The European countries would like to see their unwanted aliens return home and are pressing them to do so. France even instituted departure grants of $4,500 plus air fare for a family of four. But not enough are responding to the pressure, and so an explosive situation is forming.

Aliens in the United States as well as in some European countries want jobs and money they can send back home to needy relatives. Those in Europe send back to their home countries of Turkey, Portugal and Yugoslavia approximately 12 billion dollars (U.S.) annually, an important factor in the economies of these countries. But their presence is creating problems.

Competition for Jobs

Slow economic growth and rising unemployment are causing keen competition for jobs. Between the mid-1950’s and the 1970’s several European countries permitted approximately 30 million aliens to enter as migrant workers to fill job vacancies with the understanding that they would return when the need for them ended. But many decided to stay and sent for their families. There are about 15 million migrants still living in these countries. Now with the economic slump, there are too many aliens competing with citizens for jobs.

Violent clashes have occurred in Britain between the local people and migrants from Asia and the West Indies. West Germany has seen a growing number of demonstrations and antimigrant incidents. In Stuttgart anti-Turk hate groups have threatened reprisals on companies that keep Turks on their payrolls.

In the summer of 1982, Semra Ertan, a Turkish migrant, poured a gallon of gasoline over her body and burned herself to death because of her despair over the way the Germans had been treating the Turks. Before her death she phoned a radio station and said: “The Germans should not treat us like dogs! I want to be treated like a human being.”

In France there is growing hostility toward Algerian migrants and their families. Sweden has clamped tighter controls on the entry of aliens. Switzerland has stepped up its efforts to stop illegal immigration. In Italy there are prospects of stiff penalties against employers who hire undocumented aliens. So the aliens that were wanted when the economies of these countries were booming are now an unwanted people.