Immigrant crisis tests Europe's Union

WASHINGTON -- Of all the overwhelming news stories of the last week, there is one that has not quite made it across the Atlantic.

Oh yes, President Obama suddenly was not the klutz the American right always made him out to be, but an overnight emerged visionary. Russia was close to invading Ukraine. ISIS may well be closing in on Damascus!

But there is a story that may well turn out to be, as history spins its inexorable webs, the most important of all. I speak of the mass movements of people threatening a Europe that has virtually realized the "open borders" extolled and demanded by the European Union.

The exquisite Mediterranean, once home to ancient Greek heroes seeking honor and redemption, today is home to the haggard, struggling and often dying poorest-of-the-poor of northern Africa, from its eastern horn to western shores. It is heartbreaking, but it is also more than that.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports that more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year, attempting to knock on the doors of the rich and powerful EU. More than 54,000 have traveled illegally to Italy and 48,000 to Greece in 2015, with much smaller numbers headed to Spain and Malta. Some say the number is 145,000.

Whatever it is, there has never been anything like it in modern times.

The EU, formed after World War II so that war between Germany and France would never again brandish its terror over the world, developed an institutional apparatus so deeply embedded in the 28 member states and so highly bureaucratized that EU law mandates all migrants must be fingerprinted immediately upon arrival and must apply for asylum where and when they arrive.

No more! Today, the tens of thousands from the Third World who board leaky boats in Libya are either saved by the Italian navy or drown on the trip, and usually take off quickly for the more desirable Northern Europe. With most of them, Italy doesn't know who has entered -- or how or why!

Despite criticism, the EU, being as neatly organized and bureaucratized as it is, has tried valiantly to deal with the immigrant question. It has rescued thousands at sea. It has attempted to institute a program by which each country would take an appropriate number of people. When that didn't work, it opted for a voluntary procedure, which worked even less.

The last statement committed all member states to "agree by consensus by the end of July" on where to place the 40,000 migrants now waiting in Italy and Greece. This was described as a "temporary and exceptional" measure.

In response, violent racist protests erupted in Slovakia, the authoritarian regime in Hungary announced its intention to erect a 13-foot-high fence along its border with Serbia, a major transit country, and Spain recently passed legislation to enable border guards to repel migrants from Spanish territories in North Africa -- physically.

Nils Muiznieks, commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, recently wrote in The New York Times: "Immigration has become such a contentious issue that it is tearing apart what remains of the European project and its facade of solidarity."

Many serious Christians and others believe Europe must take all who come. But average Europeans, like average Americans, know instinctively that, if they are overwhelmed with foreigners who do not apply legally for citizenship but demand their "rights," they will be on the way to losing their country. Look only at England today, where substantial groups of Muslim immigrants have demanded changes in the educational and legal systems.

Can you really expect citizens of a country to welcome their own replacements, or even destruction?

This is not a frivolous question. Today, in contrast to 100 years ago, immigrants quickly form their own political organizations to demand special attention. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda representing Latinos in the United States, for instance, is composed of no fewer than 39 Latino advocacy organizations.

When immigrants were coming into America in large numbers early in the 20th century, immigration authorities very deliberately spread out different national and ethnic groups across the country so they would become Americans and NOT form inbred national groups. But that is done neither in America nor in Europe today.

The real and only answer is to hit hard the overtly criminal immigrant-smugglers, who are the dregs of mankind, for these are the men responsible for everything from the leaky boats to the horrible drownings. And then to work, when possible, with the sending governments.

It is simply natural that the huge numbers of immigrants from different countries, of different races and different cultures, will be perceived by many Europeans as a threat. To be both humane and sensible to that genuine threat is THE challenge to Europe today.

Previously:
• 05/27/15: Why Iraq will continue to fall --- no matter what the West does
• 05/06/15: For Europe, generosity to turn into nightmare?
• 04/29/15: Both sides must work to end our season of killing
• 04/01/15: Our next president should be a homebody
• 03/04/15: Japan's sun poised to rise on world stage
• 01/21/15: Rumors of a new Cold War have real roots in history
• 01/21/15: It's time to be practical about multiculturalism
• 01/07/15: Tension mounts against Muslim immigration in the West

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Georgie Anne Geyer has been a foreign correspondent and commentator on international affairs for more than 40 years.