Real Refugees versus Economic Migrants in Europe

It seems that a large number of the migrants who came into Europe in 2015 are mere economic migrants, not genuine refugees, as is becoming painfully clear from recent news:

(1) Even left-wing and social democratic Sweden has discovered that it may have to deport as many as 80,000 of the migrants who came into Sweden in 2015 (see here and here). Why? Because they are not genuine refugees. The figure of 80,000 would be 49% – nearly half – of the 163,000 who arrived in 2015. Some migrants who refuse to leave also stay illegally and become part of the “black market economy,” which not only means such people often get exploited and become an underclass, but also tend to undermine Sweden’s labour market protections.

(2) In Finland, matters are worse: Finland may have to deport about 20,000 of the 32,000 who arrived last year (see here), and again because they turned out not to have a valid claim to asylum. This is a stunning 62.5% of those seeking asylum who arrived in Finland last year.

(3) EU officials are now complaining that there is also a rise in the number of people arriving in Europe who don’t actually have a valid claim to asylum, and migrants have been lying by claiming to be from Syria when they are not (see here). The European Commission chief Frans Timmermans, quoting unpublished data from the EU border agency Frontex, has even stated that 60% of those who arrived in Europe in December, 2015 are economic migrants, not real refugees (see
here). In essence, it is now being discovered that many people are from safe countries such as Albania, Kosovo, nations in West Africa, north Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

(4) even worse, there is a whole industry in fake Syrian passports that are being used by migrants to fraudulently get into Europe (see here and here). This is a security nightmare.

In short, this is a catastrophe on many levels, and the left should face reality and not stick its head in the sand: Europe can’t take in a million a year for years on end, because it will put enormous strains on resources and social services, drive political opinion to the right, and pose nightmarish security issues. It may even break up the EU (not necessary a bad thing in itself), but at the cost of delivering political power in Europe to the populist right.

Moreover, mass immigration on this scale will likely lead to intensified labour market deregulation and failed neoliberal policies to integrate migrants into labour markets.

Finally, there is a perfectly good left-wing argument against open borders and mass immigration, as I have pointed out here.