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Comment by jaco6 | Hacker News Reader

Not really strictly an economic problem. If it weren’t for widespread dissatisfaction with open borders and pseudo-asylum, millions of AfD voters would be voting for center right or center left parties of the mainstream coalition. The coalition has immolated itself on a pyre of fake compassion for migrants—actually a quest for cheap labor.

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I don't think they care about cheap labor.

They thought they could win elections calling everyone a racist who disagreed.

That strategy didn't work.

The coalition did not have any more compassion than any other government before it. The reality is that fortress Europe can't stop 10m people when a country such as Syria descends into Chaos as it did in 2015.

Don't the asylum laws date back to when Jewish refugees were refused entry fleeing just before WW2? They changed them after that. And the legitimacy of economic refugees? Well, hey we need cheap labour, er um, we have population decline. Yeah that's it, we gotta fix the demographic problem.

Yes, it’s a cultural problem. Europe has had stagnant economies before—indeed, that was the norm for a lot of the 20th century. What’s disrupting everything is immigrants.

What open borders and pseudo asylum?

The problems with immigrants are largely exaggerated.

The regions that see the biggest problem in immigration have the fewest immigrants.

Just ask german hospitals what would happen without Syrian personnel.

I understand the point of your comment—why do Germans who see few migrants care about it more than Germans who see many migrants?

The answer is that parts of the country that have enjoyed homogeneity the longest are the most upset about having that homogeneity violated. If one lives in Berlin, which has been heteregenous for a long time, the introduction of mass migration was less upsetting. If one lives in a village or small city that was 100% German for a long time, and now has the pleasure of “welcoming” strangers with a higher crime rate, alien social customs, and different appearance—your response is different.

> Just ask german hospitals what would happen without Syrian personnel.

Funny you're mentioning that, because personnel from german hospitals is complaining about the behaviour of clients from that, and neighboring regions.

As do general medical practitioners, or EMTs.

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