Australia admits more migrants than any other big Western country

Date: 06-10-2017
Source: The Economist
Subject: Almost one in three

And Australians still like them

“THE prime reason for the decline in living standards for many Australian workers is our staggering population growth,” thunders Dick Smith, a campaigning millionaire, in an apocalyptic manifesto. He is right about the staggering growth. The number of children the average Australian woman has fell below two in the 1970s and has stayed there. Yet since then Australia’s population has grown by 70%, thanks almost entirely to immigration. Over 28% of today’s residents were born overseas—a higher share than in Canada or New Zealand, let alone Britain or America (see chart 1). The number of newcomers continues to grow. Net overseas migration (a measure of immigrants minus departing Aussies) has nearly doubled since 2000.

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Why the Shadow of the 2015 Migration Crisis Still Hangs Over Europe

Date: 02-10-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal

French President Macron’s speech and success of anti-immigration party in German elections show security is priority for EU

France’s Emmanuel Macron proposed a far-reaching agenda to secure the EU’s external borders.

In the eyes of some, Emmanuel Macron flunked it.

When the French president last week delivered a marathon speech outlining his vision of the European Union, many economists hoped this would include a radical plan for deeper eurozone fiscal integration.

Indeed, the expectation was that this would form the core of his speech. Yet Mr. Macron didn’t say anything about pooling eurozone debts and had little to say on the creation of a common eurozone budget. Instead, the most eye-catching parts of his speech concerned security and defense, where he proposed a far-reaching agenda to secure the EU’s external borders, stabilize its neighborhood and establish a European Defence Force to be funded by a new tax on financial transactions.

But Mr. Macon’s choice of priorities shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It isn’t just that the chances of the EU reaching an agreement on fiscal integration look remote given opposition from several Northern European countries, not just Germany.

Redefining Europe, and Europeans

Carl Bildt

Carl Bildt was Sweden’s foreign minister from 2006 to October 2014 and Prime Minister from 1991 to 1994, when he negotiated Sweden’s EU accession. A renowned international diplomat, he served as EU Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN Special Envoy to the Balkans, and Co-Chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference. He is Chair of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Europe.

Sep 18, 2017 Carl Bildt, Project Syndicate

For Europe to find its place in a rapidly changing world, its citizens will have to look beyond the nation-state as their sole source of personal identity. There are few “first nations” left in the world today – and that is a welcome development.

LEIPZIG – Traveling through Germany in the run-up to its federal election on September 24, one cannot help but be struck by the lingering signs of profound trauma from the 2015 refugee crisis.

Suddenly and virtually without warning, nearly a million desperate people – mostly Syrians fleeing the carnage in their homeland – flocked to Germany. And while Germany may be Europe’s most bureaucratically well-managed country, even it was overwhelmed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s response to the crisis two years ago was to throw out the rulebook and open her country’s borders. She famously told the German people, “Wir schaffen das” (We can do it).

Einwanderung: „Die jungen Afrikaner kommen. So oder so“

Date: 08-09-2017
Source: SPIEGEL

Zäune hin, Hilfen her – Migration aus Afrika lässt sich nicht aufhalten, sagt der Ökonom Michael A. Clemens. Er sieht das als Riesenchance – und nennt Beispiele.

Michael A. Clemens, 45, ist Ökonom und Migrationsforscher am Center for Global Development in der US-Hauptstadt Washington. Bis zum Jahr 2000 arbeitete er bei der Weltbank, promoviert wurde er 2002 an der Universität Harvard. 2013 erhielt er den Preis der britischen Royal Economic Society für seine Arbeit zu Entwicklungshilfe und Wachstum. Clemens ist auch bei Twitter

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Die Bundesregierung plant, das Wachstum in Afrika zu fördern. Das Versprechen lautet, dass dann weniger Afrikaner nach Europa kommen. Was halten Sie davon?

Michael Clemens: Wenn erzählt wird, Mali, Niger oder der Senegal ließen sich in Kürze so entwickeln, dass die Leute von dort nicht mehr fortgehen, kann ich sagen: Das ist nicht möglich. Vielmehr ist es umgekehrt: Es passiert genau das Gegenteil.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Verbessert sich das Leben in Afrika, dann kommen mehr statt weniger Migranten?

Clemens: Ja, ganz sicher. Wenn ein armes Land zu einem Land mit mittlerem Einkommen wird, nimmt die Auswanderung stark zu, nicht ab. Und zwar nicht nur ein bisschen, sie verdreifacht sich.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Warum?

Stemming the Flow: Why Europe’s Migrant Strategy Is an Illusion

Date: 07-09-2017
Source: SPIEGEL

Europe hopes that the fates of African migrants will soon be decided at facilities in Chad or Niger. It is a wonderful idea, but also a misleading illusion. In truth, Europe’s primary focus is on shutting down the Mediterranean route.

Jonathan Obote’s voice drops to a whisper when he describes what it’s like to live in a prison in Garabulli, Libya. He lives in a cell with 60 others, penned in like an animal, he says in a moment when the guards aren’t paying attention. He sleeps on the ground, he says, is beaten by the guards and often goes hungry.

Not long ago, Obote, a thin 23-year-old Nigerian with a young face but tired eyes, was working with his brother on a construction site in Tripoli hoping to earn enough money to continue his journey to Europe. But then, half a year ago, men wearing masks dragged him from his apartment and took him to Garabulli, near Tripoli, a launching point for refugee boats bound for Italy.

