Immigration: A Radical Rethink

In a recent discussion with fellow Greek colleagues at a legal gathering in Berlin, we soon turned our attention away from the troubles of the Greek economy, and focused on the issue of thousands of illegal economic migrants that have flooded Athens living in inhuman conditions threatening to tear the social fabric apart. Citizens feel besieged, let down by a helpless state. Drugs, violent crime and prostitution, which are necessary companions of a lawless ghetto, complete a bleak picture that has the potential of radicalising the most moderate of humanitarian liberals and turning them into keen listeners of xenophobic rhetoric. With the country overwhelmed
and overrun by illegal migrants, there is the sense that the problem has perhaps acquired a greater urgency than the efforts to avert the impending financial default.

I recently watched the Panorama documentary (“Breaking into Britain” BBC1 16.6.2011 presented by Evan Davis) looking at the global dimensions of the problem and inevitably making a brief stop in Athens. It was a painful depiction of human tragedy and suffering involved. The inescapable conclusion of Panorama is that the immigration crisis across Europe is out of control. Desperate people who are prepared to risk their life and pay $12,000 (a fortune for them) to human traffickers and smugglers for a life-threatening and life-denigrating passage to the “promised” Euroland, will do anything and will keep coming through.

The policy of containment, of “Fortress Europe” has failed. So what can be done? According to Panorama, arrested intruders are “processed” and given a paper confirming they have a month to leave the country and then are released with the government’s blessings to go underground. They have no desire to go back and no money to go forward, and the government cannot afford to send them back. They have suffered and risked all in their westward Odyssey, and yet even inside the EU they are as far away as ever from their ‘promised land’. Deporting or arresting 100 million people flooding Europe would simply bankrupt the EU, without ever abating the flood!

Well, then, shall we accept that Europe will be swept away in the next decade or two by a tsunami of as many perhaps as a billion illegal economic migrants? I think we are left with no other alternative than to revisit the system of Temporary Guest Workers (TGW), but perhaps with a particular tweak that I would like to propose. Western democracies fear that benefits and human rights will turn the temporary workers into permanent residents, and, therefore are reluctant to embrace the TGW system. We need a radically new system that will create an incentive for the workers to go back willingly. I think the solution is, whilst allowing guest workers entry, to then defer part of their benefits and make them available conditional upon their return in (and payable at) their home country. Here is an outline of how a system like this could work:

- A European “Agency” administering the proposed Temporary Guest Workers Deferred Benefits Scheme (the “DeBS”) will set appropriate country quotas and offer to perspective migrants an EU DeBS “Green Card” based on a five year “Contract” which should be open to unskilled workers particularly from the most deprived areas in Asia and Africa, offered upon the payment of a “Fee” of €1,000 (approximately a tenth of the going rate for illegal “passage” in the trafficking black market), which would cover the cost for: (i) a return flight directly into a European host country, (ii) the processing of the application and (iii) the creation of two bank accounts in the name of the guest worker (the “GW”) with reputable European banks, one in their home country and another in the European member state.

- The Contract will entitle a GW to a very low pay (which will be an astronomical pay by the standards of their home country), together with subsistence and shared accommodation (that should meet minimum quality and health standards).

- The paid salary to be split in three parts: 1/3 paid in the host country every month. 2/3 in the form of “Deferred Benefits” paid in Euros in their bank account in their home country, which will only be available for them upon their return there, in the form of (a) a lump sum on their return (the “Lump Sum”); (b) a small annuity (the “Annuity”) paid over a minimum of 5 years.

- The GW will be expected to work up to 7 hours per day, up to 5 days a week, plus to receive 1.5 hours of free tuition daily as well as 5 more hours of free tuition during the weekend (e.g. learning a European language or some other basic skill, such as numeracy, information technology etc). After the payment of the Annuity has ceased, they will be entitled, to reapply for a new Contract and rejoin the DeBS, whereby the same process will be followed.

- Thanks to employer contributions and a small state subsidy, GW will be entitled to free medical care in the host country and a very small supplement pension payable in their home country after the age of 68, which will depend on the total number of years they have worked in Europe in the DeBS.

- If there is no available employment opportunity during the Contract, the Agency will still be obliged to provide food, shelter and medicare but the salary during that period will be limited to 50% of the amounts normally paid in the home bank account towards the Deferred Benefits. If work becomes available the GW will need to accept it or forfeit their hitherto accumulated Deferred Benefits.

What this Deferred Benefits Scheme aims to achieve, is to set up a massive circular human conveyer belt lifting desperate destitute people from poverty, allow them the opportunity to generate income and then “seeding” them back into their home societies with spending power, skills and a minimum of education, while at the same time using their contribution to boost growth in Europe. They will be returning home (as newcomers take their place in the opposite direction) emancipated, dignified, skilled citizens standing tall in their own countries. They will have investing power (the Lump Sum) and spending power (the Annuity) and might perhaps start a business upon their return. With thousands returning home each year, these countries will flourish. Based on the deposits of the Deferred Benefits a healthy and profitable banking system will be established which is crucial for the development of deprived countries.

Schools, universities, shops and factories will eventually be created. In 2 or 3 generations, there will be sufficient opportunities available at home to ease the haemorrhage of economic migrants. Democracy and prosperity will surely follow. With security and optimism they will be “forces for good” equipped with new progressive ideas on their return. Rather than harbour anti-Western resentment that breads a fertile ground for terrorist ideologies, they will each be international ambassadors of the dream that is Europe. The ghettos, the criminality, the health hazards, the chaos and the denigration of city centres will be eliminated, and European economies will regain competitiveness and grow again at phenomenal rates last seen in the 1960’s, with benefits far outweighing any temporary pressures in the European labour market.

Most importantly, Europe will salvage the integrity of its values, and will share in a practical way its vision for a fairer more balanced and evenly prosperous world. We must tame the great “monsters” of our time and put capitalism, mass migrations and globalisation to good use and effectively “socialise” and share the resulting wealth in a cordial, equal and dignified embrace with the developing world, engaging in trade rather than aid. Let us show the leadership that the world expects of Europe, and turn what seems like a daunting, unsolvable problem, into a unique opportunity to inject vitality in our economies and build lasting bridges lifting those parts of the world from poverty and deprivation. Let us employ a radical new thinking of openness in order to tackle stubborn problems yet unsolved through the old conventional wisdom of containment.