Migration crisis: Can it 'make or break' EU over question of borders

The economic benefits are huge, and public opposition is softening

Europe’s politicians are trying to defuse the hand grenade of how to deal with immigration. Yet the hard statistics show that the region will need more rather than fewer migrants in the years ahead. Put bluntly, we all face retiring in penury without the economic benefits that foreign workers bring.

More departures than arrivals

More people died than were born in the EU last year, according to figures released this week by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office. While arrivals and departures from this mortal coil were neck and neck at 5.1 million each in 2016, the birth rate stagnated last year as