In order for economies to grow there needs to be an increase in jobs; thus more people to fill them. The baby boomer generation is slowly retiring and those jobs need to be filled and Generation X is too small. South Korea's economy used to be the equivalent to Mexico but in recent years their exports and immigration rose and so did their economy, quite dramatically. Globalization is difficult for developed countries because compared to the room to grow from developing isn't as huge. However, in order to complete developed nations, who have low-birth rates, need immigrants to keep and create more jobs.
One of my friends actually immigrated to the UK from Canada. I think she enjoys it and it seems she is doing well, if not better. There are a large amount going into all of Europe but I think that is more of a global issue than the UK or EU. For every deny entry there is a back door somewhere. However, if Europe voted for right-winged leaders there would be a greater migration problem because say Germany didn't vote Merkel, those refugees would go to other countries in fear of deportation, etc. It's happening in Canada because refugees from the US fear Trump and now we have thousands entering the borders. One can't argue left-winged policies attract migration when the right will do the same.
I have to re-stress I’m really
not anti immigration, I just think it needs to be at a much lower level to fit in with britain’s particular geographical circumstances... we’re already the most densely populated major country in Europe, north western and south eastern England in particular are among the most densely populated regions of the
planet! The thing is, ultimately immigration is only a sticking plaster solution to a structural issue - regaining replacement level fertility to stabilise the population is what will ultimately lead to a stable economy, having to, in effect ‘import’ workers to fill these roles from abroad has disadvantageous effects on the country of origin as much as they benefit the country they move to, and ultimately the draw of moving to traditionally developed areas is weakening putting us in a very precarious circumstance.
I think you mean far right leaders as opposed to right wing, many European countries do have centre-right to middle-right governments currently, Trump is full of bombastic rhetoric, but really he’s not actually that right wing in the grand scheme of things, he’s just reasserting basic principles that have been absent as the perceived political centre ground has been shifting to the left over the last couple of decades. The idea that people don’t have a cast-iron right to enter another country, and that selective discrimination can be deployed for maximum effectiveness with minimal disruption to everyone isn’t all that radical, it’s the norm, we’ve just moved away from it and forgotten that it is normal not ‘extreme’ in recent times... I think people have gotten too used to a globalised world where they’ve more or less had free rein to go where they want, and are now panicking/ overreacting because there’s been a bit of a self-correction caused by the distorting effect this has had on western societies, and the concern it’s caused to social conservatives and the lower paid echelons of society. In particular, I think the previous mantra of integration being a key part of moving to a new country has broken down too much, we’ve got a significant number of people who speak no English in parts of the UK, and it’s putting an extra cost burden on taxpayers and causing social divides/ segregation. I don’t think anyone would expect people to completely abandon their heritage when moving to a new country, but there’s certainly a baseline of integration people should meet to conserve a cohesive society.
There is no 'german guilt' tho. That is a thing often brought up but that basically plays no role in the average life of any german.
it is just a rather neat excuse to blame the government off if you are a rightwinger.
The area's who voted for AfD are usually the areas that haven't had any significant migration.
What you are saying is based on completely false assumptions.
Not like anyone will notice because it will not play any role for the german taxpayer.
Atm we are diminishing debt because there is leftover money every year. We could always stop doing that to pay for other stuff.
The taxpayer is not going to notice if he is not supposed to do so.
Furthermore, most germans understand that the EU is highly beneficial to germany.
Right, sorry to take this discussion a bit meta, but I’m sure you think I’m just trying to be a sort of jingoistic troll here, which isn’t the case. Generally I’d consider myself to be a pragmatic centrist with a slight conservative leaning view on social policy. The thing is, what’s perceived by people as a whole to be ‘the centre ground’ for politics has really shifted to a skewed position of overly-deregulated free market capitalism, and overly socially liberal policies.
Being a social conservative, to me, means you reject radical change, but accept gradual, sensible evolution of societal values. So an example of the latter would be gay marriage - it’s slowly evolved to be more accepted that people can be lesbian, gay, bisexual etc, and allowing equal rights to marry is something that, whilst controversial in terms of basically twisting the arms of religious groups who do continue to see it as wrong, is now generally supported by the population as a whole, and most people are happy. Ok, so an example of the former would be something that doesn’t gradually change over time, but a small group of radical liberals are trying to foist on society overnight - at the moment, as it happens, there’s the whole gender fluidity argument which has sprung up more or less overnight (certainly in GB). There’s huge pressure from groups to suddenly completely upheave everything that’s already settled about gender roles, public toilets, clothing and school uniforms, etc etc - it’s getting people worked up, unnecessarily. A more even-keeled, gradual approach would be to slowly bring some of these ideas into the mainstream and see how people react. Eventually people will probably come to understand, rather than taking a knee-jerk position if opposing it. That’s it really, you keep what’s good about society and gradually come round to new thinking without major disruption.
So to link this back to the discussion about Merkel and Migrants, she’s suddenly allowed in over a million, predominantly young male, refugees/economic migrants, with a very different cultural outlook to that of German society as a whole. Raping young girls and boys and openly groping women/ calling them ‘whores’ for not completely covering their bodies etc - it’s had a really disruptive impact on German society and undoubtedly tainted the views of people in Germany against helping refugees - at least on the scale that Merkel tried and failed to do. Hence the ballooning number of retaliatory attacks on migrants/ migrant centres. And this is also where it links back to what you say about German guilt not being felt by most ordinary Germans - that’s probably true, but where it matters is the political class, and undoubtedly Merkel was driven by a desire to show an open/ welcoming view of her country to her peers. That’s where the ‘guilt’ still lingers, and that’s where it plays the biggest role in shaping how the country operates. You’ll notice every other country in Europe basically looked on in horror at what she was doing, whether openly or more discretely.
Certainly the EU is beneficial to Germany, it’s just that it also comes at a price. While you’re busy paying down your debt, the rest of the Eurozone is busy piling theirs up, and as you’re effectively the lender of last resort and the ultimate underwriter of all that debt, which I don’t think German taxpayers actually fully comprehend, your own economy can be as healthy as you like, if Spain or Italy or France defaults, it’ll completely rip your economy a new one. You’ll be expected to chip in and prop up the country, even though it’ll be too much for even the Bundestag’s deep pockets to cover, just to minimise the damage/ fallout to your own economy - don’t expect fiscal prudence from these countries either, you and the Netherlands are possibly the single two significantly buoyant economies in the whole monetary union, and the Netherlands economy is a rounding error on the continent’s spreadsheet. If you’re happy to be taken advantage of in exchange for beneficial trade arrangements, I guess that’s fine. Certainly Britain has always been semi detached from the EU, really us joining in the first place rather than continuing to focus on developing the commonwealth into a trading network was such a mistake, I just hope it’s not too late to implement that strategy, certainly we have the advantage of having the same system of [common] law, language and historic national and interpersonal links - it’s such a natural fit when a preferential trading block with a bit of pomp and pageantry was all the empire ever was anyway. I guess the whole ‘recreating rome’ obsession is Germany’s own answer to that sort of thinking.
having visited Catalonia on several occasions and made many wonderful friends there it is heartbreaking to think they are being so violently treated 
