The only way to save Europe is to stop the boats
More Invasion of Europe news…..
David Frum writing in The Atlantic about the invasion of Europe, wraps up an insightful (longish) piece by endorsing the policy of the Abbott government in Australia which has stopped the illegal migration of phony asylum seekers to the country by stopping the boats!
NEW Germans, NEW Italians, NEW Frenchmen aboard!
Is it any surprise that if you let them come, more will come?
The lesson applies to America as well…..
From The Atlantic (Closing European Harbors). Emphasis is mine:
Contrast this with the recent experience of Australia. After the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a newly permissive policy toward asylum-seekers in 2008, their numbers, unsurprisingly, soared. As holding facilities filled, Labor leaders moved to reintroduce stricter controls, but public opinion had already turned against them: the party lost the 2013 federal election to Tony Abbott, a conservative who had, among other campaign promises, vowed to crack down on asylum-seekers arriving by boat. Under Abbott’s policy, no unapproved boats would be allowed to land. Period. Boats apprehended at sea would be turned back to their point of origin or towed to uncongenial places like Papua New Guinea for processing of passengers. The government used social media to communicate the new policy throughout Southeast Asia. A YouTube video released in many of the region’s languages warned: “If you travel by boat without a visa, you will not make Australia home.” Since then, illegal boat migration has virtually disappeared.
The policy has been expensive: the government has reportedly spent about $1 billion Australian a year to detain migrants at facilities in other countries. That is a relatively small sum, however, compared with the high social and economic costs over many years—and multiple generations—of allowing large-scale migration by very low-skilled people.
The ocean around Australia is much wider than the sea between Libya and Europe. Yet Australia’s example is promising. Migration follows opportunity. Remove opportunity, and migration will cease. Migrants who attempt to force their way into Europe are, quite understandably, seeking a better life. Butthe peoples of the countries they wish to enter similarly have a right to do what is best for themselves.
Making a success of the migration that has already occurred will demand tremendous wisdom, generosity, and policy creativity from Europe’s leaders. That challenge will become only more daunting if migrant numbers continue to grow unchecked, thanks to an immigration policy that prides itself on being compassionate, but that in practice perpetuates the darkest and most dangerous tendencies of Europeans, old and new alike.
Read it all here.
Go here for our ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive. I’ve been writing a lot about the invasion this week, one more post coming up.
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