Norway Pays a Bonus to Get Asylum Seekers to Leave

Few people still believe the propaganda about “desperate” refugees fleeing death in the Middle East. Most immigration to Europe is a purely economic affair, with mostly young, male immigrants seeking out countries such as Germany where they can receive huge welfare payments. The good news is that what is being driven by economics can also be stopped by economics.

Thus, Norway is taking sensible steps to remove these liabilities from their country.

Norwegian authorities are offering a “bonus” 10,000 kroner (£1,000) to asylum seekers willing to leave the country voluntarily.

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) says the measure is less expensive than keeping refugees in immigration centres in the country.

Launched on Monday, the scheme will run for six weeks, state broadcaster NRK reported UDI saying.

The money will be paid to the first 500 asylum seekers to apply on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way out. This will save us a lot of money because it is expensive to have people in the asylum centres,” Sylvi Listhaug, integration minister, said.

The 10,000 kroner would be in addition to the 20,000 kroner already given to asylum seekers and migrants in an irregular situation who wish to return voluntarily from Norway to their country of origin.

[Norway offers to pay asylum seekers £1,000 bonus to leave the country, by Chiara Palazzo, Telegraph, April 26, 2016]

If Americans succeed in electing a patriotic president in November, removing illegals will be at the top of the priority list. The Deportation Force, mandatory E-Verify, the Trump Wall, taxing remittances and a host of other issues are methods that can be used to support this goal. However, using carrots as well as sticks could prove an effective approach.

We are often told immigrants are simply coming here “for a better life.” This is true, but it’s also basically meaningless. Just about everything every person has ever done in history is to create a “better life” for themselves, however they definite it. Immigration patriots need to reframe this kind of phrasing. “Coming for a better life” really means “coming for the money.” An understandable motivation, but not one that suggests these new residents have any particular commitment to our country.

This doesn’t make them bad people. But it does mean they are motivated by what is essentially greed. On the other hand, they have a rational motivation we can deal with.

Change the economic equation and immigrants will go home. Norway shows one way this can be done. And every “fiscal conservative” out there should understand a short term payment of this kind is far less of a burden than trying to permanently subsidize an ever growing population of dependents.