Europe, Meet San Bernardino, California

Europe has an immigration problem.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants escaping from Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan are making the often dangerous trek from their home countries to escape the tumult of the Middle East region. Their homes are being overrun in many areas by the Islamic State (ISIS), squeezed by the Syrian Government in their brutal efforts to fight ISIS, or they are escaping from a similar situation in Libya which was destabilized when the Obama Administration directed the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime with no contingency plan in place.

The region, stabilized from 2007 until 2012, imploded when the United States pulled all of its forces out of Iraq, against the advice of the American Military Commanders in Iraq to retain a minimal military force to buffer an Iraqi Army that was incapable of maintaining itself.

But this is just the background to the current immigration crisis that is causing European countries to finally close off their borders to new immigrants against both the laws and principles of the European Union which requires open borders.

European policy for the last decade has been one of open immigration, particularly from African and Middle Eastern nations. Europe has justified the increase in immigration as a buffer against the European Union’s rapidly declining native birthrate of approximately 1.5 children per woman. (One-for-one population replacement requires a minimum average of 2.1 children per woman.)

Unfortunately, the immigrants entering the EU over the last decade have largely been less educated, less skilled, and culturally foreign to the EU and its democratic institutions. The new immigrants are mostly from poorer, economically disadvantaged, and dictatorial countries where civic engagement was limited more to human survival then the vestiges of the Democratic-Socialist nations they are entering. These immigrants have also been adverse to integration into those cultures choosing to hold onto religious and cultural morays in conflict with European sensibilities and beliefs.

As such, the development of “ghettos” in areas of France, Great Britain and other nations of the EU have become common place, partly due to the stagnant economic growth of the EU, their generous welfare benefits, and the lack of employable skill sets among many of the migrant population.

The migrant communities also have a birthrate significantly higher than their European hosts.

This was occurring before the current immigration crisis, which has only exacerbated the existing European situation and finally caused member states to begin to openly revolt against EU policies. It’s one thing to have the EU leaders in Brussels tell member states they must accept new immigrants, it is completely another to deal with the real issues created by the policy in local communities inundated by thousands of immigrants, seventy-two percent of whom are adult males, not women and children.

And the Europeans should be concerned. They need only look at the massive demographic shifts that have occurred in our back yard of the Inland Empire to witness the results of the influx of massive migration of low skilled, poor, and culturally foreign individuals. The City of San Bernardino is an example on a microscale of what will happen to Europe.

In less than 40 years, a city that was “All-American” with good schools, plentiful jobs, economic opportunity, a solid housing base, and safe neighborhoods has performed a disastrous 180 degree turn-a-round into the second poorest city in the nation with struggling schools, a catatonic economy, deteriorating neighborhoods, increased crime and a welfare rate of over 50 percent. This led ultimately to the city’s bankruptcy with no end in sight.

Local leaders blame this on the loss of jobs caused by the closure of Norton Air Force Base, Santa Fe Railroad’s maintenance yards, and Kaiser Steel. But those happened over 25 years ago. There is no reason why any region with broad areas of open space, significant transportation corridors along two national interstates, multiple railroad lines and ample natural resources should not have quickly rebounded from these economic setbacks.

So what changed? Demographics. While San Bernardino was always racially diverse, the influx of thousands of lower-skilled, less educated, poor immigrants (from foreign countries as well as from surrounding communities like Los Angeles) overwhelmed San Bernardino’s education, social support, and law enforcement systems. California’s generous welfare benefits, coupled with San Bernardino’s very low housing costs caused a dramatic demographic shift beginning in the early 1990’s.

In what is a harbinger for the rest of California, the middle class workers and small business job creators abandoned San Bernardino for safer, more prosperous and lower tax areas in surrounding communities. (California is now witnessing this same occurrence with middle class tax payers leaving the state, replaced with less-skilled immigrants from outside the country.)

This is what awaits Europe. No community can long maintain a welcoming immigration policy with little concern for the education and cultural adaptation of new migrants, and maintain a generous welfare state without attracting innumerable people who would, of no fault of their own, be attracted to those government funded opportunities like a bear to honey.

This is why San Bernardino has a demographic problem of too many poor people who don’t speak English. Europe has adopted similar policies and previously attracted immigrants with no concern for integration. It is why millions are now knocking on the EU’s door while at the same time (and at no fault of the migrant’s own) threatening the European Union’s cultural, social and financial solvency.

Welcome to San Bernardino!