Der Brexit war die beste Werbung für die EU

Die plötzliche Rückkehr der Europa-Euphorie

Von Klaus Geiger | 6.9.2017 Stand: 05:04 Uhr |welt.de

Seit fast einem Jahrzehnt ist die EU in der Krise. Nie war ihr Image schlechter, nie das Misstrauen größer. Nun aber, zeigen Studien, steigt die Zustimmung zur EU sprunghaft. Außer in einem Land.

Am Beginn von Europas jahrelanger Doppelkrise stand eine erschütternde Entdeckung. Es war im Oktober 2009, als die Euro-Zone erfuhr, dass Griechenland wohl neue Schulden in Höhe von 13 Prozent seiner Wirtschaftsleistung machen würde – statt der angepeilten knapp vier Prozent. Die EU stürzte in die Euro-Krise. Ein Desaster, das nahtlos überging in die Migrationskrise.

Das führte zu Kosten in Milliardenhöhe, politischem Streit – und zu einem einmaligen Vertrauensverlust der EU. Die Umfragen waren eindeutig: Die Zustimmung zur Europäischen Union sank drastisch. Ein tiefes Misstrauen, das im Juni 2016 im Votum der Briten für einen Austritt aus der EU gipfelte.

Soviel zu einem falschen Flüchtlingsbild …

… wenn sich so eine grossartige Organisation wie „Way of Hope“ darum bemüht ! (hfk)

Von allen Flüchtlingen, die WAY of HOPE – Flüchtlingshilfe Weiz in den letzten 3 Jahren betreut hat, haben 66 einen Bescheid bekommen. 19 davon haben sich in Weiz angesiedelt, darunter 5 Familien. Von den 19 haben alle eine Arbeit gefunden, was hauptsächlich das Verdienst der exzellenten Arbeit von DLG (Dienstleistungsgesellschaft der Region Weiz) und AMS Weiz ist.

In all diesen 3 Jahren gab es keinen einzigen kriminellen Vorfall.
Laut AMS konnten sogar alle 40 anerkannten Flüchtlinge aus dem Bereich des AMS Weiz vermittelt werden.
Das ist natürlich nur ein kleines Beispiel.
In Österreich gibt es aber mit Sicherheit viele solcher Orte, wo auch derart positive Erfahrungen gemacht werden.

Why are fewer irregular migrants arriving in Italy?

Date: 28-08-2017
Source: The Economist

The number of people making the dangerous crossing via the central Mediterranean is falling

RECENT weeks have seen an abrupt shift in the pattern of irregular migration in the Mediterranean. A deal last year between the European Union and Turkey all but sealed the eastern sea route to Greece. Italy then received the lion’s share of arrivals, with more than 100,000 people entering the EU in 2016 from the south, most having set off from Libya. Now that route appears to have been disrupted too. Arrivals in July were down more than 50% on last year. The fall this month looks as if it will be even steeper: by August 22nd, 2,745 migrants had landed without authorisation in Italy, compared with 21,294 in the whole of August last year. The number of arrivals in Spain, however, is rising: on August 16th, more than 600 migrants were rescued—the highest one-day figure since 2014. What is going on?

Various explanations have been offered. The EU’s border control agency, Frontex, has pointed to changeable weather, increased activity by the Libyan coastguard and violence in Libyan city of Sabratha, lately the main centre for migrant smuggling. Others have cited Italy’s tougher controls. The government has provided equipment for and trained the Libyan coastguard, as well as deploying its own naval vessels in support. It has offered funding to tribes in southern Libya to block the flow of economic migrants and political refugees. And it has imposed restrictions on NGOs carrying out search-and-rescue operations off the Libyan coast.

Date: 31-07-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Subject: Brexit Cited As Fewer EU Citizens Seek Work in U.K.

Some industries concerned that labor shortages could crimp expansion plans and slow economy

About 40% of the 150 employees at Colpac, a food-packaging business in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, are from other EU countries.

FLITWICK, England— Neil Goldman, who employs workers from across the European Union’s in his food-packaging business, blames the U.K.’s Brexit vote last year for making vacancies harder to fill.

Britain has for years been a magnet for European job seekers drawn by decent wages, the English language, and plentiful openings in the country’s easy-to-hire economy. That attraction now appears to be waning as a consequence of its vote to leave the EU, as well as accelerating growth in the eurozone.

In industries as diverse as agriculture, health care and manufacturing, executives are growing anxious about labor shortages that they fret could crimp expansion plans and restrain the British economy. Already, growth in the U.K. is sputtering as quickening inflation squeezes consumer spending.

Das sind die Gründe für Italiens drastische Drohung

von Manuel Bewarder | Stand: 09:27 Uhr |diewelt.de

In den letzten Tagen ist die Zahl der Bootsflüchtlinge, die Italien erreichen, rasant gestiegen. Jetzt überlegt Rom offenbar, alle Boote abzuweisen, die nicht unter eigener Flagge oder im Auftrag einer EU-Mission fahren.

Quelle: N24/Isabelle Bhiyan

Italien erwägt, das Einlaufen mancher Rettungsschiffe für Migranten in seine Häfen zu verbieten – eine Reaktion auf das EU-Versagen beim Grenzschutz. Doch noch eine andere Angst spielt eine Rolle. Ein Überblick über die Lage.

Wie viele Migranten kommen übers Mittelmeer?