Saturday, August 31, 2024

Links - 31st August 2024 (1 - Migrants)

Remix News & Views on X - "🇩🇪🇸🇾Syrian population in Germany soars
2016: 60,000 Syrians in Germany
2023: 972,000 Syrians
🔺That's a 16x increase in 7 years.
🔺Over half receive citizen's welfare = 513,534 Syrians.
🔺Many of the rest receive housing, medical, etc. through the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits
🔺 65% of welfare recipients overall have a migration background, and 10% of Germany's total budget goes towards welfare payments known as "citizens' money."
🔺Germany continues to report soaring debt levels, with record budget deficits in 2023, equaling €2.45 trillion."
Whyvert on X - "There are 972,000 Syrians in Germany in 2023. 513,534 of them are on welfare. Many of the rest get government housing and other benefits."
Whyvert on X - "In 2017, a survey of economists by the Chicago Booth School of Business asked if refugees will benefit Germany. Only 6% said they would be net cost. Almost 1 million Syrians in Germany, over half on welfare, the rest get medical, housing benefits. Not great forecasting."
Clearly, to close the deficit, they need to import even more "refugees", because everyone knows that that's the only way to solve the demographic timebomb
If you don't trust the experts, you are ignorant

Remix News & Views on X - "🇩🇪‼️ On Saturday, two 14 and 15-year-old German girls were waiting at the bus station in Freital-Döhlen when they were approached by a 24-year-old Libyan migrant and sexually harassed. Another passenger intervened and the suspect tried to flee, but he was stopped by several passers-by who restrained him and kicked him on the ground.  Those who intervened are now being investigated for assault."

🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 on X - "Due to the riots going over in the UK there much attention on the corruption of their police force. However Germany's Police is far worse, they've announced that they'll arrest anyone sharing this video of a German kid being beaten by Migrants. Thankfully I live in Japan so 🖕"

Axel Rudakubana named as suspect in Taylor Swift dance class stabbings - The Washington Post - "Britain got a name and a look Thursday at the 17-year-old charged with murdering three young girls and attempting to kill 10 others in a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class... A judge agreed to lift the anonymity usually provided to minors in part to curb the speculation and misinformation that has sparked violent clashes in five cities and towns between far-right, anti-immigrant rioters and police.  The defendant’s name is Axel Rudakubana. He is not an asylum seeker, nor did he recently arrive in Britain by crossing the English Channel illegally on a raft, as incorrect and misleading social media posts had asserted. Nor was he a refugee on a watch list.  He was born in Cardiff, Wales. His parents are originally from Rwanda... Rudakubana is also set to turn 18 on Wednesday, when his name would probably have been released anyway, which could provide an “additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder,” the judge said.  Rudakubana is accused of murdering Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, with a curved kitchen knife on Monday after entering the dance class."
If the truth is not made public, it can be conveniently dismissed as "misinformation"

Captain Benjamin 🐺 on X - "I don’t know how common Rudakubana is as a surname in Rwanda, but this is odd that there was an elite commander in the Rwandan genocide with that name Even more odd when you know that there was also an asylum scheme which did allow some of the top brass in that genocide to escape from Rwanda and claim and asylum in Britain.  And even stranger still that there have been reports of Axel saying to classmates that Britain needed a genocide like Rwanda.  Very very dark."

Meme - End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "Media coverage of the monster who kiIIed 3 girIs in Southport vs reality:
*Axel Rudakubana as innocent young boy*
*Axel Rudakubana as young man*"

Meme - Paige🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @PaigeGCMG: ""Axel was expelled for carrying a knife/told us we needed a genocide like they had in Rwanda" #Southport #southportattack "
"Axel was expelled for carrying a knife. He was my class and teld us thet we needed a genocide like they had in Rwanda to fix the problems. Police knew him and he was known to social services"

Liza Rosen on X - "British woman harassed in London by Pakistani migrants who tried to terrorize Hindus in Britain over India's Security policy in Kashmir. UK's Indian community has a right to celebrate the Diwali (Hindu festival of lights) in peace, security & without fear."

