Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by weatherlite on Saturday February 26, 2022 @07:51AM
(#30477146)
There's pros and cons to that.
Some of the cons could be (not always, but definitely sometimes) the creation of parallel societies, high unemployment and crime rate and a possible decline of the welfare state (due to people not wanting to pay a lot of taxes to support people who are less "like them").
Success depends a lot on the host society, on the immigrants themselves and the values they grew up with and a whole bunch of other factors. And in general in times of economic hardships (which we are very fast heading into) it's hard to assimilate immigrants.
Also we need to talk about volume and skills - the current Ukrianian diaspora in the EU is highly skilled, young and relatively small. What happens when you inject millions more (Ukraine has a population of 40+ million) including the elderly and the unskilled? It's a different ballgame.
I think the best we can hope for is for the situation there to relax and for the poor Ukranians to be able to live peacefully in their home country. For most people - living in a foreign country is hard and not a blessing.
Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by eru on Saturday February 26, 2022 @08:59AM
(#30477605)
Decline of the welfare state could be seen as a good thing..
Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by weatherlite on Saturday February 26, 2022 @10:19AM
(#30478213)
By some definitely, but there's still a democratically elected majority that wants to keep them going in North Europe.
Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by Thin_icE on Saturday February 26, 2022 @10:27AM
(#30478311)
If the US can be an example for anything, it would be precisely why no welfare hurts its population. So, no, decline of the welfare state should never be seen as a good thing.
Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by eru on Saturday February 26, 2022 @10:39AM
(#30478419)
What time in history are you talking about?
The contemporary US spends a lot on welfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_we... says it's about 30% of GDP.
Re:Portugal announces immediate granting of visas for Ukrain...
by tluyben2 on Saturday February 26, 2022 @07:17AM
(#30476975)
The Netherlands (my birth country as well) should indeed do this but basically every other country has more and cheaper space to house them. I worked with people (100s) from the UA for the last 30 years and I think this is good for the EU even outside war.
More countries should do this; Germany and my home country the Netherlands in particular. I live in Berlin currently as a foreigner (perfect place for that). Lots of people from all over eastern Europe live here, lots of companies here outsource all over eastern Europe, lots of people that I know either come from or have friends/family from the Ukraine. Also, about 200k people of Russian origin live here that chose to move here after the wall fell. And I assume quite a few Ukranians.
I remember meeting refugees from the former Yugoslavia in the nineties. I think 25 years later, a lot of those people did pretty well. I actually visited Bosnia for work last summer and met a guy that went to school in Munich. Likewise a lot of Syrian refugees that ended up in Germany seem to be doing OK. Quite a few ended up here in Berlin. In times of war, people are generally grateful if you accommodate them; even if it isn't always with open arms.
It's usually the smart, free thinkers that need to flee. Incidentally those are also people likely to find a way to make it in life; start businesses; or otherwise be generally successful.
The US is full of such people that emigrated there after various wars in the last century. Now is not a time to be xenophobic about this sort of thing.