At the same time, this is only the beginning of the crisis, because the conditions inciting people to flee their homelands will only worsen. And the EU, many of whose members have the world’s largest and best-equipped welfare systems, appears to be overwhelmed by it — politically, morally, and administratively.
This paralysis creates a significant risk for the EU. No one seriously believes that individual member states — particularly Italy and Greece, the two countries most affected — can overcome the long-term challenges posed by large-scale migration on their own. But many member states reject a common European effort, a stance that threatens to accelerate the erosion of solidarity within the EU and reinforce the current trend toward disintegration. — Joschka Fischer
Joschka Fischer was German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005. He later was a founder of the Green Party in Germany. So, he used to be inside the system; now he is on the fringes.
He is describing the breakdown of the European Union. He is also describing the breakdown of the post-World War II European welfare states.
Both are doomed. Europe will be hit by millions of immigrants from failed Middle Eastern states over the next few years. They will cash in on the entire welfare system, from free education to free medical care. They will be low-productivity workers, unable to speak the local languages, poorly educated, and living in ghettos with their TV satellite dishes pointed at Middle Eastern networks. We have seen this in France. We will see it across Europe. I say “we” figuratively. Americans will not see this. Europeans will.
The tsunami of mass immigration has not yet hit. It will next spring. Millions have made it into Europe. Millions more will make the move while it is still easy. The razor wire fences are up only in Hungary.
It will ramp up again next spring.
Europeans thought they could vote themselves economic security by taxing the rich. Now they have become the rich, and their welfare systems will all go bankrupt under the weight of failed-state masses. It all looked so easy after World War II. Just vote yourself lifetime security. Surprise, surprise! The chickens are coming home to roost. . . by the millions.
These low-tax and no-tax immigrants have mouths to feed, bodies to house, and young minds to educate. They cannot get certified in the certification-mad societies of Europe. They will not get into the trade unions of the guild-dominated mercantilist states of Europe.
But, being liberals, most Europeans will not ask them to feed, house, and educate themselves. That would be — you know — Thatcherism. So, their governments will run massive deficits, funded by the European Central Bank. Europe is not only guild-ridden; it is guilt-ridden. They have believed in the ethics of voting yourself into security. In 25 years, they will no longer have the votes. The children of the immigrants will be the swing voters. It may take less than 25 years.
