Joe McWilliams
We were in Germany for the last two weeks of October. A lot of it was family time with the in-laws, plus a bit of sight-seeing.
As usual, we heard what’s on the minds of those German family members. Topics ran from immigration to the state of the economy and back to immigration. Always back to immigration. It’s a big deal over there.
Immigration is a big deal everywhere, probably. It is certainly a prominent factor here at home and I found myself comparing my own attitudes about it to those I was hearing.
The impression I got is that Canada is in a sweet spot, able to be fussy about who it lets in. Thus, the folks who show up are on the whole ready, willing and able to integrate into the local economy and community. That’s more or less how it seems in Slave Lake, at least, notwithstanding some growing pains.
In Germany, the impression I got (from a very small opinion sample, mind you) is that the country is swamped by refugee-type immigrants, or migrants. German policy is so generous, we heard, that many of these have little or no incentive to find proper jobs. Something like 400,000 people are being housed and cared for, at state expense, because they don’t qualify as refugees.
They don’t qualify, but they can’t be sent home either. Their home countries don’t want them back.
As for the legitimate refugees – a million or so Ukrainians most recently; a million Syrians from an earlier intake and a few hundred thousands of others – among other things they have created a severe housing crunch. Never mind the other strains on the social system; never mind the crime, drugs, dislocation, racism and what have you that inevitably accompany such phenomena.
On the surface, Germany seems as prosperous, peaceful and well-organized as ever. Things are humming along. But people are nervous; and when people get nervous, political parties with extreme agendas tend to arise, offering so-called ‘solutions.’ It’s not a great situation.
On the plus side, it’s plain enough that Germany has the means and the willingness (for now, at least) to be liberal and generous. As a result, a lot of people have a chance at a better life. And let’s face it, Germany, with its woefully low birth rate, needs workers. Like much of the First World, it has an aging, shrinking population. People are dying much faster than they are being born. A robust economy needs workers, and if people won’t have babies, the only way to get them is through immigration.
Germany’s birth rate is 1.53 per woman. The rate needed to maintain the population is 2.1. Talk about the writing being on the wall.
Canada’s is even less, at 1.4. We’re dead in the water, economically speaking, without immigration.
But I was talking about our vacation! It was too short, for one thing. I’d like to spend a few months and take a serious crack at learning the language. Then, when I go to the bakery I would have a half decent chance of ordering ‘Kaffee und Zwetschgenkuchen’ without making a fool of myself.
German bakeries are worth the cost of the flight over there all on their own. But there’s so much more.
Here’s hoping they find a way to hang on to their culture at the same time as continuing to be open and generous to the less fortunate!