Prof. John O'Brennan, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration at NUI, Maynooth has told Ivan Yates on Newstalk that he believes Europe needs the migrants amassing at the border of Greece and Turkey.
"Let's remember, looking to the…
Prof. John O'Brennan, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration at NUI, Maynooth has told Ivan Yates on Newstalk that he believes Europe needs the migrants amassing at the border of Greece and Turkey.
"Let's remember, looking to the future, most EU member states have a demographic crisis. We actually need people and we will need people long into the future so to argue that we should operate this fortress Europe is really not just going against the economic interest of the EU in the longer term but it is really at odds with the value system the EU is supposed to stand for."
Yates put to O'Brennan that the public doesn't share his view and allowing over one million migrants move to Germany in 2015 was disastrous for Merkel. Brennan replied that on the contrary, Merkel was in office five years on.
"...and actually I think Germany is a very good example of what happens in this context. Germany accepted more than a million people. All the evidence we have shows that that has been a very successful absorption of a very large number of people. A huge number of people have gone into education. Others are working. The Germany unemployment rate hasn't gone up. The burden on the German state didn't increase dramatically and into the future if you look at this in a very narrow way, it'll be an asset to the German economy.
"So I think if you're going to concentrate on 2015, and on numbers, the argument there is that actually we can do this but my point is also we should be prepared to do this."
According to Der Spiegel magazine in 2018, Germany expects to spend around 78 billion euros on migration-related issues through 2022, including 31 billion euros to combat the root causes driving people to leave their homes and head to Europe.
The magazine cited a document drafted by the German Finance Ministry which estimates federal spending of around 70 billion euros through 2022, plus an additional eight billion euros that the federal government agreed to transfer to states and local communities to cover their costs through 2021.
Social payments to migrants in Germany are projected to account for about 21 billion euros through 2022, with another 13 billion to be spent on language courses and other integrative measures, the magazine cited the document as saying.
Processing, registration and accommodations for refugees would cost 5.2 billion, according to the estimate.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-budget-migrants/germany-sees-migration-related-spending-of-78-billion-euros-through-2022-report-idUSKCN1IK0EG
Broadcast: The Hard Shoulder | Newstalk | 03 Mar 2020
Prof. John O'Brennan's can be found on twitter here:
https://twitter.com/JohnOBrennan2/status/1234893189204598786?s=19
