Immigration Stemming the flow of immigration to Europe: At what price?

[strongvoicesforward]

Like Americans from time to time may feel we are being swamped, drowning in a tide of Mexican immigrants, Europe, too, must feel the strains -- albeit from Africa and Islamic nations.

Surely, it is expensive to integrate foreignors into the fabric of society. There are health costs, educational costs, language training costs, assistance in job placement, housing etc...

I do not live in Europe, so I am not sure what the average view the original race people have of immigration -- whether they feel economically threatened, culturally threatened, or perhaps even a fear of a foreign religion taking a more dominant role in society.

My question is, would it be cheaper for European countries to double their efforts at assistance (e.g. developement funds, investment, direct aid, debt forgiveness etc...) to countries where immigrants come from so as to make their societies more attractive for their populations to want to stay (i.e. create a home magnate to keep them there)?

 

[Maciamo]

I do not live in Europe, so I am not sure what the average view the original race people have of immigration -- whether they feel economically threatened, culturally threatened, or perhaps even a fear of a foreign religion taking a more dominant role in society.

I don't think people feel economically threatened by immigrant from African countries, because these people tend to lack the education to compete (unlike Eastern Europeans or Indians). I also don't think they feel culturally threatened because there is no risk of European society changing because of them. Islam is a bit scary because of how radical most of the poor immigrants are - and of course the threat of terrorism. But more than terrorism, what people fear are the smaller but much more frequent violent acts committed by Muslim (especially Maghreban) immigrants. People are afraid for their safety. Ever since they came after WWII, and the more of them came, the more the general feeling of insecurity has increased in these areas.

My question is, would it be cheaper for European countries to double their efforts at assistance (e.g. developement funds, investment, direct aid, debt forgiveness etc...) to countries where immigrants come from so as to make their societies more attractive for their populations to want to stay (i.e. create a home magnate to keep them there)?

Several European countries have already started to start reversing the trend on immigrations by increasing development funds and making documentaries with interviews of African immigrants explaining their hardships and how radically different life in Europe was for them compared to what they had imagined.

In too many African countries (Black or Arabic), people still have strong (and false) preconceived ideas that once they arrive in Europe, life will be easy, the government will give them money, they will ride sports car, have a big house and everything is going to be ok. What a disillusionment they must feel, when most are not even allowed to work because they are illegal, others don't find work because they don't have the qualifications, they are not eligible for social security, and they end up living in slums and resort to crime to survive.