Refugee influx a major opportunity
Refugee influx a major opportunity
But of course, first and foremost, I think we should be taking in the worlds persecuted simply because it is the right thing to do. But isn’t it nice for those of us who still have some compassion left that we can now counter the pessimists with a view that could well appeal to their sense of profiteering.Sure, refugees will be expensive when they first arrive, but Marcel Fratzscher, the head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), has said the hundreds of thousands of newcomers this year as well as the hundreds of thousands more expected over the coming years, are a major opportunity for Germany and that its strong financial position makes it ideally placed to welcome them and the benefits will outweigh the cost in 10 years.He said that Germany?s pending demographic crisis, which without sufficient immigration would lead to a shrinking of its working population by around 4.5 million over the next decade, mean huge opportunities for new arrivals to be integrated into the workplace.His report, launched today, presents a counter argument to the view in Germany and other countries including Britain that these economies are in danger of collapsing under the wave of refugees.In a recent report the Macroeconomic Policy Institute said the refugees would boost the German economy and ?act almost like a stimulus programme?, by forcing long overdue investments in Germany?s weakened infrastructure.The fact that most of them are young only boosts the benefits: ?Because the majority of them are under-25, there?s a lot of potential there,? Joachim Mˆller, head of the Institute for Employment Research, has said.Its obviously convenient that Germany will have a surplus in 2015 that will help pay the forecasted Eur10b cost this year (0.3 of their GDP). Other nations, Britain included, are still playing deficit catch up, but at least here is an argument that even the hard nosed can’t ignore – we might just gain some benefit from these poor, downtrodden souls, who will end up contributing to our collective workforces, earn their own way and pay into the system, especially in countries with aging populations.Despite my cheek above, attitudes towards refugees in the UK do seem to be shifting. At Opinium we’ve been monitoring public opinion toawrds refugees and there has been a postive shift in the past months.Opinium ran two polls in August (when the talk on refugees was rather negative) and September (with the talk shifting to a more humanitarian light) to understand how Brits feel about the recent crisis and whether these views have changed as time goes by.The UK appears to have developed a more humanitarian outlook on aiding the refugees. In August, two in five (40%) UK adults agreed that the UK has a moral obligation to take in refugees and migrants, increasing by almost a fifth to 58% in September. The idea that a willingness to help refugees and migrants is part of being British has also increased from just over half (55%) of UK adults in August to almost seven in ten (68%) in September.Its obviously expensive to bring in refugees. They need to be housed, fed and educated until they can stand on their own two feet, but if we can continue to bring ourselves to be compassionate and help these desperate souls, we may just end up thanking them in the end.