Darren Grimes on X - "“The taxpayer doesn’t pay for asylum seekers.” These people walk among us."
Left wingers keep saying no one is illegal. Presumably this is linked to the current fetish for "people-centred language", so "immigrant who has migrated illegally" would be okay (for now). But they despise the law anyway (at least when it suits their agenda), so

Thread by @sam_bidwell on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "When we talk about immigration, we're often told that we need immigration because our public services, like the NHS, are reliant on it.  A short 🧵 on why this is nonsense - and why we shouldn't let the NHS be a thought-terminating cliché when discussing migration:
Let's start with a basic point - most migrants don't come to the UK to work in the NHS.  In fact, according to analysis from @BernoulliDefect, just 2.6% of the 1.22 million migrants who came to the UK in 2023 did so using the Health and Social Care Visa route. It's not even fair to say that immigrants are *disproportionately* likely to work in the NHS - thanks again to @BernoulliDefect.  Clearly then, it's possible to cut immigration - even radically so - without impacting the NHS' access to an overseas labour pool...
But maybe it's still fair to say that the system is 'dependent' on migration? After all, we don't have enough people training to be doctors and nurses here in the UK - it's simply inevitable that we have to prop up our system with foreign-trained practitioners, right?
Nope - this is entirely a self-imposed problem.  In partnership with the British Medical Association, the Government caps the number of training places at UK medical schools - currently it's 7,500, though there are indications that this might be increased over time to 15,000. When the cap was temporarily lifted in 2020/21, demand for medical training places shot up - before the cap was reimposed in 2022.  The obstacle to a self-sustaining NHS workforce is the UK Government's reticence to make a long-term investment in the UK's domestic workforce. This decision stems back to 2008, when the BMA voted to cap the number of medical places and ban the opening of new medical schools - for fear of "overproducing" doctors and "devaluing the profession".  This is racketeering and protectionism, plain and simple.
Between 2010 and 2021, 348,000 UK-based applicants were refused a place on a nursing course.  The House of Lords found that, in 2016 alone, 770 straight-A students were rejected from all medical courses to which they applied.  Failing to train our own workforce is a choice.
And, of course, there are second-order impacts of migration on public services as well. Like the rest of us, migrants use the NHS - between 2010 and 2020, there were 7 million new GP registrations by migrants.  That's BEFORE the 2022/23 spike in overall migration.
"But what if we rejected those applicants because they weren't good enough? We don't want low-quality medical practitioners."  As @93vintagejones notes, foreign-trained doctors are 2.5x more likely to be referred to the GMC as unfit to practice than British-trained doctors. We've known for years that foreign-trained doctors are more likely to fall below expected standards than British-trained ones.  We're substituting a high-quality domestic workforce for a low-quality international one, thanks to BMA protectionism and government incompetence.
"But training takes time! We won't be able to fill those gaps immediately."  First, successful management of public services requires a long-term perspective.  Second, that may be the case - so create a special, time-limited visa route for practitioners from certain countries.
Plenty of countries have schemes that enable high-quality migrants to come to the country for a fixed period of time, under particular conditions.  A policy of using migrant doctors to fill short-term gaps doesn't require us to open the borders in perpetuity - obviously. "But even if you opened those training places, you wouldn't fill them with British people."  Once again, we know that this isn't true - when the cap was temporarily removed, applications increased.  And if that doesn't work, there's a case for increasing public sector pay.
However we choose to address the NHS workforce, the key takeaway is that we shouldn't allow this to be a thought-terminating cliché.  Most migrants don't contribute to the NHS.  Our "reliance" on migration is entirely self-imposed.  We can choose to do things differently."

Meme - *Rubber dinghy of white people leaving*
*Rubber dinghy of black and brown people arriving*
Migrant: "where u going who gonna work for our benefits?"

End Wokeness on X - "Holy sh*t The illegal migrant who was arrested in March for r*ping a 15-year-old girl was released on $500 bail. But wait, it gets even worse: He was FLOWN in by Biden-Harris."

Meme - LouiseMichel @MVLouiseMichel: "Today, 40 people were rescued from two unseaworthy boats by the Louise Michel. All survivors have been safely brought onboard and provided food, water, and medical care."
Klaus Arminius @Klaus_Arminius: "This NGO group claims they “rescued” these immigrants.  The reality: NGO ship left Italy, docked at Libyan waters, waited for immigrants then picked them up.  They could’ve returned them to Libya but chose to bring them back to Italy.  NGOs are in collusion with migrant smugglers"

