As everywhere in the Western world, immigration is making a huge impression on the populations of many European countries.

Population migration is of all times, and we should do well to remember that we are all at one stage in time, immigrants, like most readers of The Portugal News, including yours truly. Changes to the original culture and mindset of a population are inevitable when immigrants flood a country. Good and bad.

Especially in the old days when immigration was more a matter of conquest and suppression.

Immigration is a good thing when the immigrants contribute to their new country’s wellbeing and economy and adopt their new country’s culture and traditions, while still holding on to their own identity. Tolerance and respect should be a two-way street.

Here in the Algarve, immigrants, or expats as we usually call them, are contributing impressively to their adopted community, notably in the way of supporting and/or starting charity organisations for all kinds of needs. Be it animals, firefighters, people in need, children, you name it, there’re usually one or more charities dedicated to supporting the local community in one way or another. I’d like to name a few, thereby risking saddening the many ones I don’t mention.

ARA - Animal Rescue Algarve, Soup kitchen Portimão, Rotary club Estoi Palace International, Families in Need, Friends of Canil de Portimão, Carvoeiro Cat Charity, Alerta - Forest Fire Alert. I could go on and on, the list is virtually endless. These are often expat initiatives, expats who are trying to support the community that has so warmly and graciously accepted them in their midst. This apart from buying locally, hiring local craftsmen, etc.

Immigration should, of course, always look like that. Acceptance, tolerance, integration, respecting the people of your new country and their culture. And above all support where support is needed. Don’t just take, take, but give, give.

So, why is there so much to do about immigrants, practically all over the Western world? Could it be because politicians are neglecting the democratic right of the local people to decide about the how, who, what and the number of immigrants, all the cultural, financial and religious implications? Or in the case of the EU, dictating to each country how many immigrants they are mandated to accept, house, support financially, etc.? Just asking.

I think it gets problematic when there is a tsunami of immigrants that make such a mark on a community that it threatens to wipe out the original culture, the original identity. Immigrants who seek asylum, but also better economic prospects. Immigrants who need jobs, social security, healthcare, housing, and financial assistance.

Credits: Unsplash; Author: JAVIER M;

All of these separately and combined can lead to injustice towards the population of the country where the immigrants end up, which is another poignant issue. If immigrants get priority with housing, jobs, and financial assistance, I think we, meaning the authorities, are in fact violating the fundamental human rights of our own population.

But since the EU seems to be dictating what individual EU countries can do, immigrants keep coming in, encouraged to do so by all kinds of EU regulations. Manoeuvring between the rights of their own people and the rights of immigrants is difficult, I get that, especially when ideology and religion play a big role.

Though I still strongly feel that countries should fight for their own people before they fight for the immigrants. At least the economic immigrants. Let the ones that seek refuge from tyranny come, but keep the others out until the economic situation of our own citizens allows it.