OPINION: Europe is Dying

A passport checkpoint in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 2. (flickr)

Europe is dying. Literally. According to Eurostat, the European Union (EU) statistics bureau, more people die yearly in Europe than are born. The continent’s fertility rate of 1.6 births per woman lies well below the 2.1 needed to maintain stable demographics. The nations of Europe are aging and dying.

The World Economic Forum argues that more immigration will solve Europe’s demographics issue. Yet recent elections in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy demonstrate emphatically that a large segment of the European population wants less, not more.

In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte bested Geert Wilders by only 13 percent, according to the Telegraph, but only after moving further right to undercut Wilders’s support. The New York Times reported that Rutte co-opted ideas from the far right by supporting dramatic policies to decrease immigration.

In Germany, the far-right has representation in the Bundestag for the first time since World War II. According to Politico, the Alternative for Germany party rode an “anti-immigrant” backlash to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy and pushed politics to the right, forcing Merkel to accept a 200,000 refugees cap to appease coalition allies.

In Austria, anti-immigrant sentiment won out, with centrist People’s Party (ÖVP) and far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) forming a government. The FPÖ ran on an anti- immigration platform that forced the ÖVP to emulate its ideology. Heinz-Christian Strache, FPÖ leader, even stated, “our message has reached the mainstream.”

In Italy, recent elections yielded large victories for anti-immigration parties and have pushed mainstream EU politicians to adopt hard-line anti-immigration policies or risk losing power, according to Reuters. This attempt at self-preservation has further spread anti-immigration policies Europe-wide, especially as the EU limits the entry of migrants.

Europe is dying. The solution is simple, yet loathed: immigration. Europe needs additional immigrants to increase its numbers, supplement its youth, and increase its birth rates. Yet anti-immigrant sentiment is currently en vogue, and unless principled leaders take a stand, it likely will be for years to come.