Europe must not be afraid of immigrants

Rik Coolsaet, a professor of international relations at the University of Gand, debunks some commonly accepted notions about immigration. "The International Organization for Migration has once again clarified certain realities. Immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in social allocations (translation: they help 'us' to pay our pensions). Immigrants and natives do not compete for the same jobs (translate: they do not steal 'our' jobs). Naturally, immigration is not without a few hitches. ... [But] today's situation is not worse than that which existed in the past. On the contrary. A century ago, one-tenth of the world's population migrated, versus less then three percent today. These days, relatively fewer immigrants are arriving in Europe than 30 years earlier."

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