Immigration is not just about Latin Americans moving to the United States for higher wages. It is also about Europeans moving to just about anywhere that has lower taxes.
A column in the Washington Times explains that, as a result, most of Europe’s major economies are suffering a significant brain drain:
Last year more than 155,000 Germans emigrated from their native country. Since 2004 the number of ethnic Germans who leave each year is greater than the number of immigrants moving in. …In a survey conducted in 2005 among German university students, 52 percent said they would rather leave their native country than remain there. …Some complain that the tax rates in Germany are so high that it is no longer worthwhile working for a living there.
…The situation is similar in other countries in Western Europe. Since 2003, emigration has exceeded immigration to the Netherlands. In 2006, the Dutch saw more than 130,000 compatriots leave. …In Belgium the number of emigrants surged by 15 percent in the past years. In Sweden, 50,000 people packed their bags last year — a rise of 18 percent compared to the previous year and the highest number of Swedes leaving since 1892. In the United Kingdom, almost 200,000 British citizens move out every year.
Americans who think that the European welfare state is the model to follow would do well to ponder the question why, if Europe is so wonderful, Europeans are fleeing from it. European welfare systems are redistribution mechanisms, taking money from skilled and educated Europeans….
[A] German sociologist at the University of Bremen, warns European governments that they are mistaken if they assume that qualified young ethnic Europeans will stay in Europe. “The really qualified are leaving,” Mr. Heinsohn says. “The only truly loyal towards France and Germany are those who are living off the welfare system, because there is no other place in the world that offers to pay for them.… It is no wonder that young, hardworking people in France and Germany choose to emigrate,” he explains.
