Switzerland attempting to stem the migrant tide, gets Brussels ticked off

There is one European country trying to survive!  Switzerland figures out that secure borders and limited migration matters!

Sarah Miller Llana, Europe Bureau Chief for Christian Science Monitor

 

From a distraught (and obviously biased) reporter at Christian Science Monitor:

The anti-immigration class across Europe has found many new adherents as of late, especially in the most economically devastated countries, like Greece and Italy. But now these Europeans might themselves become the unwelcome migrants, at least in Switzerland.

As I happened to be standing in the most intolerable immigration line* that I’ve ever faced – more on that later – I read on my Twitter account that the Swiss government on Wednesday announced a new policy to cap residence permits for all of Western Europe. Switzerland, which is not part of the EU but joined the Schengen bloc that allows freedom of movement of people across European borders, says that it is being overwhelmed by arrivals from across the continent, to the tune of 80,000 people each year.

So it is invoking a “safeguard clause” it negotiated during the 1999 Schengen treaty talk, which it already implemented for eight Central and Eastern European states. Now, as of May 1, residence permits for the citizens of 17 older EU states, from Germany to Spain, will be capped at 53,700 for a year.

[….]

The move drew immediate criticism from Brussels. ”The measures disregard the great benefits that the free movement of persons brings to the citizens of both Switzerland and the EU,” Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement.

Is this a new manifestation of intolerance in Europe? The levels of resentment continent-wide against the migrants from Africa and the Middle East are already clearly documented, but in the midst of crisis, is Europe even excluding Europe? And what does that mean for identity and equality moving forward?

It means that one country may survive the onslaught, but what good will it do the Swiss (do they even have an army?) when Europe becomes a Muslim continent by 2050?

By the way, European countries are struggling with the problem of asylum shopping where so-called “refugees” move from country to country looking to get in.

* Ms. Llana reports that she was standing in an intolerable immigration line in Paris with Moroccans, Romanians, Malians, Senegalese, Tunisians, and Peruvians.