British newspaper The Telegraph reported that an estimated 1.5 million immigrants will reach Germany by the end of this year. One cannot help but comment, speculate and feel opinionated on this huge influx of people moving to Europe and its borders.
Authorities stated that these figures are double what anyone ever predicted. Others have already described this year as being a record in terms of the number of people moving to Europe since World War 2. One cannot but help but ask: what are the authorities doing in order to find a possible long-term solution? Should we just close our eyes and thank God we live in a peaceful country whilst letting others suffer their plight?
The question that I often hear people asking is whether the European Union, that has been long since battling a euro-zone economic crisis, can handle all this influx of people. I also hear others commenting that these really are economic migrants in disguise – as most of them seem to want to make their way to Germany where social security benefits are quite good and the Government provides adequate housing to those in need of it.
However, I find it quite blunt that people think of these asylum seekers in terms of the economic challenges they present to European countries. These people are being labelled as a burden on the economy. Amid protests in East Germany, people from war-torn countries continue to arrive. Merkel seems to keep her ground in insisting that Germany can cope with this influx but her people seem to think otherwise.
On the other hand, in Hungary, an influx of migrants has turned the Government to increase security after migrants stormed into Budapest as they were initially refused to cross over to Austria. Greece asked for emergency assistance from the European Union to get help with an influx of migrants from Turkey. At least, if we are to look at migration from an economic perspective, we should consider that in thirty to forty years’ time, when half of the world population will be over sixty, migrants and their children will be paying for our pensions.
Although many paint the picture as a violent and desperate one for European countries, there is another emotional facet to the story that is often left aside. Those who are followers of “Humans of New York” (HONY) can look at the situation from a different, more individualistic perspective rather than look at these people in terms of masses. The author, Brandon, seems to fill in the gaps left empty by mass media. By looking at the most recent posts on the HONY Facebook page, one cannot help but notice that these people all have one thing in common. Fear has reluctantly forced them to move out of their homeland and take on perilous, ill-fated journeys in search for a better life. Some of these children who are now safe in Europe have witnessed their parents being tortured and their father being dragged away to prison. This not only meant a family being torn apart and children psychologically scarred for life. In a society where the husband is the male breadwinner, this also meant that a family could starve and not eat properly for days. For other families, the children were taken away in the blink of an eye.
People whose values and safety were threatened acted with the little they had and fled. Will this influx present countries with economic challenges? Probably. Will there now be more crimes such as theft? Probably not. Charity begins at home. As citizens nested away into the safety of the Maltese Islands, we can start by having an open mind and exploring the situations from different perspectives, not just an economical one.
Although compassion and empathy should be at the forefront, one cannot ignore the fact that by the end of 2015, Germany’s population would have grown by a million or so. This will undoubtedly have a ripple effect on other countries. On the opposite side of the spectrum, people need to think of these migrants as individuals leaving war-torn countries not crowds that threaten our societies.
