1985, EU countries agreed to have open borders and free movement across them. Some twenty-five years ago, no one foresaw the problem--a massive migrant influx--the EU is facing today and that threatens the free flow of people across national borders.
Different countries have adopted varying strategies to cope with the problem of unrestricted admission of migrants once they cross at any point in Europe. Some countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Austria, Hungary and Poland are now strongly opposed to taking migrants. The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, is quoted as lamenting that “Europe was defenseless and weak in stopping an Islamic invasion.” They blame Greece, the entry point in Europe, for doing little in stemming the flow of new migrants. At this writing, more than 30,000 asylum seekers are stranded in Greece, a country hardly able to feed its own people, under squalid living conditions as Macedonia has closed its boarder, denying them access to Germany and countries further north.” Under a recent agreement, Turkey has agreed to stem the flow of refugees to Greece, and has taken some back mostly Pakistani who had earlier entered Europe illegally.
Apart from the cost of absorption of so many Muslim refugees, a long-term problem of equal or greater magnitude would be their assimilation and acculturation into European societies. Past experience has shown that immigrants tend to cluster and insulate themselves from the host societies and retain their own culture and traditions for generations. Unless the migrants are willingness to adapt to the new culture and traditions, a permanent division between immigrants and the local population is likely to result, much as we are witnessing in France today.
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