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by Eurasia And Eme Subcommittee on Europe (Author)
In recent history, European demographics began to change dramatically after the Second World War. The continent, depleted of manpower after the war, turned to a guest workers program from Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, and elsewhere. That was for labor to rebuild their countries destroyed during the war. Additionally, as Europe's colonial empires came apart, that too spurred migration from Africa, the Asian Subcontinent, and the Middle East. Both the collapse of the Soviet Union and the implosion of Yugoslavia brought new migrants who sought safety, education, jobs, and being reunited with their families. In 2015, famine and collapsing economies in the Middle East and Africa, as well as the wars in Syria and in the Middle East, caused a spike in migration bringing more than 1 million people into Europe, some of them fleeing ISIS or some of them just desperate to get away from the horrible conditions in refugee camps. Others came seeking employment and a means to support their families. A small portion of those who entered Europe came with bloody and radical intentions. A very small percentage, very small number of these people were terrorists. That, too, will be part of the discussion. While the 2015 wave has tapered off, the ramification from that event are still with us today. Politically, it has damaged solidarity within the European Union as some states have rejected the Berlin-Brussels position on geographically redistributing asylum seekers throughout Europe. So it has caused some problems there. And it has also raised sensitive questions about how successful European societies have been at assimilating past groups of immigrants.
