No Gateway to the Sun

The rules of the game vary slightly in Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, the UK, Italy and Germany in terms of the number of chairs (or perhaps we should now say opportunities and jobs) that are available for the players. Some countries only have half the chairs that they need. And because there are so few chairs and the music plays so rarely, people who are already sitting stay sitting and those who are standing stay standing.

In real life it is even worse because a great many more people are being excluded.

In Southern and Eastern Europe, opportunities for young people are extremely scarce. As a result, young, often highly-skilled people are leaving their home countries, their societies (their chairs) and heading to other countries such as Germany on the hunt for more chairs.

They are not leaving their countries just for fun or because of a sense of adventure. They would rather stay. They would rather stay with their families and friends in a country whose language they speak. This is why tens of thousands of young people have been taking to the streets and occupying the squares of European cities. They have quickly been labelled the 'lost generation', but they do not want this tag. "We are not leaving" chanted the indignant youth of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. Rallies in support of this 'Spanish revolution' were held in Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Prague and Budapest – wherever young people felt they could soon be playing their own game of musical chairs.

For a long time, Germany was a country of immigration against its will, […] became the world's second most popular destination and the number one destination for migrants within Europe.

Yet many have already allowed themselves to be exiled, not only from the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, from the squares that housed their protests, but also from their home countries, which no longer offer them a gateway to the sun. Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians – they are all being driven from their countries, where unemployment is soaring, the mood is bleak and life is hard. Sometimes this migration is driven by desperation. After years of struggling with the crisis, growing numbers of people are sliding inexorably into poverty. They are moving to countries where the game of musical chairs is not so horribly difficult to win.

For a long time, Germany was a country of immigration against it will, but in 2012 and 2013 it became the world's second most popular destination and the number one destination for migrants within Europe.

Along with being the most attractive destination for migrants in Europe, Germany has also become a magnet for the migration of wealth. The migration of money precedes the migration of people. In the shadow of the huge bailouts handed out during the financial crisis, many people in Germany feel they have become Europe's paymaster. They are under the impression that horrendous amounts of taxpayers' money are draining away to Europe's southern nations. But in fact the exact opposite is true. People fail to realize that very little money has actually been paid out. Instead, the government has simply provided default guarantees – not so much with a view to helping Greece and Spain, but as a way of protecting the returns of northern banks.

They are under the impression that horrendous amounts of taxpayers' money are draining away to Europe's southern nations. But in fact the exact opposite is true. People fail to realize that very little money has actually been paid out. Instead, the government has simply provided default guarantees.

Germany became Europe's safe haven for money and earned big profits – thanks to the crisis. It is no coincidence that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is boasting about a balanced budget. The fall in interest rates on sovereign debt has led to a natural reduction in Germany's debt. The Finance Minister calculated that the country would be able to save almost €41 billion in interest payments between 2010 and 2014.

Between 2010 and 2012 new borrowing was €73 billion lower than expected. And when investors' money flows into Germany, it is followed by people from its countries of origin. Why should that be surprising?

Despite all its failings and despite the complaints and anger directed from Southern Europe towards Germany's austerity policies, the European Union is the best thing that has happened to Europe in it’s long history. There were seven wonders of the ancient world: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Lighthouse of Alexandra; the Pyramids of Giza; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. Today there is the European Union and the European Parliament, the world's only directly-elected supranational institution. A true wonder of the world.

Today there is the European Union and the European Parliament, the world's only directly-elected supranational institution. A true wonder of the world.

This modern wonder also encompasses the European Charter of Human Rights, freedom of movement, the right of asylum, protection for people who are persecuted in their home countries – all this is part of it, even if it is not always the case in practice.

The European Union is the best thing that has ever happened to Germans, French, Italians, Czechs, Danes, Poles, Spaniards, Flemish and Walloons, the Dutch, Greeks, Bavarians, Basques and the Baltic peoples. Europe is the culmination of all those historic peace treaties which never actually brought peace. The European Union is the conclusion of an almost thousand-year war, waged by almost everyone against almost everyone else. It is an undeserved paradise for the people of an entire continent. The two letters EU represent a golden age in European history.

We write them down, we say them, and we are almost afraid because they are no longer in tune with the general mood. Fewer and fewer people believe in them because in daily life the European emphasis is being worn away and swamped by economic concerns and the social anxieties of its citizens. People are afraid, and many European politicians respond to this fear by repeating the above accolades, saying the European Union is the best thing that has ever happened to Germans, French, etcetera, etcetera throughout their long history.

When their own country becomes weak, they want to turn to Europe as their second home. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for protesters across Europe to repeatedly demand that their governments act with a certain degree of economic integrity in a globalised world. Internal peace relies on rules for a form of economic activity that is also socially responsible.

Right now, too many citizens simply do not know why they should want Europe. They are told that only the EU can be a powerful player on the world stage, but they feel no sense of this power. Particularly in the countries of Southern and Southeast Europe, there is a general feeling that the nations of Europe are losing their influence, but that the EU is not gaining it. It is growing in size but not in power. This has to change. Up to now, people in Europe have generally travelled from north to south – on holiday, for recreation, for relaxation and enjoyment. Meanwhile, people have migrated from south to north in order to work and make a living. As long as things are so one-sided, so anti-cyclic, Europe will never be in balance.

