She and her advisers thought they were doing the right thing, i think the problem all the Euro countries are having is explaining to their people how long the refugees are going to stay in their countries nor whether their stay is permanent. There's also the cost and taxes going up, then there's the housing and unemployment issues to deal with. Who gets a house or a job first? The refugee or a citizen?. Who's going to keep an eye on companies looking to exploit the situation with regards to cheap labor?
It all looks very complex to deal with especially when emotions are also running high and reasoning being an after thought.
I would hate to be a politician or a representative of any European government right now. They used to have an easier ride.
Yep, this.
It's very complex and it's not surprising that there are citizens who get mad. These seem to be the 'biggest problems' for many people where I live:
- Housing
- Culture
- Healthcare
- social benefits / jobs / unemployment
Housing is a problem because there are wait lists for many of whom are looking to rent. How long is that waitlist? Well, depending on the city anywhere between to 3 to 21 years.
It's very difficult to say to a 'native citizen': "well, you may have been waiting for 15 years now, but this guy that has just arrived here will get the first house that becomes available". The only solution would be to build special housing areas for refugees, but that way, they remain isolated from the society that they are going to join... which is bad for integrating the refugees.
Culture is a problem because in many ways the Western culture differs from the Islamic culture (of course not all refugees have an Islamic background, but a large part currently does). Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of sexual orientation, freedom, democracy, alcohol usage, drugs usage, etc. - looking at the regions where refugees come from, these things weren't usually normal (or even forbidden).
Healthcare is a problem, because healthcare costs have already significantly risen over the past few years. There's a fear that they will continue to rise with all these new people that might require physical or, more likely, since they're from warzones, psychological healthcare.
Another problem: the monthly compulsory healthcare insurance bills and "own risk" for regular citizens continue to rise each year, while refugees do not have to pay anything.
Social benefits,
jobs and
unemployment are also problems. First of all, unemployment is already high. That means that there are people who fear that the regular citizens can't find jobs, because employers will choose for refugees which will work much harder for the minimum wage (as the minimum wage is already much higher than where they came from) - e.g. the "they are taking our jobs"-argument. The second fear regarding unemployment and jobs is that refugees won't be able to find jobs, meaning that they will have more trouble integrating... which brings us to
social benefits.
Social benefits have already been reduced in the past few years. The fear exists that social benefits will be reduced even further i suddenly, a large number of people start relying on these social benefits.
--------------
Just explaining here what I believe are the biggest issues for a lot of people.
Personally, I feel like we should take care of the refugees. Integration must be a number one priority, though - make sure that refugees will accept (or at least tolerate) the Western culture (e.g. people having freedom of speech, religion, drinking alcohol, etc.).
If integration fails, it's likely that they'll remain unemployed and that they'll just cost the State tens of thousands each year per person.
