166. The refugee question, or rather, lie

Let’s start with a shocking revelation. Europe is not being swarmed by refugees, we are not assailed by incontrollable hordes of unwanted visitors. This is the impression, or rather misapprehension, many Europeans are under. But it is just not true. Refugee numbers are small, tens of thousands in a continent of 500 million people. A drop in the ocean. The numbers are low because the journey is fraught with peril and, sadly, most don’t survive it. The few who do, the lucky ones, are not fortunate enough to grant that moniker. On arrival, they meet the callousness of our wealthy society. We prevent them from working to earn a living and from integrating. We isolate them, concerned by the callout effect the far right warns us of: Welcome them and more will come. But this is no package holiday, it is a nightmarish odyssey fraught with danger in precarious conditions. They come because they have no choice, so welcoming them would change nothing, just make Europe human, or great, again 

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