Immigration security

European leaders, facing growing public unease, toughen up on immigration

As politicians in America and across the globe lined up last week up to condemn President Trump’s reported remarks calling certain African nations “s---hole countries,” there was a somewhat muted response in Europe -- a sign of how the political winds of immigration are blowing.

Europe is a continent filled with leaders happy to speak out in condemnation of the U.S. president, but the silence last week was noticeable -- with the New York Times describing a “ringing silence across broad parts of the European Union, especially in the east, and certainly no chorus of condemnation.”

But a continent spooked by a populist revolt still bubbling in its parliaments and roaring on its streets, many of Europe’s politicians are still struggling with an influx from developing countries, or fighting for their political lives as they fend off challengers running on doing just that.

Europe has been wracked by a continent-wide migration crisis since 2015, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw open Germany’s borders to a wave a Syrian refugees -- telling Germans: “Wir schaffen das!” [We can do this]