WANT, DON'T WANT, DON'T WANT:

Unprecedented migration has EU on edge (CONSTANTINE PLESHAKOV, 1/17/05, Japan Times)

Barbarian invasions from the east are old news for old Europe. Over the centuries, restless nomads kept rolling through the area -- sometimes to kill, sometimes to plunder, and sometimes to plunder and stay.

In fact, most invaders chose to settle down on the conquered European terrain, won over by its mild climate, bustling urban culture and easy access to every imaginable trade route, be that to China, Ethiopia or the Canary Islands.

For a few centuries, Europe was left alone, and then the post-World War II economic boom came. By the 1960s, almost every country of Western Europe was enjoying skyrocketing economic growth.

However, the postwar welfare society constrained the boom. Millions of former soldiers angrily demanded better pay, decent labor environment, long vacations and fat retirement benefits. With a working force like that, it was difficult for the European economy to gain momentum.

The answer to the problem was found immediately: Import cheap labor. Arabs streamed to France and Spain, Turks moved to Germany, Yugoslavs settled in Austria. Even Norway brought in thousands of hungry Pakistanis. Not pampered by the trade unions and not protected by any political party, going unnoticed and unacknowledged, Asians and Africans became a silent driving force behind the European economic miracle.

But today guest workers from countries like Turkey and Pakistan no longer look good to European employers. For starters, they are Muslim, and in the post-9/11 world this is not the best possible asset on one's resume. Second, they have already become too numerous in their adopted countries, and Europeans are quite apprehensive of this demographic time bomb.

Want transfer payments from the State, don't want kids, don't want immigrants...something's gotta give.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 16, 2005 8:22 PM