Why Europe is tired of welcoming refugees

New arrivals have found countries with high unemployment rates and little meaningful work available

As Europe faces its worst refugee crisis since World War II, post-war humanitarian policies across the continent are under siege from the economic realities of today and a backlash from average citizens often struggling with high taxes that fund compassionate social policies.
Just as some members of the 28-member European Union begin to emerge from the economic malaise that followed the 2008 global economic crisis, migrants are arriving in unprecedented numbers. More than 1 million arrived in Europe last year, including 300,000 by sea, as they fled conflict and economic desperation in their home countries. An estimated 3,000 died or vanished at sea in their quest for a better life in Europe. And the toll continues - in the first month of 2016 another 244 died, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

And many who made it found it a dubious victory as they failed to find work and a fulfilling way of life.
Both migrants and European citizens are wary and confused. New arrivals have found countries with already high unemployment rates and little meaningful work available. Those who manage to open small shops might serve a limited clientele of other immigrants as time-honored European cuisines and traditions carry on in well-established local operations.
Yet whether it's accurate or not, many Europeans now hold the view that migrants are getting better treatment than taxpaying residents through free daycare for their children, healthcare, reduced or free rent and even subsidized cellphone service.
Humanitarian fatigue has set in across the region. Sweden, which long had a reputation for compassionate social policies, announced it will forcibly return 80,000 irregular immigrants that arrived last year and has temporarily closed the Øresund Bridge that connects it to Denmark.
Last year Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers, more than Germany in proportion to its population, but it is now taking a harder line and has instituted document checks at its borders.
France, whose revolution espoused the humanist views of Jean Jacques Rousseau, has also begun border controls, while the United Kingdom, famed for its Magna Carta and judiciary, blocked migrant arrivals from France using the EuroTunnel. The UK and France recently signed a security agreement covering the English Channel amid a growing movement in the UK to withdraw from the EU altogether.
Germany, long keen to show the world its benevolence following WWII, welcomed as many as 800,00 immigrants last year, but Chancellor Angela Merkel is now battling a range of critics, even from within her own political party. Horst Seehofer, leader of Bavaria's Christian Social Union, is calling for an end to the open-door policy and a cap of 200,000 new arrivals this year.
Heinz Buschkowsky, the former mayor of the Berlin district of Neukolln , one of Germany's most culturally mixed areas, told the Sunday Times of London that "there are some who think our immigrant policy is a (do-gooders') contest for the Mother Teresa award".
Resentment from the resident populations in countries across Europe is boiling over into support for right-wing or even extremist political parties. Ironically, anti-immigration parties are strong in the once-liberal Nordic states of Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The anti-immigrant movement in France headed by Marine Le Pen has made a strong showing at the polls and right-wing parties are becoming more vocal in Italy with Matteo Salvini and in the UK with Nigel Farage.
The discontent is also reflected in statistics. A poll by the European Commission found that only 40 per cent of respondents in a survey of 33 European cities said migrants have integrated well.
Germany's Merkel is calling for a unified EU policy, including 3.2 billion euros in funding for Turkey to block waves of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. But at the most recent meeting of EU leaders, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi opposed the measure.
Even as the EU fails to formulate a comprehensive strategy to meet the fluid geopolitical landscape, individual European countries are balking at more rules from Brussels because many think the EU is a bloated bureaucracy that doesn't listen, is out of touch and intrusive.
Not surprisingly, it is religious leaders that advocate the most inclusive approaches. The Catholic Church continues to urge its followers to overcome suspicion, fear and prejudice to follow the tenets of compassion and welcome.
Abdellah Redouane, secretary general of the largest mosque of Rome, recently stressed the importance of integration in economic mobility and social inclusion.
"Integration starts from a reciprocal knowledge," said Redouane. "Society is stuck when cannot integrate its different parts. That is why to re-thinking the Islamic thought is useful but not sufficient. Living in a modern society is something beyond faith and dogmas."
The feelings of many new arrivals might be captured best in a short epigram by the black female American poet Nayyirah Waheed: "You broke the ocean in half to be here. Only to meet nothing that wants you."
Yet both citizens and migrants need realistic, viable programmes that address meaningful employment, reasonable taxes and true integration - not merely more platitudes about how good Europeans are or should be.
Mariella Radaelli and Jon Van Housen are Editors at LuminosityItalia, a communications agency in Monza, Italy