Migration to Europe to surge in 2024 – think tank — RT World News

Migration to Europe will increase this year beyond already record levels, an Austria-based think tank has warned. With opposition parties across the continent threatening a crackdown on immigration, the group expected a rush to get in before the doors closed.

More than one million people sought asylum in the EU last year, the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) said in a press release on Wednesday, citing preliminary EU data. This figure exceeds the previous record set in 2016, and when everyone who entered legally is counted, a total of 3.5 million people migrated to the EU last year.

Ahead of a full report on the issue due to be released next week, the International Center for Migration Policy Development has predicted that war and conflict will result “Record levels of displacement” Around the world this year. Meanwhile, more economic migrants will travel to Europe in search of work before European countries impose post-election restrictions this year.

“I call it the closed-store effect. People will hear all these immigration measures announced in the election campaigns and think they have to be here before they go into effect.” Michael Spindelegger, director general of the International Center for Migration Policy Development, told The Guardian.

Legislative elections are scheduled to be held this year in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania, while regional elections are scheduled in Germany and Ireland. European Parliament elections are scheduled to take place next June, when all 720 seats in the EU legislature will be contested.

With the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party doubling its support in the past three years to become the country's second-largest political faction, and with anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders in talks to lead the Dutch government, the EU may be forced to capitulate. Top diplomat Josep Borrell warned last month that popular discontent over immigration could lead to a right-wing wave in June's EU elections.

In France, on the other hand, the ruling Ennahda party recently joined with the right-wing National Rally party to pass a bill that significantly cuts welfare benefits for immigrants. The move was seen primarily as an attempt by Ennahda to ward off growing support for the National Front.

Nearly a third of EU voters consider immigration the most important issue facing the bloc, or the European Barometer reconnaissance In December I found.

Spindelegger also highlighted the potential return of former US President Donald Trump to the White House as a driver of migration to Europe. Should Trump take office and keep his promise? “Seal” He told The Guardian that as the country borders Mexico, Venezuelans and Colombians could use visa-free visitor routes to Spain as a way to enter the EU.

Despite growing public backlash, the European Union has committed to increasing the flow of migrants. Speaking in Athens earlier this month, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said: “Legal immigration should grow by more or less 1 million people per year.” To replace aging workers in Europe. Spindelegger suggested inviting more people, telling the Guardian that Germany alone needs an additional million migrants, while Austria needs 500,000.