“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, / You’ve got to be taught from year to year – / It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear – / You’ve got to be carefully taught!
“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid / Of people whose eyes are oddly made, / And people whose skin is a different shade – / You’ve got to be carefully taught.
“You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, / Before you are six or seven or eight, / To hate all the people your relatives hate – / You’ve got to be carefully taught! / You’ve got to be carefully taught!
“I was cheated before, And I’m cheated again / By a mean little world / Of mean little men. /And the one chance for me /Is the life I know best.
“To be on an island / And to hell with the rest. / I will cling to this island / And be free – and alone.”
This is a song from the film South Pacific based on James A. Michener’s 1947 Tales of the South Pacific. When it came out in 1958, it was considered controversial as it dealt with romantic relationships between different races and ethnic groups.
Not because they contained any sexual intimacy but simply because they showed that love was possible between persons of different races and that, through education and love, prejudice can be overcome.
In Europe, we are a long way from living comfortably together as more and more people from different races and ethnic groups come to work and live among us.
French diplomat Gerard Araud predicts: “Europeans will fight over the question of immigration.
The experts are very clear in their assessment: given the weak effectiveness of ‘natalist’ policies designed to increase birth rates, there is no alternative to overcoming demographic decline in Europe other than immigration. In today’s Europe, it is a euphemism to say that this solution won’t be generally welcomed.
When a French minister recently hinted that we may have to accept a limited number of immigrants to deal with shortages of personnel in some sectors, there was such an outcry that he immediately back-pedalled.”
Araud argues that demographic decline means “less demand and therefore less growth, and less dynamic societies. In more concrete terms, it entails a threat to the ‘European model’, which is based on an uneasy compromise between a welfare state and economic reality.
“Ageing voters privilege the former at the expense of the latter. That will only become more of a problem in the decades ahead, given that the number of Europeans aged over 80 will more than double.
Old age means ever-growing spending on health and personal assistance. The demographic crisis will, in turn, tear apart our societies between the working-aged and the retired in a context in which the latter enjoy a standard of living the former often can’t ever hope to reach.”
A continent of old people
We are in irreversible demographic decline in the European Union. Labour shortages and skill mismatches are jeopardising our prosperity, job creation and sustainable public and social services.
According to Eurostat, in the “no migration” scenario, the Europe of 27 would lose 60 million workers over the next 30 years, 33 million of whom would be between the ages of 20 and 45, which is the most productive and creative period of life. Its population would only increase beyond the age of 65, where it would grow by 37 million.
We are in irreversible demographic decline in the European Union- Evarist Bartolo
EU citizens agree that the current demographic trends in the EU put the EU’s long-term economic prosperity and competitiveness at risk (69 per cent). Yet, we persist in treating irregular migration solely as a security issue and not as a means of addressing our labour shortages.
Despite the negative consequences of demographic decline and the need for immigrants for economic growth, Europeans view immigration with increasing suspicion. Seven out of 10 Europeans believe that their country takes in too many migrants, according to a survey carried out last March for ARTE Europe Weekly.
Only 39 per cent believe that Europe needs immigration today. This negative perception of immigration expressed in a shift to far-right parties in the European Parliament elections last June will most likely prevent politicians from taking bold action to deal with immigration positively.
Labour shortages will accelerate economic stagnation and decline.
Over the last five centuries, Europeans have grown used to dominating other races, mainly in other continents through colonialism. This has made them ill-suited to multiculturalism, unprepared to rise to a higher level of nation-building and identity formation, stuck as they are in an outdated, weak and narrowly conceived mono-cultural nation-state.
This contrasts sharply with countries and societies like Singapore, which has become dynamic and successful because of its readiness to embrace diversity.
Singaporean politician George Yeo says that people make Singapore possible: “However, there is one requirement to being Singaporean which is this: a new citizen has to enlarge his heart and broaden his mind to embrace those who are different from him. In other words, becoming Singaporean means becoming a bigger person even though Singapore is a small country. Needless to say, those of us who are already citizens should also manifest this same largeness of mind and spirit.”
Nurturing cultural and ethnic diversity successfully requires both incoming migrants and local citizens not to be “mean little people in a mean little world… wanting to cling alone to a small island”. This kind of indispensable painful adjustment on both sides where people have to leave their comfort zones seems to be sadly impossible in Europe. Our failure to change and adapt to the complex realities of the multi-civilisational 21st century will further condemn us, in Araud’s words, to be “an inward-looking Europe. ‘Un continent de vieux’.
The future of humankind will definitely be decided elsewhere.”
Evarist Bartolo is a former Labour education and foreign minister.