At some point over the past week, I've come to notice that some German journalists (a small number).....are asking this really tough question....why aren't all of the EU countries pumped up like Germany for more immigrants and refugees? The less-than-thrilled crowd? England, Slovakia, Czech, Greece, and it even has France to some degree. Most of the Eastern European countries can be put on the list as well.
The issues?
Well, you can start with a cost factor. Oddly, German government folks never (never ever is the best term) cite what the true overall cost factor adds up to with each 1,000 refugees/immigrants. No one within the German system cites cop hours on non-cop duty. No one talks about the logistical costs because they've dumped it onto individual states and individual cities. The paperwork? The language and integration classes? The food and medical support? The security involved?
Most countries have a definite spending plan and don't really care to spend more on something that doesn't support the national agenda. They'd rather spend on schools, roads, bridges, and police security.
Then you come to this factor of slums. Most British have this image of an immigration suburb of town being taken by a large group and transformed in a matter of years into a slum-appearance. To be honest though.....you could travel into London and find all Brit-neighborhoods....that look like slums as well. But folks have this opinion that low-income neighborhoods get pushed into a worse position.
Integration? Some nations have the opinion that the new folks just don't fit.....not in two years or ten years time.
The hostility over religion? I believe at least three or four of the EU countries have a negative opinion that Islam will become an issue in their country if they get into the Syrian business. Last week....one nation hinted that they'd be willing to accept X number of Syrians....provided they were Christians. That won't fly well with the German view of things.....but then Germans don't run the EU.
Then you come to this odd factor of experience with immigration.. Some nations have seen remarkably few refugees or immigrants over the past decade or two. They kinda got used to the idea just a hundred here and there every quarter. The idea of 10,000 arriving in one single quarter would make some of these countries go through huge anxiety frustrations.
Then you arrive to the big issue.....who exactly in some country will manage things? Would you just force the problem onto cities or states and pretend it's not a federal problem.....like the way that Berlin handled it? The British would just grin when the Germans explain this tactic, and they'd let you know right away that this attitude won't work on the isle. The Greeks would just start laughing.....because a normal Greek city would hand the refugee a loaf of bread and a tent.
There are twenty-eight members to the EU. On the one far end....is Germany mostly by itself. Somewhere from the mid-point to the German end.....there might be three or four countries with somewhat similar values. The rest of the EU are beyond the middle-point and it's safe to predict that they will talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. Little will be agreed upon.
The fear of right-wing extremism coming out of this situation in two years? I'd take a guess that half of the EU members are in some fear currently and know it's a oncoming situation for elections. For Germany, the national election is still two years away....so they might not be fearing much at this point. But there are individual German state elections....five in 2016, and one of those is Saxony-Anhalt which presently has significant demonstrations occurring against the refugees presently. If the Saxony-Anhalt state election goes negative....it'd likely cause more concern throughout the rest of Germany.
I suspect over the next week....some German journalists will try to tackle this discussion item and try to explain it to the German public. But it'll be impossible to cover.....unless you had a Czech, a Dane, a Brit, or a Pole standing there....and actually doing the talking. And the more they explain their fears....it'll just transform Germans a bit....to ask more and more questions. Right now....it's a trust thing where the journalists and political figures simply say there's no problem. As long as they keep it simple and pure, without more questions.....it'll continue on this trail. But even Germans aren't that stupid.....they will eventually ask why their neighbors won't do it the German-way, and feel kinda shocked when the whole thing is laid out that others don't think that way.
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