The effects of exposure to refugees on crime: Evidence from the Greek islands - "Recent political instability in the Middle East has triggered one of the largest influxes of refugees into Europe. The different departure points along the Turkish coast generate exogenous variation in refugee arrivals across Greek islands. We construct a new dataset on the number and nature of crime incidents and arrested offenders at island level using official police records and newspaper reports. Instrumental variables and difference-in-differences are employed to study the causal relationship between immigration and crime. We find that a 1-percentage-point increase in the share of refugees on destination islands increases crime incidents by 1.7–2.5 percentage points compared with neighboring unexposed islands. This is driven by crime incidents committed by refugees; there is no change in crimes committed by natives on those islands. We find a significant rise in property crime, knife attacks, and rape, but no increase in drug crimes. Results based on reported crimes exhibit a similar pattern. Our findings highlight the need for government provision in terms of infrastructure, social benefits, quicker evaluation for asylum, and social security."
Clearly, this is due to racism, discrimination and stigma by locals. The solution is to bring in even more refugees so the locals learn to be kinder and more tolerant

Do refugees impact crime? Causal evidence from large-scale refugee immigration to Germany - "Does large-scale refugee immigration affect crime rates in receiving countries? We address this question based on the large and unexpected refugee inflow to Germany that peaked in 2015–2016. Arriving refugees were dispersed across the country based on a binding dispersal policy, yet we show that systematic regional sorting remains. Our empirical approach examines spatial correlations between refugee inflows and crime rates using the administrative allocation quotas as instrumental variables. Our results indicate that crime rates were not affected during the year of refugee arrival, but there was an increase in crime rates one year later. This lagged effect is small per refugee but large in absolute terms and is strongest for property and violent crimes. The crime effects are robust across specifications and in line with increased suspect rates for offenders from refugees’ origin countries. Yet, we find some indication of over-reporting."

Meme - Zara @zarahussain999: "We will not fight for Britain"
Durham (Far Right) Massive: "Why would you? you're not British"
Zara @zarahussain999: "I'm now a British citizen :)"

Meme - Gandalf at parapets of Gondor: "Sire, the orcs are here"
Gandalf to Theoden: "Well don't be racist, let them in!"

Meme - Norway: "You were like a brother to me. I loved you"
Sweden (in Arabic): "I love you too Norway"

Whyvert on X - "One group of migrants in Sweden is making a positive contribution: Ukrainians. After only two years, 66% have a job. Half speak Swedish already. Not living on welfare, not engaging in crime."
Dynasty Builder🌱☀️ on X - "Ukrainians’ rape rate in Germany is even lower than that of German passport-holders. A big difference from migrants’ normal outcomes in German cities like Frankfurt."
Damn racism! They always treat white people better!

Connor Tomlinson on X - "The Guardian laments how formerly-progressive Sweden now has net negative immigration for the first time in 50 years. Swedes are legally required to report illegal migrants to the authorities. This has deterred the thousands of illegal migrants breaking into France and Britain from trying their luck in Sweden.
“The statistics show Sweden having a net outflow of immigrants for the first time in decades,” Annika Sandlund, the UNHCR representative to the Nordic and Baltic countries, told the Guardian.  Tobias Hübinette, a senior lecturer in intercultural studies at Karlstad University says for Swedish society, “it’s a pure catastrophe”, because fewer Somalians, Iraqis, and Syrians will come
As an Englishman, I would like to remind Swedes who are persuaded by Holmgren that 72% of Somalians and >30% of Iraqs in Britain live in taxpayer-funded social housing. Studies from Denmark and the Netherlands show these populations commit crimes at 2.5 times the rate of Nordic natives, and are never net tax contributors across their lifetime.
These new arrivals are not cultural or economic contributors. They live en masse at the host population's expense. If polite, progressive Sweden can pursue this sensible policy, then surely politicians in the UK can propose we do the same?"

