Immigration Survey shows Europeans strongly in favour of deporting criminal immigrants

[Maciamo]

Expatica : Belgians want deportations for criminal immigrants

Almost three-quarters of Belgians believe immigrants who commit serious crimes should be deported, new research has indicated.

That percentage is in even higher In the Netherlands (76.6 percent), the UK (78.2) and Germany (90.2), newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Wednesday.

Deporting migrants if they commit any crime, even a minor one, can rely on 39.7 to 48.2 percent support. Belgium scores 43.8 percent on this point.
...
The study also indicated that neither Belgium nor the other three countries see immigration as an economic threat.

I am not surprised by the results of this survey. In fact I wonder if the quarter of people who disagree about deporting criminal immigrants are not people from immigrant families themselves, or people with immigrant relatives or good friends.

Some 63 percent said they live in districts where only native Belgians live. And if they do move, Belgians primarily want to live in an area where there are no immigrants.

I think it should be specified that the term "immigrant" in Belgium equals "economic immigrants, mostly from Muslim or Black African countries". I am pretty sure that if we replaced "immigrant" by "foreign resident" (mostly European, American, Japanese...), the survey results would be completely different. I have never heard any Belgian complaining about having to live in a neighbourhood with Italian immigrants, for instance. They are so well integrated that, even if they still have their Italian nationality, it is hard to tell they are not Belgian. The name, and sometimes the looks, are the only recognisable factors, but not the accent, way of dressing or behaviour, like for Moroccan immigrants.

 

[Elizabeth van Kampen]

In my eyes, Belgium and the Netherlands are far too small countries for so many immigrants as we have today.
In this small country we have over 16 million inhabitants.

Second problem (in my eyes) many Turks and Moroccans go to their home countries to find a bride or bridegroom, that means starting all over again with first generation troubles, such gives problems to intergrate into the European way of living.

 

[Maciamo]

In my eyes, Belgium and the Netherlands are far too small countries for so many immigrants as we have today.

Exactly ! Belgium and the Netherlands have the two highest population density in Europe, and some of the highest in the world. There is already little land left for natives, so the few millions immigrants (usually concentrated in big cities) make it all the more difficult to live. I have just passed through a seedy immigrant neighbourhood in Brussels, and I just cannot understand how these people prefer to live in such slums in torrid conditions, in a country where everything is so different (language, culture, customs, manners, clothes, religion...) rather than stay in their country. What good can possibly come from this.

In the commercial centre of Brussels, where richer Europeans and poorer immigrants mix in the street (about 50-50), we can feel the strong tensions between the two groups. I have to admit that I have never felt stronger negative atmosphere than in this area. Even in Jerusalem I didn't feel nearly as much tension between the Israeli and Palestinians - probably because they live in clearly separated areas. Likewise I never felt any such tensions between Hindus, Muslims and other religious groups in India - certainly because they are all Indian, belong to the same culture and have lived side by side for centuries. Here in Europe it's new for everyone on both sides, and both sides seem to hate, or at least suspect, each other. I certainly felt safer in Israel, or at the Indo-Pakistani border, or in Cambodia than I do in some immigrant districts of Brussels. In "white" districts however, I feel perfectly safe,

 

[Templar]

Politicians are always disobeying the will of the people, yet people keep electing them *sigh*