“If they won’t let me stay in Germany, I will go back home”

Last updated on: October 11, 2015 at 5:39 pm by Jane the Actuary

“If they won’t let me stay in Germany, I will go back home” 2015-10-11T17:39:57-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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That, paraphrased, is what a Syrian “refugee” is quoted as saying in this “greatest hits” video of complaining migrants, in Germany and in the Netherlands; in this case, said by a man who came to Germany with his wife and two children, one of whom is a disabled preschooler. And by “won’t let me stay in Germany,” he’s referring to plans in the EU to move migrants to other EU countries, not some fear of being moved to a refugee camp in Turkey, for instance. And by “home” he literally means Syria — that is, that the situation wasn’t so dire as to make returning beyond contemplation.

Not only are the hordes of asylum-seekers arriving in Germany, day after day, from all over the Middle East, Africa and Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.), rather than simply those fleeing war-torn countries, but here’s the further tragedy: the high cost of making the trip, both in terms of basic travel expenses and the smugglers who get them across borders, is enough that the truly desperate never leave refugee camps or even their own borders. It is only the better-off who can manage such a trip. See this report by Al-Jazeera, “Middle-class Syrian refugees start back at square one in Germany,” which cites the cost of the trip from Syria at EUR 3,000, and this Washington Post article cites even higher prices, upwards of $10,000 or more.

Which is disconcerting for multiple reasons: the people most in need of help aren’t getting it, because they’re at refugee camps, out of sight, out of mind, while Germany and other wealthy EU countries deal with the mess of refugee-claimants there. The people who have traveled to Germany are doubly p***ed because they’re accustomed, many of them, to middle-class living standards, and they’ve invested so much money in this venture that they can’t accept it being a failure, if they end up somewhere poorer and unable to take advantage of the Germany economy, get German-sized welfare benefits, bring their family to Germany, etc. And, should the war end in Syria in with some reasonably peaceful resolution, this brain drain of massive proportions will prevent the country from rebuilding, if their entire educated class has left.

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