‘Without migrants, life would be boring!’

But the participants to this panel hardly felt that burden. ‘Why do I have more right to live in Germany than someone else?’ Diana Siebert from Köln asked, adding that a privileged elite of ‘cosmobiles’ travels the world, living wherever they choose, whereas others are denied access as soon as they cross a border. No-one really contested what she said. But in the course of the debate some panellists proved more choosy than others about whom to allow in.They all spoke from their own experience. Markus Drake from Finland, training as a journalist in Istanbul, was first confronted with the …. consequences of forced economic migration when visiting the refugee camp in the Spanish enclave of Melilla as a member of a delegation of the Federation of Young European Greens. Bartek Lech from Poland, a former co-operator of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Warsaw, hunts jobs in Brussels because his prospects in Poland are bleak. And Argentine born Inti Suarez, having studied and worked in Switzerland, lives in the Netherlands ‘because there my Dutch wife, my son and I myself are better off.’ They all defended the ‘fundamental right’ for people to settle where they choose. But their stories were different and so were their proposals to limit the possible negative effects. Impregnable FortressWhen Markus Drake visited the black Africans in Melilla, he was surprised that the camp had no gates. When talking to the refugees, he soon saw why. ‘Where would these people go? In the rest of the European Union they’d face the same insecurity as inside the camp. Then Europe is not an impregnable fortress. But it only has loopholes for those who are wanted.’ To limit the damage for both sides, he said, ‘a strict social policy should be implied: if the migrants don’t get the same wages and rights as we Europeans do, our wages will drop and our and working conditions be lowered.’Bartek Lech, though looking forward to his new homeland, is persuaded that most people only move from the country they were born in when they have to. Unfortunately, many Polish feel that necessity nowadays. Unemployment is low, but many people work below the level of their skills because the country can’t afford to give them anything better. Or they leave, which is causing a true brain drain.’ The government may be to blame, he said, but Europe with its economic differences and lack of social policies has a responsibility as well.’Brain GainInti Suarez realised that he was incomfortable with the point of view of his party, GroenLinks, that migration from developing countries should be discouraged because it causes brain drain. Being a higher educated Third Worlder himself, he believes ‘it is a brain gain as well, because migrants from the South learn a lot from living in Europe – and generally send money home too. So let’s allow migration, but at the same time set up a policy, making sure that the social situation of the immigrants is all right, that they participate politically, etc. And let the ‘receiving’ countries decide whom they need. This may sound egoist. But would it be sustainable to let everybody come in?’Bartek Lech: ‘you ignore that the economic situation in that country is often better than that in the countries of origin. So the first country is in a way forcing people from the latter to come. That country should put the economic situation in the other country right. So let us talk about EU social policies and propose a minimum basic income – which goes further than the policy document the European Green Party accepted in Geneva – and expand the Nordic social model even beyond the borders of the EU.’ Stop sucking Marcus Drake: ‘Trade unions can do a lot to prevent problems too. Most Polish go to the United Kingdom (and Ireland, which for a long time were the only member states admitting them unconditionally, l.t.). To fight the negative effects for both migrants and British workers, British trade unions now are co-operating with Polish migrants.’ Inti Suarez: ‘You can’t just export our social system to developing countries, they have an entirely different social context. Let us stop sucking these countries’ economies for a start, and introduce international rules for fair trade. In coastal Senegal people used to live on fish until the European boats came to catch it all, forcing the fishermen to earn a living taking tourists to the Canary islands.’ Cleaner in DublinQuestion from the audience: ‘What would be the brain gain for a Polish engineer working as a cleaner in Dublin, accused by the lower qualified locals of taking their jobs and their houses away, thus adding to the popularity of the extreme right?’Inti Suarez: ‘What is the added value of a Turkish migrant in the Netherlands? You only will know much later because these are long-term processes. So give it time. When there are not enough university posts in Poland, Polish students might go to Switzerland to do research. Will they go back? We don’t know. Will they make the social system collapse? You won’t find a clear answer. So take the risk, which is what the migrants are doing all the time. And I would say to the right: migrants can’t live on social welfare and take jobs away at the same time! So let us Greens not waste time and energy defending us against the right, but come up with clear proposals. Let us make migration sustainable by demanding qualifications from those who want to come in or asking them to find a job within a year if they don’t want to be sent back. Switzerland does. And it works.’ Pyjama daysMarcus Drake: ‘Sometimes we are forced to counter the right wing’s arguments. But often they are not justified. When Portugal and Spain entered the European Union, France agreed on condition that people from those countries would not be allowed in for ten years. Only five years later it realised that there was no danger at all. I’m sure the same will happen with Rumania and Bulgaria.’ Inti Suarez: ‘Often the consequences of closing the borders are worse.’ Imke van der Zwan: ‘There are two sides to it: when we allow migrants unlimited access to our labour market, our social security will drop. When we don’t allow them in at all, we’ll have to work till we’re 75, or have pyjama days when living in old people’s homes because there’s nobody to wash us.’Albano Cordeiro: ‘Often migrants contribute to economic development, because they generally come from the middle classes – the poor cannot afford to leave. Half of the economic growth of Spain is due to the immigrant workers. And because they pay a lot into social security funds, the effects will last till 2030. Ireland’s Gross Domestic Product also has also increased because of immigration.’Albano Cordeiro:Michael Stimson: ‘I thought I was with Greens! I thought our parties were about making life healthier, and about allowing people to work. There are other reasons to welcome them than just economic growth: migrants bring a bit of interest to our societies. Without them, Britain would be very boring indeed!’