Containing the flow: in 1992, a European Commission survey found that 20 million people in Central and Eastern Europe wanted to emigrate to Western Europe. And, it's estimated that at least half a million people enter the EU illegally every year. While many believe legal immigration needs to be easier, others say it's important to manage the flow carefully.

Europe is connected to the Middle East and Asia by land, and is within eyesight of Africa across the Straits of Gibraltar. The affluent lifestyle enjoyed by most Europeans is a magnet for the desperately poor people who live on its edges. Many people are prepared to risk everything--including their lives--to get inside the continent's walls. In February 2003, for example, 18 migrants set out from sub-Saharan Africa and headed for the Canary Islands, Spanish territory in the Atlantic Ocean. But, 12 of them died on the way and the others survived by gnawing the wood of their boat for moisture. The migrants paid the equivalent of $800 each to board the small, open fishing boat, which they thought was their ticket to a better life, a journey that thousands of Africans make every year. Their dreams might have come true had the boat's motor not failed: then, the two "captains" were picked up by another boat, but the migrants were left to fend for themselves on a stormy sea.

Keeping Europe from being swamped by economic migrants is a major challenge that's only going to grow bigger. These migrants are joined by people facing persecution in their native lands because of their race, political beliefs, or religious faith. They are attracted by Europe's freedoms of speech, association, and worship.

The would-be settlers are running into a lot of hostility from European residents; far-right, and-immigrant political parties ate picking up support in surprising places such as usually tolerant Holland and Denmark. By 2002, a pattern was emerging across the continent with centre-left and social democratic governments losing power to centre-right governments. Political parties that campaigned against immigration were gaining popularity. The left had lost power in Austria, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, and the Netherlands. In France, the Socialists' candidate didn't reach the final round of the presidential election, knocked out by an extreme right-wing candidate (Jean-Marie Le Pen). He was described by The Economist as "a populist thug ... (bearing) the ugly face of extreme nationalism (who) spreads hatred."

John Lloyd, a London-based journalist and former editor of The New Statesman, says extremist immigrant groups have left many Europeans feeling vulnerable. "The spectacle of men claiming to be seeking sanctuary from persecution being arrested for, or charged with, crimes that seem to foreshadow murder, even mass murder, has made a deep impression," he writes in the Globe and Mail in January 2003. But he says the more extreme political parties are losing some ground. He cites the general election in the Netherlands in January 2003, where "(an anti-immigration) party named after its murdered leader--Pim Fortuyn's List--saw its support cut by two-thirds. It had, last year, come second after the conservative Christian Democrats, beating the Labour Party into third place. Now, these two parties again dominate the scene, with the conservatives slightly ahead."

Nevertheless, he says the immigration controls remain, and "the popular voices opposing large-scale immigration swell."

He says that even a left-wing economics professor at Cambridge University (Professor Bob Rowthorn) has some reservations about too much immigration. The problem, says Professor Rowthorn, "is that the potential flow of migrants is so great. Without barriers ... there would be a massive and unacceptable flow of migrants into rich countries."

In an article in the February 2003 issue of Prospect Magazine (a political and cultural magazine published in London, England), Professor Rowthorn, wrote: "Immigration on a modest scale brings benefits in the form of diversity and new ideas, but the pace of the present transformation in Europe worries me. I believe it is a recipe for conflict."

He says that, while there are no official statistics on the ethnicity of migrants, data on their geographical origin "suggest that, over the past three years, the net immigration of people from ethnic minorities has averaged about 100,000 per annum. With immigration on this scale, the ethnic minority population, including people of mixed race, could reach 20 percent of the population by 2050."

The answer, he says, is not to open the doors to immigrants but to raise the standard of living in countries around the world so people don't want to leave them. John Lloyd says the only problem with that prospect is that it's a century away from becoming a reality.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Some Europeans fear that asylum seekers are too great a burden for their countries' social welfare systems to bear. Others think economic migrants will take their jobs. And, some are afraid traditional local cultures will be lost when immigrants cluster in certain areas. Do you think these are legitimate concerns? Discuss some of the advantages of welcoming immigrants.

2. Many immigrants live in hovels, surrounded by a hostile populace. Illegal immigrants hoping to improve their lives often find themselves trapped in sweatshops where they spend decades paying back with interest the smugglers' fees. Women and children seeking a new life have been lured into sex slavery and prostitution. Do a research paper on the living conditions of illegal immigrants.

Websites

European Integration online Papers--http://eiop.or.at/ eiop/texte/2002-013.htm

OpenDemocracy--http:// www.opendemocracy.net/ debates/article- 10-96-1219. jsp

The Refugee Council--http://www.refugeecouncil. org.uk/

QUITE SIMPLE REALLY

Commenting on Canada's proactive multicultural policy and its encouragement of high levels of immigration, John Lloyd, a London-based journalist, told Prime Minister Jean Chretien that Europeans might ask: If a country puts all cultures within it on the same level, what is this country's identity? "Mr. Chretien spread his hands," writes Mr. Lloyd in the Globe and Mail, "and said, as if it was obvious, 'Multicultural! Its identity is multicultural.'"