The great immigration deceit
In 2015, the Germany fertility rate was at 1.5 births per woman. This is below the EU average, and far lower than the population ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1. By 2030, the proportion of working-age residents in Germany is also predicted to fall from 61 per cent to 54 per cent.
However, while it is true that Germany does face issues of demography, is mass immigration a practical solution to the problem? British writer Douglas Murray, in The Strange Death of Europe, gives an infallible argument against Merkel’s reasoning. Murray leaves no doubt in reader’s minds that the European Union’s most powerful official must be either critically incompetent; or a liar.
For one, Merkel’s reasoning ignores the fact, so clearly elucidated by Murray, that migrants themselves get older; thus causing the eternal need for ever more migrants as time progresses. As migrants enter Germany, they ensure that even greater numbers are required in future; and thus the process is doomed to repeat itself with a continually increasing rate of immigration. Merkel’s espoused strategy is not sustainable in the long-term; immaterial of the fact that many migrants require more money from the state, over their lifetime, than they could ever contribute in the form of taxation.
Merkel’s outlook towards demographics also ignores the essential truth behind why German birth rates are so low. When first ruminating on your nation’s low birth rate, any competent world leader would surely look at fixing the root causes of the problem; as opposed to immediately looking to import a million people. The low birth rates in Western Europe are not indicative of a continent that has shunned the idea of children, but instead portrays a continent where lifestyle factors have led women to decide against having large families. British research, quoted by Murray in The Strange Death of Europe, found that only 8 per cent of women didn’t want children, and only 4 per cent wanted one child. By contrast, 55 per cent wanted two children; and the rest of the population three or more. For the average Western European woman, it is facts of life, such as the loss of income when a child is born, that discourage them from having as many children as they desire.
When facing the migrant crisis in 2015, Merkel would surely have been aware of this sentiment in her own country. If she had any idea, then Merkel should have known that mass migration was not a viable long-term solution to account for low German birth rates. By fixing the root issues that are causing native Germans to have fewer children, Merkel would have been infinitely more successful in plugging the nation’s long-term demographic shortfall. Programs such a generous maternity leave, while expensive to implement, would largely negate any apparent ‘necessity’ for mass immigration from the third-world; and would avoid the litany of costs and threats to social cohesion that present themselves as a result.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2018/02/the-great-immigration-deceit/Anyone who argues for mass third world immigration to the West is critically incompetent or a liar.