Migration in Europe should not be migration of necessity; there should not be a sense of having to migrate in order to survive. Migration within Europe should be a positive choice that is not driven by mere survival but by a desire to improve oneself and create a better life. Ideally, people should not only think of themselves as being Greek, Italian, Polish or Romanian, but also as being European, because Europe has become or is becoming their second home.

It would be wonderful if the people who sally forth in Europe had the same experience as that of Goethe during his travels to Italy in 1786. Not necessarily in terms of his 'night and fog', but by sharing his aim of finding a new orientation, gaining inspiration from new people and new places, the stimulus of the unknown.

Up to now, people in Europe have generally travelled from north to south – on holiday, for recreation, for relaxation and enjoyment. Meanwhile, people have migrated from south to north in order to work and make a living. As long as things are so one-sided, so anticyclic, Europe will never be in balance.

European exchange programmes, Erasmus and European student networks all provide vehicles for the kind of migration that is driven by choice. I have personal experience of this, as my daughter Nina has become an enthusiastic and committed European since her time with ELSA, the European Law Students Association. This European student network helped her to begin thinking of Europe as her home.

Today, Germany is a country of immigration. The German word Einwanderung (immigration) has largely been replaced by the neologism Zuwanderung (in-migration). So the German Immigration Act of 2004, which came into force on 1 January 2005, is not the Einwanderungsgesetz but the Zuwanderungsgesetz. Its sub-heading takes a negative tone, focusing not on the acceptance and integration of migrants, but on their rejection and the sense of unease caused by excessive immigration. The full title of this Act, which created a new basis for German laws on aliens, is the "Act for the Control and Limitation of Immigration and for Regulation of the Residency and Integration of Citizens of the European Union and Foreigners".

Former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth and her committee worked hard on drafting this Act, with the intention of rolling out the red carpet for immigrants and paving the way for good integration. The idea was to provide a proper structure for immigration by setting up a points system similar to that used in Canada. But the red carpet turned into something of a wet blanket in the wake of vehement protests from the conservative CDU/CSU and the intervention of Roland Koch, the Minister-President of Hesse, whose successful campaign against dual citizenship was not exactly welcoming towards foreigners and immigrants.

Back then, migrants who were seeking asylum triggered an agonizing and painful debate about Germany's basic asylum rights, which until that point had been cherished by constitutional experts and lawmakers as a guiding light of the constitution. By the end of this debate and the anti-foreigner campaigns, basic asylum rights had been scaled down and policies on refugees tightened.

Today the situation is very different. The terrible circumstances in the Middle East have inevitably led to an increase in the number of refugees heading for Germany. But over two thirds of all migrants come from within the European Union. They are not seeking asylum in Germany but are enjoying the freedom of movement offered by the EU. They are seeking good jobs and a decent living. Taxpayers' money is being spent on encouraging skilled workers to move to Germany.

Turks were once the archetypal immigrants, who generally moved to the Ruhr area – or at least this was the public perception. In the 1990s, more and more Russian-speaking people arrived in German cities as resettlers. They were joined by growing numbers of asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan and by Roma from Serbia.

According to 2012 figures, most of the new migrants come from Poland (197,000), followed by Romania (135,400) and Hungary and Bulgaria with 60,000 each. A new trend is Germany's growing attraction for people from Southwestern Europe. More and more young Italians are moving to Germany (Italy takes third place in the rankings, with 60,700 migrants). Spaniards, Croats, Portuguese and Greeks are also heading for Germany to seek their fortune. In some of these countries, youth unemployment is over 50 percent.

The EU countries that were particularly badly hit by the crisis are losing their highly-skilled young people to other labour markets.

Immigration from European Union countries to Germany doubled between 2009 and 2012. The high rates of migration from Eastern Europe can also be explained by the catch-up effect – full freedom of movement for citizens of Eastern European Member States was postponed for seven years after their accession. When the European Union accepted ten new members in 2004, only three countries (Sweden, UK and Ireland) immediately opened up their borders to workers from the new Member States. The others were slower to open up, resulting in the catch-up effect that they are now experiencing. Romania and Bulgaria, which both joined the EU in 2007, had to go through a long transition period before gaining full freedom of movement to Germany at the beginning of 2014. This is one of the reasons for the surge in the numbers of migrants coming to Germany. The second reason, as previously mentioned, is the economic crisis and the high unemployment rates experienced in the countries of Southwestern Europe.

It is mainly migrants from Southeastern Europe who are producing the changed migration flows. People flooded to Spain during the construction boom: in 2007 alone, one million men and women moved to Spain to work. Almost 900,000 Romanians and Bulgarians were living on the Iberian Peninsula one year before the economic crisis hit. The Spanish economy crashed and what was once an immigration country has now become a country that is given a wide berth, almost an emigration country. The people who moved to Spain have now moved on, and no-one is taking their place.

The EU countries that were particularly badly hit by the crisis are losing their highly-skilled young people to other labour markets. Initially it acts as a reprieve, as it reduces pressure on the labour markets of the crisis-ridden countries of Southern and Eastern Europe, along with the attendant pressure on their welfare systems. But it also means that these countries will find themselves facing a shortage of skilled young people when their economies begin to grow again. But how are they to grow without skilled workers? Their loss is dangerous if – and because – it moves from being a symptom to a cause of the crisis, and could potentially lengthen it.