Projects: EU Immigration I: Fortress Europe

Birth rates across the European continent have been declining for many years. As a result, the active work force will soon not be large enough to support an older population who's life expectancy continues to increase. Most experts agree that Europe needs increased immigration and a coherent immigration policy to avoid the potentially disastrous consequences that an aging population could have on the EU's economy and social welfare system. Nevertheless, over the past decade as the EU has opened its internal borders to the free movement of goods and people, it has viewed immigration from outside the Union as a threat and has practiced an ad hoc policy of sealing its external borders. This fortress mentality has encouraged an explosion of clandestine smuggling networks.