Something strange happened in Europe's election campaigns this year. In France and Germany, Holland and Sweden the subject uppermost on many people's minds -- immigration -- was either ignored or exaggerated. Established parties seem almost to have an unwritten pact to play down the significance of immigration.
"We must keep this sensitive subject out of the campaign" seemed to be the prevailing attitude, as if the period of heightened political awareness that elections provide should not be used to debate serious controversies. As a result, fringe parties stepped in with slogans about countries being "swamped" by immigrants and the need to preserve the "purity" of nations. Can one blame voters for being suspicious of the silence of the political majority, and even for being taken in by the fringe's blustering?
It is high time -- indeed, past time -- for those who believe in liberal and enlightened political discourse to present their case. Some home truths about the migration of people need to be remembered and the necessary consequences drawn. Here are five such truths, or at any rate, five issues for debate:
First, emigration is no fun. As a rule, people do not leave their homes on a whim or out of adventurousness. Typically, they want to escape conditions of hopelessness, as many Europeans did when they left their homes in the 19th and 20th centuries, usually for the US. Whether migrants are responding to political oppression or economic destitution, it is important to understand that the price they are prepared to pay is as high as the push to leave is strong.
Second, immigration is a great compliment to those countries that migrants choose as their final destination. The answer to the question, "Where do we go if we have to leave?" is not usually China or some African country, nor is it any longer much of Latin America. Countries that are magnets for migrants tend to be rich and free. Canada has become a dream for many, but so are the countries of Europe. They should be proud -- and a little humble -- about their magnetic quality, as the US was for a long time.
Third, it is misleading to argue for a certain amount of immigration in terms of the need to fill certain high-tech or other positions. Gaining a few Indian computer specialists is a bad reason for allowing "green card" access, if only because such migrants are likely to remain a tiny minority of newcomers.
Rich countries need immigrants nowadays in order to fill the jobs that Adair Turner, in his book Just Capital, calls "high-touch" jobs. Getting your hands dirty is what most people in rich countries no longer want to do. From restaurant kitchens to care for the elderly, from harvesting cotton to laboring on building sites, people in rich countries want to consume services that they are no longer willing to provide themselves. It may not be dignified to expect immigrant workers to do these "dirty" jobs, but to these workers such jobs offer a step on the ladder of hope as they help to keep advanced economies and societies functioning.
Fourth, no one has yet thought through the full implications of today's demographic and attendant social changes, but the fact is that without immigrants the welfare state in advanced countries will become unaffordable. This is not pleasant to say. Using migrants to provide for the needs of natives, but without letting the migrants share all the benefits, is morally unattractive. There may be ways to mitigate the result, but without immigration social benefits across Europe will have to be reduced massively within a generation.
Fifth, immigration can be treated either as a step towards the full integration of migrants, or as a transitional phase in their lives. Both possibilities need to be on offer, but there is a lot to be said for the second. Italians (and later Turks) who worked in Northern Europe and then returned home with sufficient assets to start small businesses made a double contribution; they helped their host countries and then helped their home countries.
The fact that countries can be turned around is a reason for hope. Portugal, and above all Ireland, are prime examples. For more than a century, Ireland was an emigration country par excellence. Now Ireland is so prosperous that it attracts immigrants even from Britain. This is not the only way forward. Integration of immigrants makes much sense; but it is desirable to help create sustainable conditions in troubled countries with the help of a generation of emigrants who first transfer resources and then return themselves.
Many consequences follow from such home truths about immigration, not least a more rational debate. Viewed from the perspective such truths provide, the EU's eastward enlargement, for example, is highly desirable not despite but because it may lead to migration from the new member states to the old. In this way, more Portugals and Irelands can be created as the wealth of already prosperous regions is sustained.
Ralf Dahrendorf, the author of numerous acclaimed books, is a member of the British House of Lords, a former rector of the London School of Economics and also a former warden of St. Anthony's College, Oxford. Copyright: Project Syndicate and Institute for Human Sciences
The recent passing of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known to many as “Big S,” due to influenza-induced pneumonia at just 48 years old is a devastating reminder that the flu is not just a seasonal nuisance — it is a serious and potentially fatal illness. Hsu, a beloved actress and cultural icon who shaped the memories of many growing up in Taiwan, should not have died from a preventable disease. Yet her death is part of a larger trend that Taiwan has ignored for too long — our collective underestimation of the flu and our low uptake of the
For Taipei, last year was a particularly dangerous period, with China stepping up coercive pressures on Taiwan amid signs of US President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which eventually led his Democratic Party to force him to abandon his re-election campaign. The political drift in the US bred uncertainty in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region about American strategic commitment and resolve. With America deeply involved in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the last thing Washington wanted was a Taiwan Strait contingency, which is why Biden invested in personal diplomacy with China’s dictator Xi Jinping (習近平). The return of
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known affectionately as “Big S,” recently passed away from pneumonia caused by the flu. The Mandarin word for the flu — which translates to “epidemic cold” in English — is misleading. Although the flu tends to spread rapidly and shares similar symptoms with the common cold, its name easily leads people to underestimate its dangers and delay seeking medical treatment. The flu is an acute viral respiratory illness, and there are vaccines to prevent its spread and strengthen immunity. This being the case, the Mandarin word for “influenza” used in Taiwan should be renamed from the misleading
Following a YouTuber’s warning that tens of thousands of Taiwanese have Chinese IDs, the government launched a nationwide probe and announced that it has revoked the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship of three Taiwanese who have Chinese IDs. Taiwanese rapper Pa Chiung (八炯) and YouTuber Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in December last year released a documentary showing conversations with Chinese “united front” related agency members and warned that there were 100,000 Taiwanese holding Chinese IDs. In the video, a Taiwanese named Lin Jincheng (林金城), who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan and has become the head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park