AS THE IMMIGRANTS COME THE NATIVES LEAVE:

Germans leaving country to escape unemployment (Erik Kirschbaum, Dec 30, 2005, Reuters)

Germans are leaving their country in record numbers but unlike previous waves of migrants who fled 19th century poverty or 1930s Nazi terror, these modern day refugees are trying to escape a new scourge -- unemployment.

Flocking to places as far away as the United States, Canada and Australia as well as Norway, the Netherlands and Austria more than 150,000 Germans packed their bags and left in 2004 -- the greatest exodus in any single year since the late 1940s.

Time for someone to type in the ritual assurances that Europe isn't heading off a demographic cliff.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 1, 2006 10:13 AM