IMMIGRATION thread

[HopAlongBunny]

Germany, and some other EU countries are, in fact, looking on the refugees as economic saviours.

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...comes-refugees

An aging population needs to be supported.

[Greyblades]

If germany has the jobs to support the refugees and the patience to assimilate them, then more power to them. Just don't come crying to us if you take in more than you can employ and end up swelling the homeless/ criminal population.

[Viking]

Would you care to give us your definition then or are you just against the current one?

I don't have an exact definition I'd like to see be the dominant one, but the current use strikes me as having a tendency of stretching it too far. If a refugee can remain a refugee as long as they don't have legal asylum anywhere and their home country is dangerous, then the term can become rather silly and redundant in many contexts.

Another possible way to look at it is to observe a distinction between a technical/legal version of the term and an informal version, where the the informal version should be reserved for more acute and obvious cases.

Germany, and some other EU countries are, in fact, looking on the refugees as economic saviours.

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...comes-refugees

An aging population needs to be supported.

Population growth is not sustainable in the long run; at some point it has to stop (literally, otherwise the Earth would eventually collapse into a degenerate stellar body, and ultimately into a black hole).

It's not unnatural that population growth is followed by population decline, so they might just be pushing an inevitable future further ahead.

[wooly_mammoth]

I don't understand this part with Germany needing refugees from the middle east to support the economy and aging population. There's already plenty of young people in Europe that could do that. For example, unemployment of young people is a big problem in Romania and as far as I know also in Spain, possibly other countries as well. Why weren't these Europeans good for the same purpose for which the guys from the middle east seem to be?

Edit: and hooray for me for the 137th post!

[Husar]

I don't have an exact definition I'd like to see be the dominant one, but the current use strikes me as having a tendency of stretching it too far. If a refugee can remain a refugee as long as they don't have legal asylum anywhere and their home country is dangerous, then the term can become rather silly and redundant in many contexts.

Isn't a refugee someone forced to seek refuge? And why is that definition silly? If you say it is silly, it would help if you explain why.

Another possible way to look at it is to observe a distinction between a technical/legal version of the term and an informal version, where the the informal version should be reserved for more acute and obvious cases.

How would the informal version help with anything if the legal one stays the same?

Population growth is not sustainable in the long run; at some point it has to stop (literally, otherwise the Earth would eventually collapse into a degenerate stellar body, and ultimately into a black hole).

It's not unnatural that population growth is followed by population decline, so they might just be pushing an inevitable future further ahead.

You forget that we can expand to New Berlin on Mars.
Population decline would help with a lot of issues though, such as pollution etc.
It's just that noone sees this and many have previously claimed that the planet could house a whole lot more humans.
It also seems counter-productive for any country by itself to reduce the population.

I don't understand this part with Germany needing refugees from the middle east to support the economy and aging population. There's already plenty of young people in Europe that could do that. For example, unemployment of young people is a big problem in Romania and as far as I know also in Spain, possibly other countries as well. Why weren't these Europeans good for the same purpose for which the guys from the middle east seem to be?

Are you in favor of a new EU law that forces people to move if they can't find work or are you suggesting we spark a civil war in Spain?

[wooly_mammoth]

Don't be ridiculous. It's just that I didn't hear the "feel free to come & work in Germany if you can't find a job since we need workers and population growth bonus" rhetoric being applied to EU citizens, that's why I was asking.

[Fragony]

Gets even worse, the ultra-undemocratic liberal alliance wants to deny member-states that don't bend over tne right to vote over EU matters. More and more is the EU becomming it's real form

[Husar]

Don't be ridiculous. It's just that I didn't hear the "feel free to come & work in Germany if you can't find a job since we need workers and population growth bonus" rhetoric being applied to EU citizens, that's why I was asking.

Maybe I read it as more sarcastic than it was meant to be, my apologies.
But there are already programs in Germany for young people, especially students, of other European countries who want to work in Germany. There are actually young people from Spain who did or do that, but I would assume not all actually want to leave their country, family, friends, learn a new language, etc. just to get a job.

[Fragony]

Immigrants/Guest workers from Southern Europe are a bargain, they are well educated, speak perfect English, and highly qualified. That's not true for the majority of the 'refugees' though. Even if they are highly educated, our standards are much higher.