Monday, April 12, 2004

The floodgates on immigration are going up.

Immigration is a tricky subject. On the one hand you want to help the poorer peoples of the planet and on the other you have a responsibility to your citizens to provide for them. A large influx of immigrants can put a burden on a country's medical, legal, school and benefits system. But then you can argue that the people seeking asylum do not have any of those basic systems at all. So, as charitable nations we take them in and let our services suffer - to a point it would seem.

Here is an article from The Washington Times reporting on the Netherlands plan to deport 26,000 immigrants. I am not sure if you have to subscribe or not but subscriptions are usually free.

The Netherlands, once one of Europe's most open countries, is undergoing a fundamental shift that will turn away immigrants by the tens of thousands.
Virtually every European government is cracking down, but none as fiercely as the Dutch. Its parliament adopted in February a one-time measure to deport 26,000 rejected asylum seekers, and the government is preparing to open "expulsion centers" this spring where entire families will be detained pending deportation.


Are the Dutch are wrong to do this? Here is why they are worried.

The Netherlands is one of the most densely packed countries on Earth. Its 3 million first- or second-generation immigrants are 19 percent of the 16 million inhabitants — nearly twice the proportion in neighboring Germany.
Cities such as Rotterdam are one-third immigrant, and studies say that figure will rise to 50 percent by 2017.


What happens if the figure goes over 50% and the "new" Dutch start voting to change the national image? Immigration laws could be scrapped and the figureacceleratess to 90%. Now laws are enacted banning movies, music and the Koran becomes the source of law. But it could be a bloody road before it gets that far.

The parameters of the debate were transformed by the 2002 election campaign, when maverick politician Pim Fortuyn voiced an opinion many shared but were too timid to say out loud: There's no room for more immigrants.
Mr. Fortuyn was assassinated nine days before the election, but his ideas resonated among Dutch who feel the high taxes they pay for their social safety net shouldn't be spent on immigrants. Mr. Fortuyn's party won 10 percent of the vote and a place in a coalition government, where its ideas were co-opted by mainstream parties.


In the wake of the immigration scandal here in Britain, many here are feeling the same as the Dutch. The strain on social services, threat of losing national identity and security from terrorism are starting to outweigh charity.

Britain is considering accelerating asylum decisions and deportations, limiting appeal rights, and allowing the state to take custody of the children of failed refugees who refuse to leave.

But nations ability to do something about it may be limited.

He predicts that it is just a matter of time before the Dutch state is hauled before the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings are binding on European countries, including the Netherlands.

But where in all of this is the crux of the problem addressed? Why are there so many "asylum" seekers? Just read the news about all the despots around the world. Millions are fleeing repressive regimes and Islamic terrorism.

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