Friday, September 11, 2015

Robert Fisk on the refugee crisis

Refugee crisis- Thank God for Germany taking resposibility, the rest of Europe appears to have forgotten the age-old lessons of history (via The Automatic Earth) A moving tribute to Angela Merkel with hints of possible problems. I hope that Angela Merkel stays the course. Excerpt:

"And if the rags of our integrity as human beings have been salvaged these past few weeks, this is due to the dour, rather sour Protestant ethics of an east German hausfrau who history may (or may not, for let us remember her people’s grandfathers for whom my Dad was supposed to shoot his own refugees) say has saved our soul."
P.S. Related:
The big myth about refugees:
"But refugees aren't always an economic benefit to countries. The way that refugees affect their host economy depends a lot on how a country deals with them.
It might seem counterintuitive, but the countries that take the longest to process refugees and have the tightest restrictions on them end up paying the most per refugee, says Erik Jones, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies who has researched migrants."
" Trade and service companies — from caterers to plumbing firms — are struggling to find new workers, with more than 37,000 trainee positions unfilled, according to the Federal Employment Agency.
Couple that with that fact that many of the asylum seekers — especially Syrians — are highly educated or skilled workers and include doctors, engineers and architects. And suddenly, for Germany, some say, what initially seems like a crisis becomes something else."
Another

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