Sweden faces a crisis because of flood of immigrants - "There was a time when Sweden was looked upon by American liberals as an inspirational example of the Scandinavian welfare state. Although Europeans were less impressed, even the country’s immediate neighbors tended to, grudgingly, accept Sweden as a senior brother. After staying out of World War II, Sweden had evolved into a high-performing export-oriented economy, based on a stable parliamentary democracy and social consensus. The country had top-notch health care and education. It enjoyed social and gender equality, had low crime rates and little ethnic conflict. While grounds remain for optimism about some of these indicators, especially in the industrial sector, most have been transformed beyond recognition. Present-day Sweden carries the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of gangland killings in Europe. It boasts the lowest average age of serious offenders, with children in their low teens being arrested for murder. Increasing segments of suburbs are officially classified as “especially vulnerable areas,” where it is “hard, bordering on impossible” for the police to operate. In layman’s terms, these are no-go zones, where local clans rule and where first responders will not enter without flak jackets and police escort. An early warning was provided in 2017 when United States President Donald Trump made a quip about rioting in Sweden: “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this!” Who indeed? At the time, such comments were met with disdain and ridicule. Today, it is not so funny anymore. Sweden has transitioned from being a model of inspiration to becoming a warning example. As gangland violence is spreading across borders, its Scandinavian neighbors experience growing fears of ending up in what is known in Denmark as the “Swedish condition.” Defying an old taboo, the Swedish government has called on the military to assist the police. It has even come to the point where the governor of the Bank of Sweden, Erik Thedeen, tells the Financial Times that the growing problem of shootings and bombings is so serious that it risks damaging the country’s long-term economic growth. Given the negative impact that a statement of this kind will have on markets, it is not to be taken lightly. Central bank governors weigh their words very carefully. While the deterioration in physical security is causing Swedish nationals with entrepreneurial skills to leave the country, it is also becoming increasingly difficult for industry to recruit high-level talent from abroad. These problems are amplified by a deterioration in the quality of education that has resulted from increasing ethnic disorder and outright violence in schools. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment rankings of students, Sweden is trending down. For a knowledge-based country, this is serious indeed, and the central bank is far from alone in raising the alarm. Warning bells have been sounding with increasing intensity for some time, and the political sphere has finally begun to shed its long-standing denial. The problem is that few if any seem to know what can be done. The main cause of the crisis is a combination of an open-door migration policy with no accompanying policy to help the newcomers integrate. The consequence has been the emergence of neighborhoods where almost all residents are immigrants, where unemployment rates are very high and where the children of immigrants go to schools where no other children, often not even teachers, are proficient in Swedish. This has served as an incubator for crime, as gangs take over where society fails. Having been long in denial, even the Social Democrats have now released a report of their own, recognizing that two decades of excessive immigration and failed integration have produced a national crisis. According to official statistics, the number of foreign-born residents in Sweden has increased dramatically over the past two decades. Out of a population of 10.61 million in 2022, a total of 2.14 million were registered as foreign-born, more than double the number in 2000. That comes to just over 20 percent. If a broader definition is used, to include those who are born in Sweden with two foreign-born parents, the number rises to 26 percent. Even if the government were to close the door completely on further immigration – which is clearly not going to happen – the share of foreign-born residents will likely still increase, for demographic reasons... At a casual glance, these numbers need not be taken as evidence of a dark future ahead. Those who take a positive view of migrants and asylum-seekers are right in pointing out that Sweden has a long history of successful immigration. The problem with this argument is that it refuses to accept that all migrants are not the same. The Swedish government has recently commissioned a study of the costs and benefits of migration, to be broken down by countries of origin. It is expected to highlight the current challenge: the task of integrating large numbers of illiterate adults with many children. Previous immigration waves amounted to accepting people from culturally similar countries who move straight into gainful employment. The reason why the problem has been allowed to get out of control is that so many representatives of the media and of the political establishment have for so long been cocooned in naive views of criminal dangers, leading to extremely lax legislation and enforcement, and of dangerous strains of Islamism, leading to a profound inability to scale up defenses against the current wave of radicalization. Those chickens are now coming home to roost. The heavy influx of migrants from countries with Muslim populations could lead to a situation in which Sweden elects a radical Islamist party to parliament, potentially as early as the 2026 election. (The Swedish name of the party is “Nyans,” which translates, interestingly, into “Nuance.”) While virtually all Swedes were Christians from the 12th to the early 20th centuries, that share has fallen to less than 60 percent today. It is not inconceivable that Sweden will have a majority Muslim population sometime this century. The trend is bound to energize Islamist circles that are calling for a divided legal system, where Sharia law applies for Muslim citizens... Denmark has been so successful because it started before the problems had gotten out of hand. In Sweden, the government has not only started late but also shied away from adopting the Danish example in its entirety. Doing so would require the dispersal of migrants to different regions and the requirement that children of migrants learn the local language and values, as in Denmark. The reason why this is not being considered in Sweden is that the existing agenda is already viewed as so radical that the outcome in the next general election is impossible to predict... the core of the problem is the uncertainty that legislation and law enforcement alone can be effective against the deepening chasm in societal norms and values. If that divide cannot be bridged, and few if any seem to know how that may be done, then the best that can be hoped for is that increasingly draconian law enforcement could curb the worst problems, as the country gets used to living with a parallel society that is ruled by gangs and radical Islamists. There are ample reasons for the neighbors to be concerned."
I remember when a Swede claimed that all the grenade explosions were really just firecrackers and only racists were worried

