Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
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.

Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
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?

Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
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.

Quote Originally Posted by wooly_mammoth View Post
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?