This is an excellent article by anthropologist, Darko Polsek, published in Forbes Croatia. It’s a must read with further links to citations of other experts.

How Middle Eastern Refugees Will Shake Up The European System – Forbes

Polsek concludes that Europeans cannot have it both ways – they cannot have elaborate safety nets and an expensive welfare state on one hand, and keep the moral high ground by accepting continuous waves of immigrants on the other, for long. He argues that the conviction that Europe’s identity was built on the “civilizing” effects of the welfare state is precisely the thing that prevents the solution of Europe’s problems. Polsek articulates the crux of the matter being that once Europeans perceive migrants as competitors for the same piece of cake, then conflicts are likely to follow suit.

Given my political views I tend to identify with Polsek’s conclusions. For me, the liberals have gone too far in Europe and there’s an urgent need to reform the welfare state and increase competitiveness in Europe. The bottom line is political rather than economic or even social – Europe will see increasing conflict as a result of policies without a cohesive strategy.

Thoughts?