“Where are all the children ”, asked the Washington Post this week in a report from Greece on its post-financial crisis. The Greek economy no longer falls on Europe as a danger to the euro, but the country is starting to struggle with the next phase: demographic suicide as it faces the smallest post-war generation in Greece.
The European Statistical Office estimates that the Greek population of 10.7 million will decrease by 32 percent. “By 2080 the population of the country could fall to 7.2 million”. In 2017 in Italy, 458,151 new children were registered. That is over 15 thousand less than in 2016. Over a period of 3 years (from 2014 to 2017), births decreased by about 45 thousand, while they were almost 120 thousand less than 2008.
A report by the Schuman Foundation, named for one of the founding fathers of the European Union, gets its report out with an eloquent title: “Europe 2050, demographic suicide”.
A “deafening silence” envelops the demographic suicide of the continent. Nobody cites these alarming numbers, especially in Brussels, where technology, sustainable development or energy transition are the preferred topics of talk.
If one percent of the increase in the African population settles in France within the next 35 years, this would be equivalent to 13 million new inhabitants by 2050.
The population of Africa will probably increase by one billion and 300 million, 130 million in North Africa alone. In other words, the Schuman says, the migratory pressure on Europe will be greater than ever. “This will be an implosion (in Europe) and a explosion (outside the EU)”. Everything proceeds as if this “demographic tsunami” is less important than the so-called digital wave.
It is a taboo: “If one percent of the increase in the African population settles in France within the next 35 years, this would be equivalent to 13 million new inhabitants by 2050”. Remember how shaky the European Union became in 2015 when a million refugees settled there.
“Europe is dying”, Rod Dreher wrote last week in the American Conservative: “It is true that fertility rates are declining worldwide, even in countries that are more religious. But Europe got there first, and has cast off the possibility of recovery. I love Europe desperately, and grieve to see this happening”.
To return to the “silence” mentioned in the Schuman report, perhaps this conclusion of his is why we Europeans are not talking about it. Because it's too big and too terrible to even imagine it. Instead, we prepare ourselves for the inevitable.
Europe is over. Its future will be a mix of Eurabia and a geriatric ward.
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