Meme - Inquisitive Bird @Scientific_Bird: "I have now completed my review of immigration and crime in Sweden. A short summary of the findings:
- Immigrants are overrepresented in crime in Sweden, especially organized crime.
- This persists into second generation.
- It's not explained by age and socioeconomic status."
"Rate of criminal suspicion in Sweden, by offense and background, 2015-2018
Crimes against life and health
Crimes against liberty and peace
Sexual crimes
Crimes of theft
Fraud
Crimes of vandalism and damages
Traffic crimes
Drug crimes
Deadly violence
Rape
Home burglary
Robbery"

How Did an Entire Sri Lankan Handball Team Vanish in Germany? - "The national German handball team was coming to Sri Lanka for a friendly match in Minuwangoda, a town on the western side of the island. The exhibition was being put on by the Asian-German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP), an organization designed to expose young people in Sri Lanka to other cultures through sporting events. For it, the Sri Lankan Sports Ministry had hired a handball coach named Athula Wijenayaka, who Dietmar Doering, the founder of the AGSEP, believes was the one to dream up the wild plot to create a fake Sri Lankan national handball team. The team would be composed of 23 Sri Lankan men, who would fly to a national tournament in Germany, play handball and then promptly disappear... At 5 a.m., they finally slipped out of their hotel. “All of us, in groups of two and four, walked outside in different directions,” says Chandana. “We didn’t speak to others about where we were heading to.” That way, just in case any of them got caught, they wouldn’t have any information that might jeopardize one another. That said, most of them knew where they were headed anyway: Italy. “We knew from our relatives and friends, once we reached Italy there was no way of sending us back,” says Chandana. “Italian people are very friendly, and they like us to work in their restaurants. Sri Lankans in Italy have no problems with the police. We aren’t involved in drugs or any other criminal activities.”...  Within a decade, more than half of the 23 Sri Lankan handball players would return home... Doering, he originally wanted to bring every member of the team to court. “They made me look like a fool,” he says. After the incident, the German embassy also blacklisted AGSEP from ever participating in sporting events in the country again. “No more teams got visas thereafter,” he says. “That’s the sad side of the whole thing.”"

Meme - Carl Benjamin @Sargon_of_Akkad: "Just take a moment to reflect on how preposterous this statement is. She's saying that Americans aren't allowed their own self-identity to exclude other identities, that they aren't able to determine who is and isn't American. Americans, to her, are the nowhere people."
TheBlaze @theblaze: "Michelle Obama says Americans don't have a right to decide who enters our country: "No one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American! No one!""

Flyer Offering $30K Home Grant for Migrants Sparks Outrage, Company Apology - "An organization is apologizing after reports about its $30,000 homebuyer assistance program indicated that the funds were available only to non-U.S. citizens.  The circulating flyer about the Hacienda Community Development Corporation (HCDC) program sparked outrage on the Varney & Co. Fox Business show for allegedly providing $30,000 in home grants only to non-U.S. citizens living in Oregon.  "A taxpayer-funded group is offering $30,000 to new homebuyers....You cannot apply if you're an American citizen. What's with that?" Stuart Varney said on the show. The flyer shown in the segment specified that the grant was available only to non-U.S. citizens, including DACA recipients, refugees and green card holders.  "This is state-sponsored discrimination," Lauren Simonetti, a Fox business news anchor, said on the program. "That's their goal. They want to open up and the 'American dream' to non-U.S. citizens."  Varney added: "That's why we have an open border because eventually these folks will vote and vote Democrat because they're the people that let them in. That's what this is about."... The Latino-led organization based in Oregon receives funds for mortgage down payment assistance from Oregon SB 1579, the Economic Equity Investment Act, to "build economic stability, self-sufficiency, wealth-building opportunities and economic equity among disadvantaged individuals, families, businesses, and communities in the state," Fonseca said.  The nonprofit said the down payment money was available to 21 homebuyers through a pilot program funded through the Oregon Department of Economic Development. Participants had to be Oregon taxpayers with a mortgage pre-approved by a bank or credit union and meet two out of five risk factors outlined by the program, according to Fonseca.  The risk factors include experiencing discrimination because of race or ethnicity, English language proficiency, citizenship status, socioeconomic status and residence in a rural location... Hacienda issued a public statement on its website to clarify the claims that circulated about the program.  "Over the past few days, false information about Hacienda CDC and one of our downpayment assistance programs has rapidly circulated in conservative media, tabloid websites, and social media," the statement says.  "At the root of this are untrue claims about the people Hacienda serves. To be clear, we do not discriminate against anyone and serve all Oregonians equally.""
Clearly, if an organisation puts out "wrong" information and faces backlash, it's the fault of "conservatives"

blog comments powered by Disqus