Yes and no.
Yes – when austerity and bad management has impoverished the country and there are not enough houses, GPs, transport infrastructure, etc.
When resources are scarce, extra people coming into the country obviously make the scarcity or effects of poor infrastructure worse. Right-wing populists can then easily exploit the situation and scapegoat migrants & refugees. The answer isn't to say "there isn't a problem" – when there are obviously problems.
The root cause of the problems in this country isn't migration itself, but the broken economy and public services cut to the bone.
Even in a well-run country migration must be managed. Managed to ensure that there is enough housing, sufficient health services, etc. for the extra people coming in; or if that is too difficult, then to restrict numbers to what can be provided for. –Andy via email
Thank you for today's read Aman. I only have one question regarding your intro. You mention that migrants who arrive on a skilled worker visa contribute significantly to the economy, which is what I would assume anyways or else the particular skill would not have been on the list to obtain a skilled worker visa in the first place (from a migrant's perspective). Wouldn't it be more relevant to know how economic refugees, or people who are crossing into Europe for a better life, without having any highly sought after skills, are contributing to or impacting our systems?
My point is, if Europe really is in need of all these people, than why is the EU not setting up a process to recruit them from their home countries instead of waiting until they crossed the borders? So either there is a misalignment between the immigration systems and the economic needs or the European economies just don't need that many people to begin with, in which case the only solution I can see is to support global fair trade in hopes that one day no one feels the pressure to illegally cross borders for economic reasons. –Rico via email
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