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Valuable lesson from how Europe handles refugees

It is wrong to state that the Scandinavian nations “have remained fairly closed to immigration” (“Unfettered immigration policy may not be fair, beneficial to S’pore”; Sept 22).

It is wrong to state that the Scandinavian nations “have remained fairly closed to immigration” (“Unfettered immigration policy may not be fair, beneficial to S’pore”; Sept 22).

At least, Sweden is not. As of 2011, around 27 per cent of its population had full or partial foreign background.

It is a refugee-friendly nation too; in the refugee crisis in Europe, its acceptance of refugees last year was second only to Germany, even though it has a population of under 10 million.

Germany may take in 800,000 refugees this year and perhaps another 500,000 next year. It has been reported that many Germans have opened their homes to refugees.

But political leaders of both countries face criticism from their people about the contentious decision, amid uncertainties over providing enough jobs and tackling the accompanying social problems.

These leaders scored well in moral and political collectiveness in the crisis. They knew well the potential risk of losing local support for their humanitarian act, but this was not their main worry. Their main concern was to save human beings from further plight and suffering.

There was no way Europe could turn them back to where they came from, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria (“How Europe should tackle migration crisis”; Sept 24).

Humans are endowed with wisdom and talent to solve human problems and help fellow beings in trouble.

European nations should be proud of their collective actions, though a full agreement on how to distribute the refugee intake is not yet finalised.

Immigrants may seem like a big burden to receiving nations, but “the evidence from the OECD’s 34 member countries is that immigrants generally pay more in taxes and social security contributions than they receive in individual benefits”, Mr Gurria said.

Whether these refugees will create more benefits than problems to the recipient nations is yet to be seen.

Singapore has not been forced by circumstances, such as in Europe, to take in refugees.

But we are forced by shortages of workers, looming shrinkage of the citizen population and fast population ageing to accept a continuous inflow of new citizens, permanent residents and foreign workers.

We are more fortunate than Europe in this respect.

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