Europe’s Migration Fears Don’t Match Arrivals
Europeans’ fears about the influx of refugees do not correspond to arrivals in their respective countries. A survey by the Pew Research Center found no correlation between actual refugee numbers and respondents’ concerns about migration.
Nearly three-quarters of Poles said refugees were a major threat overall, although asylum applications to their country were numbered only in the thousands, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile in Germany, which has registered 1.1 million asylum seekers, just 31 percent of Germans are generally concerned about refugees.
The research was conducted before the Brexit vote, in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Poland. Despite receiving low numbers of asylum seekers in their countries, Hungarians and Poles were most worried that refugees would take their jobs and social benefits.
Pew found that more than half of those polled overall worried that an influx of migration would increase the risk of terror attacks in Europe.
Jordan Allows U.N. to Give Food Rations to Syrians on Border
Jordan has agreed with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to allow food rations to be sent to Syrian refugees stranded on its border.
Jordan’s northwestern border area with Syria has been off-limits to nonmilitary personnel since a suicide attack hit a Jordanian military post last month.
A team from the UNHCR said it had reached a deal with Jordan’s government to deliver a 30-day food ration but did not say when the operation would take place.
UNHCR spokesperson Ariane Rummery said a U.N. team met on June 11 with border authorities to discuss “distribution modalities” for delivering the rations.
Jordan sealed the border area, marked by an earthen mound, after a June 21 suicide car bomb attack, blamed on the so-called Islamic State group, killed seven Jordanian troops and wounded 13.
Germany’s Biggest Firms Urged to Hire Refugees
Germany’s government has appealed to the CEOs of its 30 biggest listed companies to employ more refugees.
In a letter to chief executives of the 30 German companies traded on the Frankfurt stock exchange (DAX), Sigmar Gabriel, the economy minister, urged them to hire more asylum seekers.
Germany’s small- and medium-sized businesses, known as the “mittelstand,” have hired tens of thousands of new arrivals, but the DAX companies have employed just 54 refugees, with 50 of those taken by Germany’s post office.
Pointing to the efforts of the medium and small companies to construct bridges into the economy, Gabriel wrote, “Without the flagships of corporate Germany, without you, the bridge isn’t complete.” He also wrote that integrating refugees is Germany’s most demanding task since reunification.
In the last year more than 1 million refugees and migrants have arrived in Germany, where unemployment, at 6.1 percent, is at its lowest rate since reunification.
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