Refugee crisis: Integrating a million asylum seekers is a daunting task for Europe

There is plenty of work to do, but hope has been extended to many desperate people – something Europe can be proud of

Syrian Kurdish refugees are rescued by Greek fishermen as the boat they had boarded sinks off the Greek island of Lesbos af (AFP)

The International Organisation for Migration has said that the number of migrants and refugees crossing into Europe by land and sea illegally this year has crossed the million mark. Given that many more have done so legally gives some indication of the sheer volume – almost biblical in nature – of the recent exodus from the Middle East, driven largely though not exclusively by the disintegration of Syria.

As pointed out by our Review of the Year, to be published in Saturday’s newspaper, the refugee crisis was one of the signature stories of 2015, and followed a remarkable trajectory.

This newspaper was the first to publish on its front page the image of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old whose body washed up on the shore near Bodrum in Turkey, and helped set a tone of compassion that extended right across Europe and led – eventually – to the British Government showing some decency.

As the numbers kept swelling, concerns about security came to the fore. It is doubtless true that there are many tens of millions of Europeans who believe immigration to their own countries is too high, that militant Islamism is the most pressing concern in the world today, that through a sheer demographic onslaught their countries are being Islamified – and that they ought to have been consulted before thousands if not millions of refugees were let into their country. The terror attacks in Paris accentuated these concerns, and in the eyes of many nationalists validated them.

A huge diplomatic and political challenge in 2016 will be integrating these new arrivals, putting to work those capable, and keeping sectarian tensions and xenophobia under control. But it is so often the fundamental mistake of all discussion of immigration that it is seen through the prism of economics and social benefit. In fact, immigration is desirable because it rewards and incentivises those who go in search of a better life for themselves and their children. Similarly, Europe – and especially Germany – showed tremendous humanity in welcoming so many desperate people, the vast majority of whom will now feel a deep sense of gratitude and loyalty to their new hosts.

To many, crossing the million mark is a terrifying sign. To this newspaper – which believes in supporting refugees and migrants – it is a sign that though there is plenty of work to do, hope has been extended to many desperate people. That is something Europe can be proud of.