Refugees in Fürth, 19 August 2015
Ever since the European Union's Schengen agreement started to be implemented in 1995, the border controls between EU states have disappeared. It's nice to be able to fly down the Autobahn to Austria to ski without a border checkpoint, and today I can jet over to Prague in the same fashion for a beer at U Fleku. But this lack of border control has now opened the floodgates to those refugees fleeing from the results of the Arab Spring a few years ago and the rise of ISIS today. Syrians, Libyans and others with a real need to seek refuge from war have joined those from Albania and Macedonia looking for better economic opportunity. The estimate is that 800,000 refugees are expected in Germany alone this year. Where do we put them? Well, the German response has been disorganized and haphazard at best. The federal government has left it up to the states and local governments to feed and clothe these people, and here in Franconia, there are quite a few of them living in an abandoned furniture store on the A73.
Had there still been the border controls, perhaps the government could have been more organized. Fortress Europe no longer exists. The media here are outraged that Hungary is proposing building a wall to keep the refugees out, similar to The Donald's idea for the Mexican border in the US. Maybe that is an extreme solution, but in my opinion, a nation that can no longer control its borders ceases to be a nation.
CR Meyer
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