Europe: What Will a Few More Years of Muslim Immigration Do to Europe?
Article publisher:
American Thinker
Article date:
7 December 2017
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
On December 3, 2017, members of the Trump administration, including Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and secretary of state Rex Tillerson announced that United States would no longer take part in the Global Compact on migration. That compact, the non-binding New York Declaration for Refugees and Migration, signed on September 19, 2016 by 193 states, purported to commit them to a unified framework – a safe, orderly, and regular organization of all aspects of international migration.
Secretary Tillerson explained, a day before a global conference on the issue was to open on December 4 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, that the U.N. program is not consistent with the immigration policies of the U.S., which, like all states, has a sovereign right to apply its own immigration laws and to control its borders...
... The Pew study largely concentrates on changes in Europe between 2010 and 2016. The crucial fact is that the number of refugees has escalated since 2014. The record number of 1.3 million migrants applying for asylum in the 28 states of the E.U. is nearly double the number in 1992 who applied after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Of the migrants in those years to Europe, both refugees and regular migrants, about 3.7 million were Muslims, and 3.3 million were non-Muslims. Of the 3.7 million Muslims, about 2.5 million were legal migrants as workers and students and 1.3 million who want refugee status; most of them were from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The significance of this is that while the Muslim population grew from net migration, the non-Muslim population declined between 2010 and 2016 by about 1.7 million.
There is no official tally of the migrant population, and figures are not necessarily exact and are affected by a multitude of factors. However, the best estimates suggest that Muslims now constitute about 25.8 million, or 5% of the population of Europe. That number is increasing, and the proportion is likely to double within a relatively short time, perhaps up to 14% of Europe's population by 2050, depending on the rate of migration into Europe. The number of Muslims in Europe grew considerably, through natural increase but mostly by immigration. Some projections of German population show about 20% Muslim by 2050, and Sweden's Muslim population could grow to 31%.
Germany is still the major destination of asylum-seekers. Between 2010 and 2016, Germany took in 670,000 refugees, mostly Muslims, and 680,000 migrants, about half of whom are Muslims. At present, the largest numbers of Muslims are in France, 5.7 million (8.8% of the total), and in Germany, 5 million (6.1% of the total). In Cyprus, the 300,000 Muslims, mostly Turkish Cypriots, account for 25% of the total. In Sweden, about 8% of the population are Muslims.
By comparison, the non-Muslim population in Europe declined by about 1.7 million. An important factor is that Muslims are younger and have a higher fertility rate than non-Muslims...
The important and relevant factor for policy-makers is that the number of Muslim refugees has greatly increased...
The conflict in Syria is the biggest driver for migrants...
European governments and political parties are conscious that Europe's population is expected to decline from its present 521 million to an estimated 482 million without any further immigration. They face a dilemma of allowing further migration of Muslims and the internal problems and tensions that might result. The problem is enhanced by the fact, of which the Trump administration is aware, that Muslims, who now constitute 1.8 billion, 24% of the global total population, belong to the fastest growing religion in the world. For Europe and the U.S., this is now part of the context of immigration policies.