Europe's Anti-Immigrant Leaders Have a Secret

Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban heads an Anti-Immigrant Vanguard inside the European Union (EU), which he claims to protect from invaders. He's erected barbed-wire fences to keep out Refugees and withheld food from some housed in Detention Centers.

The Orban-controlled Media dishes out a daily diet of Anti-Immigrant News, and the Government maintains a State of Emergency over Mass Immigration that, in reality, has plunged. Orban touts ethnic homogeneity as being Good for Business and Keeping the Country Safe.

Yet Hungary and other nearby Nations with an Anti-Immigrant bent are quietly nudging open a Back Door to Foreigners. Central and Eastern Europe are the Fastest-Growing part of the EU, and with Declining Birth Rates and the Departure of Millions of Workers to Europe's Richer West, Home-Grown Labor Forces can't fill Companies' Demands.

In recent years Governments have been willing to admit White, Christian Workers from places such as Ukraine and Belarus. But that supply is Drying Up. Now Migrants from far-flung corners of the World have begun to arrive, Challenging the notion that this corner of the Continent can remain sheltered from Western-Style Multiculturalism.

The Labor Force of the 21 countries between the Baltic Sea and the Balkans will Shrink by more than a Quarter by 2050, looping over 1 Percentage Point a year off Economic Growth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang told Central Bankers from the Region in July that their Countries must start Importing Workers to help address the Issue.

In Hungary, the EU's Fastest-Growing Economy, there were 49,500 Work Permits held by Non-EU Citizens in 2018, more than Double the previous year's figure. In 2016 there were about 7,300. While Ukrainians held more than half of them, Indians, Mongolians, and Vietnamese, are now among the Groups Growing the Quickest.

Romania boosted the Number of Permits for Non-EU Workers by 50% this year, with Sri Lankans and Indians joining Chinese and Turkish Employees at Restaurants and Construction Sites. In Poland, Crews of Mongolian Women Paint newly built Warsaw Apartment Buildings.

In Belgrade, Ethnic Albanians are working alongside Locals to turn the Serbian Government's Vision for a swanky new Waterfront Complex into reality. On a recent visit, President Aleksandar Vucic expressed amazement at how Economic Need was trumping a History of Ethnic Tensions.

South Korea's Hankook Tire & Technology Co. Delayed a $295 Million Investment at its Factory in Hungary because of difficulties in Recruiting Employees. About 200 of its existing 3,000 Workers at the Plant are from Ukraine and Mongolia.

Governments have attempted to lift Birth Rates by offering Generous Tax Benefits and other Perks for would-be parents, yet at a recent Demography Conference in Budapest, Prime Ministers concede they hadn't found the Magic Formula.

But Countries don't like talking about their Stopgap Solution. They continue to beat the Anti-Immigrant drum without mentioning the New Workers from farther afield. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who faces Elections in October, fired a Deputy Minister in 2018 for going way to far when Advocating for More Foreign Workers.

Attitudes among the Public may be thawing. In the Eastern Croatian Town of Petrijevci, the Local Meat-Processing Plant hired 17 Butchers from Nepal to fill Vacant Positions. Residents, many of whom had never met someone from so far away, helped one Worker who lost his luggage in transit, with collected clothes.










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