HELP WANTED
Europe needs migration, but nobody will talk about it. Europe also needs migrants to take care of its ageing population and do things such as agricultural work. But the biggest problem here at the moment is the impossibility of any kind of constructive discussion about how to organise that.
“No compulsory masks – make learning German compulsory instead!” the election posters in Berlin proclaim angrily.
The German elections take place in just over a month and this particular poster for the right-wing political party Alternative for Germany is hanging on a lamp post in one of the capital’s most multicultural neighbourhoods, where the most common languages include Arabic, Turkish, English and Russian.
An opinion poll indicated that a third of Europeans still see migration as an issue more concerning than even climate change.
With its racist undertones, and a wink and a nod to dubious Covid-19 conspiracy theories, it is yet another indicator of how toxic the discussion about immigration has become here. This is despite the fact that, just like New Zealand, the nations of the European Union desperately need more immigrants.
The EU is one of the most rapidly ageing regions in the world and, by 2050, just over 40% of the EU population will be 55 or older. The number of Europeans aged 85 or older will have doubled to 26.8
