The Current Migrant Crisis Has Consequences for European Civilization

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been one of the few European leaders to sound a cultural alarm. "For us today, what is at stake is Europe, the lifestyle of European citizens, European values, the survival or disappearance of European nations, and more precisely formulated, their transformation beyond recognition. Today, the question is not merely in what kind of a Europe we would like to live, but whether everything we understand as Europe will exist at all." ~~~~~ Germany and France could easily echo Orbán's cry of concern. Recent violence in France and protest marches in Germany have focused attention on Europe’s Moslem population. In many European countries, including Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, concerns about growing Moslem communities have led to calls for restrictions on immigration. How large is Europe’s Moslem population, and how fast is it growing? The Pew Research Center’s most recent population analysis offers facts about the size and makeup of the Moslem population in Europe : Germany and France have the largest Moslem populations among European Union member countries. As of 2010, there were 4.8 million Moslems in Germany (5.8% of its population) and 4.7 million Moslems in France (7.5%). The Moslem share of Europe’s total population has grown about 1% a decade, from 4% in 1990 to 6% in 2010. This pattern is expected to continue through 2030, when Moslems are projected to make up 8% of Europe’s population. Moslems are younger than other Europeans. The average age of European Moslems was 32, eight years younger than the median for all Europeans (40). The median age of religiously unaffiliated people in Europe, including atheists, agnostics and those with no religion in particular, was 37. The median age of European Christians was 42. ~~~~~ A Pew Research survey conducted last spring found that majorities in France, Britain and Germany had favorable views of Moslems. Opinion was roughly divided in Spain while negative views prevailed in Italy, Greece and Poland. Views about Moslems are tied to ideology. While 47% of Germans on the political right give Moslems an unfavorable rating, just 20% on the left do so. The gap between left and right is also more than 20% in France, Italy and Greece. Significant differences based on ideology also exist in Spain and the UK. As of 2010, the EU was home to about 13 million Moslem immigrants. The foreign-born Moslem population in Germany is primarily Turkish immigrants, but also includes many born in Kosovo, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Morocco. The 3 million foreign-born Moslems in France are largely from France’s former North African colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. ~~~~~ Germany is taking in the greatest number of Moslems in 2015 -- many Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the most welcoming EU country. Germany's Moslem population will skyrocket by more than 700,000 in 2015, pushing the total number of Moslems in the country to nearly 6 million for the first time. The surge in Germany's Moslem population represents an unprecenented demographic shift that critics of the country's open-door immigration policy warn will change the face of Germany forever. At a press conference on August 19, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière revealed that a record 800,000 migrants and refugees -- the equivalent of nearly 1% of Germany's total population -- are expected to arrive in Germany in 2015, a fourfold increase over 2014. De Maizière said that 83,000 migrants had arrived in July alone, and that the figure for August would be even higher. De Maizière said that although many of the migrants are from the Middle East and North Africa, a large number (40%) are from countries in the Balkans, including Albania and Kosovo. According to de Maizière, this implies that nearly half of those arriving in Germany are economic migrants, not refugees fleeing war zones. Based on Pew projections, the 640,000 Moslem migrants arriving in Germany in 2015, combined with the 77,000 natural increase by births, indicates that the Moslem population of Germany will jump by 717,000, to an estimated 5,785,000 by the end of 2015. This would give Germany the biggest Moslem population in Western Europe. This 2015 surge in Germany's Moslem population would be equivalent to the Moslem population of the United States increasing by 3 million in just one year. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, the numbers arriving in the EU continuing to increase. Only Hungary is trying to apply EU immigration and refugee rules. At a Vienna summit on migration on August 27, the EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said : "There are 20 million refugees waiting at the doorstep of Europe. Ten to 12 million in Syria, 5 million Palestinians, 2 million Ukrainians and about 1 million in the southern Caucasus." On August 21, Germany suspended the Dublin Regulation -- a law that requires people seeking EU refugee status to do so in the first European country they reach -- for asylum seekers from Syria. This means that Syrians reaching Germany will be allowed to stay while their applications are being processed. Critics say the move wil encourage even more migrants to make their way to Germany. ~~~~~ The EU has announced that it will soon help to provide reception facilities for asylum-seekers in Hungary as it is already doing in Italy and Greece. The EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters that the EU executive is ready to offer further help to Hungary as it takes in large numbers of people crossing the Balkans to reach the EU and would "if necessary set up a hotspot in Hungary." Hotspots are expected to open in the coming weeks in Greece and Italy, where more than 300,000 people have arrived this year by sea. These EU "hotspots" are funded and staffed in part by immigration officers and experts from other EU nations. Hotspots will serve in part to bolster national efforts to process requests for refugee status. They have also been promoted by Germany, France and other wealthier states to help ensure their southern neighbors register and fingerprint those arriving, rather than allowing them to head north unregistered. The Hungarian government has complained that the EU plans to relieve pressure on "frontline states," drawn up in May, focused on Italy and Greece. Tens of thousands of people have since arrived in Hungary, many of them coming from Greece. ~~~~~ France has long stonewalled efforts to make the area of Calais near the Eurotunnel tracks that carry Eurostar trains under the Channel to England a formal migrant center. But, it has now announced that it will build a camp for 1,500 migrants in Calais, where twice that many are now living in very unsanitary conditions, hoping to make the Channel crossing to Britain as train stowaways. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans visited Calais with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently and said the Commission would contribute €5 million to the new center which will house people in large tents. Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart said : "It's a gesture but a pretty feeble gesture, it's €25 million that would be needed." A larger camp in Calais - the notorious Sangatte - was shut down more than a decade ago by former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy but the city remains one of many migrant "hotspots" across the continent. ~~~~~ Dear readers, today, Hungarian President Orbán said that Europe's Christian roots are in danger and governments must control their borders before they can decide how many asylum seekers they can take. In an opinion piece for Germany's Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, Orbán said the people of Europe are at odds with the majority of governments on the refugee crisis : "The people want us to master the situation and protect our borders. Only when we have protected our borders can questions be asked about the numbers of people we can take in, or whether there should be quotas. We have the right to decide that we do not want a large number of Moslem people in our country. We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Moslem communities that we see in other countries and I do not see any reason for anyone else to force us to create ways of living together in Hungary that we do not want to see. That is a historical experience for us." Hungary, Poland, Austria and Slovakia leaders will meet today to try to agree on a central European migrant plan. What is clear is that the influx of Moslems into Europe is beginning to have visible consequences -- mosques with loud prayer calls, sharia law "no go" enclaves, aggressive demands for general recognition of sharia, and the arrival of extreme imams to teach jihad to Moslem boys and recruit young men for ISIS. The democratic Christian roots of Europe are threatened. The danger is that Christian ethics makes Europeans welcome Moslem migrants without considering the unintended consequences for Europezn Christian civilization.