# Angela Merkel and immigrants **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 26, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633 "2016-12-26T06:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ric62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@ric62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ric62)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/1 "2016-12-26T06:05:26Z")
I would assume that Angela Merkel’s has some humanitarian reasons for letting immigrants into the German country and the rest of Europe. But I am also wondering that she is thinking the German economic engine needs more workers to remain strong and growing. Is her decision more than humanitarian or am I too skeptical? ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/2 "2016-12-26T07:18:41Z")
The decision not to apply Dublin in Autumn 2015 was made as a temporary reaction to the situation in Hungary. Since, German policy on refugees hasn’t really been a policy but an emergent result of the German state being bound by the rule of law and of the real impossibility to deny pepole going where they want to go without detaining them, and the really, really onerous process of deporting people who exactly know (thanks to the Internet) how to throw spanners into the works of their deportation. Workers aren’t really an issue - Germany can get all the qualified immigrants it needs from the Eastern European EU countries. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/3 "2016-12-26T07:37:57Z")
Young, healthy, often technically or professionally qualified, fecund and technically white people. For free. She has basically kicked Germany’s demographic forward for a couple of decades. No matter what spin the German government puts on it. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/4 "2016-12-26T08:18:09Z")
**Moderator Action** This is going to be very difficult to answer within the factual bounds of GQ. Let’s try IMHO instead so that folks can give their opinions about Merkel’s motives. Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/5 "2016-12-26T12:53:05Z")
Germany is far from unique in having a falling birthrate, but it, like most European countries, faces a grim future without immigration. > [@](#): > > In Germany last week there was a rare piece of good news. Germany’s birthrate was found to be higher than it has been for 13 years, thanks to the 33,000, or 4.8%, more babies born last year than in 2013. Nevertheless, the scale of the demographic crisis Europe’s largest economy faces has finally hit home. For decades there have been far more deaths (last year 153,000 more) than births in Germany. Those women who do give birth are bearing relatively few (on average 1.4) children. Experts say to keep the population at its current rate, that would need to rise to just over two. > > By 2060 the government expects the population to plunge from 81 million to 67 million, a decrease that is being accelerated by depressed areas in both eastern and western parts of the country that are haemorrhaging large numbers. The UN predicts that, by 2030, the percentage of Germans in the workplace will drop 7% to just 54%. No other industrial land is as starkly affected – and this is despite a strong influx of young migrant labourers. > > In order to offset this shortage, Germany needs to welcome an average of 533,000 immigrants every year, which perhaps gives context to the estimate that 800,000 refugees are due to come to Germany this year. > [Europe needs many more babies to avert a population disaster | Population | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/23/baby-crisis-europe-brink-depopulation-disaster) It’s not just Europe; all major countries are affected. > [@](#): > > The US fertility rate fell to the lowest point since record keeping started more than a century ago, according to statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. > [@](#): > > The new birth rate numbers are out, and they’re a disaster. There are now only 59.6 births per 1,000 women, the lowest rate ever recorded in the United States. Some of the decrease is due to good news, which is the continuing decline of teen pregnancies, but most of it is due to people getting married later and choosing to have fewer children. And the worst part is, everyone is treating this news with a shrug. > [Dropping birth rates threaten global economic growth - CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dropping-birth-rates-threaten-global-economic-growth/) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/6 "2016-12-26T16:21:09Z")
It wasn’t that long ago we were being told the world would destroy itself from over population. We studied this famous guys studies in college. Better health care meant people lived longer. Straining society’s resources even more. The research showed the population was growing exponentially every generation. China even passed laws limiting each family to 2 kids. Now they bitch that we aren’t making enough babies? Make up your mind. 😃 Can we make babies or not! ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angela-merkel-and-immigrants/775633/7 "2016-12-26T16:28:11Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Germany is far from unique in having a falling birthrate, but it, like most European countries, faces a grim future without immigration. > > It’s not just Europe; all major countries are affected. Yep, but the German economy is still ‘motoring’ ahead at near full employment. Which is pretty remarkable in itself given the 2007 crash that affected so many, as well as the small matter of absorbing an entire outdated economy and workforce in the shape of the former East Germany. Yep, it needs more workers in the pipeline to continue to grow.