Europe’s (lack of) migration problem

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TheMaghrebTimes.com
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Low birthrates, people leaving their countries are the EU’s bigger demographic, if not political, challenges.

For Europe as a whole, immigration can present an opportunity as much as a challenge. Aging, shrinking populations need young workers to prop up social security systems and keep the economy moving.

But as these projections show, for individual countries, the picture can be very different. For some, low birthrates make mass immigration a must. For others, outward migration is accelerating depopulation. Still others have put in place family friendly policies that favor childrearing, reducing dependency on new arrivals. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the European Union has struggled to come up with a common response to immigration.

“Europe is so diverse,” says Tomas Sobotka of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital in Vienna, Austria. “Most of the solutions should be local.”

EUROPEAN POPULATION GROWTH

— FRANCE
The French, supported by policies like subsidized childcare and tax rebates for families with kids, have more babies than other Europeans.
— GERMANY
In Germany, where the median age is 46, people are having fewer children. If immigrants stop coming, the country’s population will shrink about 14 percent by 2050.
— ITALY
Without migration, Italy’s population will drop by 7 million by 2050. New arrivals are reversing the trend and are expected to boost it by more than 6 million.
— POLAND
Like in much of Eastern Europe, Poland’s population is plunging, as young workers leave for richer countries and those that remain have fewer children.
— SPAIN
Spain’s economic troubles have flatlined its population growth. That should change after 2030, when the economy — and net migration — is expected to pick up again.
— UNITED KINGDOM
The U.K.’s population is projected to grow by a quarter by 2050, and surpass Germany as the largest European country, unless Brexit changes migration patterns.

Source: Europe’s (lack of) migration problem – POLITICO

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