By Tsjalline Boorsma
UCR Class of 2016
“Do you want, in this city and in the country, more or less Moroccans?” Dutch Freedom Party’s leader Geert Wilders asked his followers. “Less! Less! Less!” shouted the crowd. This incident of anti-immigrant sentiment shocked many in The Netherlands and led to over 15,000 complaints of discrimination at the Dutch police offices. Nevertheless, there are many Dutch people who still argue that there should be fewer immigrants allowed in the Netherlands.
This fear or hate against immigrants is a trend that can be witnessed in many European countries. Populist parties make use of this fear by emphasizing the “problem of immigrants”. Such parties are gaining votes in many countries in Europe. Think of “Golden Dawn” in Greece, the party that established a poor people’s kitchen in Athens that only supplied food for Greek citizens. Or the French party “Front National” in France, which published supposedly frightening posters, urging people to vote, “to stop all this”, accompanied with pictures of a veiled woman and a mosque. Then there is also the German part, the National Democratic Party, the neo-Nazi party that sent contraceptives to parliamentarians in September, with the slogan: “For foreigners and certain Germans”. German chancellor Angela Merkel has said that multiculturalism has failed.
So why is it that hate against immigrants in Europe is so widespread?
A much heard arguments is that immigrants are “taking our jobs”. Many of the critics of the immigrant community are wary of the possibility of having their social welfare system used by unemployed immigrants. The idea that immigrants have come to Europe to profit off of the hard work of other Europeans by making use of social welfare is widespread. Some people fear change, by means of the arrival of different cultures in their country, but the opinions regarding immigrants presence in the work force are difficult to understand, as immigrants cannot in every instance both be taking jobs and profit off of social welfare.
The international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
provides some statistics that indeed show that immigrants suffer more unemployment than European native residents, especially since the start of the economic crisis: “In Spain, Greece and Estonia, immigrant unemployment increased by 20, 14 and 11 percentage points between 2007 and 2011 whereas that of the native-born increased by 12, 9 and 8 percentage points. In 2011, in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Sweden, the unemployment rate of immigrants was above 15%. It was close to 22% and 32% in Greece and Spain, respectively. The unemployment rate was more than twice the level observed for the native-born population in Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark” (OECD Factbook 2013).
However, the high unemployment among immigrants is not caused by their unwillingness to work, but because immigrants are working in sectors that suffered most from the economic crisis, such as the construction, manufacturing, retail trade and financial sectors. Another reason is that immigrants are more likely to do informal jobs, which are not registered as part of the country’s labor force.
I was enlightened on this topic by Dr. Rob van der Vaart during the lecture “EU in crisis” organized by the Geography Society on the 10th of April. Van der Vaart explained the necessity of immigrants in Europe with his argument. He said we are in need of new people, as the proportion of elderly people in Europe is increasing while the amount of people of working age is decreasing. There will be a shortage in the European labor force, unless other people can come to work in Europe.
The topic of immigration is a very complicated one, and it will probably become even more important in the future. While on one hand, hate against immigrants is widespread and European countries are closing their borders, on the other hand social scientists assert that Europe actually needs more immigrants to survive in the current global economy. Europe has a decision to make, and it will be a difficult one, as either way a large portion of the population will inevitably disagree with it.
Like Peter Sutherland, Chair of the London School of Economics says: “Migration reform is not for the faint-hearted. But those who want to leave their mark on one of the twenty-first century’s most vital issues – and to create a world in which international migrants are treated equitably and with dignity – will embrace it.”
Tsjalline Boorsma, class of 2016, is a Philosophy and Anthropology major from Groningen, the Netherlands.
