Importing Poverty: How Mass Immigration is Draining Europe's Welfare States Dry, By Richard Miller (Londonistan)
A bombshell opinion piece in Italy's La Verità, had veteran journalist Maurizio Belpietro didn't mince words: "We are importing poor people." Citing fresh 2025 data from Italy's national statistics institute (Istat), he revealed that 35.6% of the immigrant population lives in absolute poverty, five times the 7.1% rate for native Italians. Foreigners, who comprise less than 10% of Italy's population, account for a third of its 733,000 impoverished households out of 2.2 million total. Even mixed families (one Italian, one foreign parent) scrape by at a 30.4% poverty rate. This isn't compassion, it's a policy-induced catastrophe, where unchecked migration floods Europe with low-skilled arrivals who strain budgets, suppress wages, and shatter the myth that immigrants "save" pension systems. As Italian commentator Francesca Totolo fired back on X: "No, immigrants do not pay pensions to Italians... It is and will be Italians who have to pay for assistance, subsidies, housing, and pensions to foreigners without resources." Backed by damning studies from the Netherlands to Germany, this post exposes the fiscal black hole of mass immigration, and why Europe's elites keep digging.
Italy's Wake-Up Call: From Lampedusa Landings to Ledger Losses
Italy's migrant influx, over 150,000 arrivals in 2024 alone, mostly via perilous Mediterranean routes, has turned the boot-shaped nation into Europe's poverty importer-in-chief. Istat's October 2025 report paints a grim picture: Absolute poverty (income below the minimum for basics like food and shelter) afflicts 5.7 million Italians overall, but foreigners bear the brunt at 34-35.6%, versus 6.2-7.4% for natives. In southern hotspots like Sicily's Lampedusa reception centre, swamped by 7,000 arrivals in a single week in September 2023, the disparity widens: 35.7% of foreign-headed households vs. 9.5% Italian. Youth poverty? At a decade-high 13.8%, disproportionately hitting migrant families.
The numbers scream overload: Of Italy's 2.2 million poor households, 733,000 are foreign-led, 33% from a demographic that's just 8-10% of the populace. Non-EU migrants, often fleeing war or poverty in Africa and the Middle East, arrive unskilled and jobless, remitting earnings home rather than building local wealth. Belpietro's verdict? A "scam" where globalist promises of economic boom deliver dependency instead.
The Pension Pipe Dream: Immigrants as Net Drainers, Not Saviours
Elites peddle the line that migrants will "save" Europe's greying workforces and bulging pension tabs. Reality? A bust. In Italy, Totolo's X post nails it: Foreign families' 35.2% poverty rate means Italians foot the bill for subsidies, not vice versa. EU vs. non-EU splits the story: EU arrivals (e.g., Romanians) often net positive, boosting GDP via taxes. But non-EU floods? Catastrophic.
The Netherlands' landmark 2023 University of Amsterdam study crunches 25 years of data: Immigration cost €400 billion from 1995-2019, averaging €17 billion annually, peaking at €32 billion in 2016 amid Merkel's "refugee crisis." That's more than Dutch education spending (€30 billion in 2016). Non-Western migrants (e.g., from Morocco, Horn of Africa) drain €200,000-€600,000 lifetime each; asylum seekers from MENA? €625,000. Projections? Another €600 billion by 2040 without curbs.
Germany's tab? €46.7 billion in 2024 "citizens' money" welfare alone, up 10%, with migrants claiming 63% of recipients despite being 26% of the population. Total migrant costs: €50 billion yearly, including €29.7 billion federal asylum spending in 2023 (projected €23-24 billion through 2028). Unemployment benefits? 45% go to non-citizens, costing €20 billion. France fares no better: Economist Jean-Paul Gourévitch pegs the net drain at €20-25 billion annually (Leftist estimates: €6-10 billion; right: €40-44 billion), with 2023 totals hitting €53.9 billion after factoring health costs from drug/tobacco trafficking tied to migrant networks. "Everyone agrees immigration costs more than it brings," Gourévitch told Radio Sud in 2021.
The Broader Betrayal: Myths of Innovation and Growth Shattered
The Left's fairy tale? Migrants fuel innovation and GDP. Enter China: With ironclad borders and zero mass immigration, it's eclipsing Europe in EVs, solar, and autos, while Italy's south wallows at 10.5% poverty (886,000 households). Non-EU arrivals skew low-skilled: In the Netherlands, asylum migrants from MENA cost €625,000 lifetime; Germany's Turkish community (2% population) gobbles 45% unemployment aid. Fraud balloons bills: Identity scams, medical abuse, and fiscal evasion tied to migrants add billions untracked.
On X, the outrage simmers: Posts decry "importing crime, poverty, and diseases" alongside migrants, echoing Belpietro's 360,000-follower alarm. One 2017 thread from Reuters on far-Right sea patrols warned: "Italy... will not accept more migrants and terrorists importing crime, poverty and diseases all over the EU." Fast-forward to 2025: The sentiment's only grown, with users slamming "Europe's biggest import is Third World poverty."
Time to Seal the Gates: Europe's Self-Inflicted Wound
This isn't sustainable: it's suicidal. Europe's welfare states, built by generations of natives, now subsidise an endless influx that erodes cohesion and coffers. As Gourévitch quips, "No economist... will say immigration brings more than it costs." Solutions? Skills-based caps, deport non-contributors, prioritise EU movers. Italy's Giorgia Meloni gets it; deportations up 20% in 2025. Until elites face facts over feelings, "importing poverty" will impoverish us all. Voters, demand borders, not burdens.
Comments