Former Senator from Utah, Bob Bennet raised the issue of immigration and demographics during today's first panel titled "Global Europe: Game Over?". Immigration is a complicated and very political issue, as seen most recently in the French presidential election. First, it is clear that Europe will need immigration in order to maintain it's population, however, the big question is what kind of immigration? Most European countries have attempted to stop or at least slow immigration since the end of labor importation in the 1970s yet face growing ethnic or religious minority populations, partially due to family reunification, and refugees. In the last couple of years politicians like David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have said that multiculturalism has failed. One can argue what that means, but it is clear that the issues around immigration go well beyond demographics. I can't address all of these issues in a blog post, but I encourage those who want more information on this topic to look at the websites of the Migration Policy Institute, http://migrationpolicy.org/ and other links which can be found on my other blog: http://givensimmigration.blogspot.com
Other points of interest, Senator Jeanne Shaheen emphasized the importance of the EU-US relationship, Poland's Foreign Minister Sikorski emphasized the need for deeper political integration in the EU.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen emphasized the strength and importance of the NATO alliance. He emphasized that without action by the UN Security Council that "NATO has no intention of intervening in Syria" and blamed Russia and China for encouraging the Assad regime.
There was a spirited discussion about Iran, and the "night owl" sessions focused on Syria, Asia and "soft power".
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