Europe faces a demographic and cultural crossroads. As aging populations and a shrinking workforce strain welfare systems, immigration is promoted as a key solution. But are immigrants to be viewed as ‘anywheres’ who can just be relocated to supply the labor market as needed? Spanish researcher Juan Ángel Soto thinks not. In his new report for the Danube Institute, The Empire Strikes Back: Why Civilisational Aspects Matter in Migration Policy, he argues that the civilisational legacies of former empires continue to influence the integration of migrants today.
“What I am trying to show in this work,” Soto explains to europeanconservative.com, “is that immigration cannot be analyzed solely in numbers or economics. There is a civilisational background that explains why some countries achieve better integration than others.”
