Opinions of young Europeans appear to be hardening toward immigration. Ask them about their lives and talk quickly turns to the challenge of finding jobs and the threat of Europe being overrun by migrants.
In Hungary, Kitti, a 28-year-old sports teacher and mother of an eight-year-old girl, says, “I went to the main railway station in the summer to help migrants.” But since then her heart has hardened.
“I think we need to stop them coming, they think differently from us, especially when it comes to women.”
She cites the notorious drunken gang assaults on women in Germany’s Cologne and Hamburg during the New Year festivities. She describes herself as a progressive in politics, but backs Hungary’s controversial prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in his demand that Europe staunch the flow of refugees and migrants.
To the north of Hungary, anti-migrant protesters in Poland took to the streets Sunday to echo Kitti’s fears. The protesters at Gora Kalwaria, 30 kilometers south of Warsaw, said they feared for women and children after the New Year’s Eve sex attacks in Germany.
Others complained migrants would not be able to integrate because of different traditions.
A radical proposal to put a fence around Greece, cutting it off from the rest of the European Union to curb the flood of migrants, is gaining traction among the continent’s political elites and will be at the forefront of what are likely to be contentious talks Monday between European interior ministers in Amsterdam.
Source-VOA
