There's pressure in Germany to stop economic migrants sending money back to their countries of origin.
Every year, migrants and refugees transfer billions of euros from Germany to family members in their home countries, with the Bundesbank estimating this to be at least €6.8 billion per year.
Now, some German political parties want to crack down on this development, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) seeking to “reduce poverty migration to zero” with restrictions on cash payments and social benefits.
Some of the money sent abroad is earned from work, but a substantial amount is likely from social welfare payments transferred to migrants, who then send it out of the country to support their families across the world. Since many of these social welfare benefits are distributed as cash, there is little oversight in how this money is used and transferred by migrants.
These foreigners have a substantial incentive to send this money overseas, where due to exchange rates and different standards of living, the euro can go far further than it can in Germany. However, these social welfare payments were never designed to be sent overseas, and are meant to provide the necessary support for migrants within Germany.
. . .
AfD parliamentary group spokesperson, René Springer [said] ... “We need a strict principle of benefits in kind for asylum seekers — bread, bed, and soap. There should be nothing more. Only then can we really assume that people who ask for asylum here are actually seeking protection. Asylum is only intended for this purpose and not as an access portal to German social benefits,” he continued.
There's more at the link.
I entirely agree. The purpose of helping "refugees" (and yes, we all know that most "refugees" are economic migrants and nothing more) is to help them, to cover their basic needs here. It's not to support their extended families back home. Why should our taxpayers support those outside our borders who pay no taxes to us in their turn?
I understand some will say that this is inhumane; that we should be willing to help the poor in other countries as (at minimum) a "gesture of support". Very well. If they want to allow such transfers, then we should ensure that we get back at least some of the money we'll otherwise waste on needs beyond our borders. I propose a 50% tax on all cash transfers to designated nations (those where such abuse is most frequent), and very strict controls on which institutions are allowed to make such transfers - no informal system such as the Islamic Hawala, which is untraceable and can't be monitored. Anyone caught sending money abroad by unauthorized means should be prosecuted and punished. That way, we'll at least restrict such transfers to real emergencies, and (hopefully) prevent benefits intended to be spent here from being spent beyond our borders.
As for distributing benefits in kind rather than in cash, I agree again, but that's hard to enforce. Already, there are widespread problems with EBT and SNAP benefits such as food, laundry soap, etc. being "sold" to local corner shops for cash or exchanged for goods not covered by the EBT system, such as cigarettes or booze. Refugees receiving food allowances would doubtless try to do the same with what they're given. I'm not sure that practical, affordable systems of control could be set up.
Perhaps simplest of all, stop providing economic migrants with benefits far beyond the basics that they need to survive! We don't have to provide them with luxuries such as TV's, cellphones, airline travel and so forth. If they're genuinely refugees, they'll be grateful for the basics. If they demand more, they're unlikely to be refugees and they certainly aren't grateful; so why not send them back over the border, to find another country more willing to meet their demands?
Peter
19 comments:
Some years back right after Christmas, we had to gas up our car when we saw a customer with nine (9) gallons of milk in front of us. When he reached the register, he used an EBT card to purchase them. My wife struck up a conversation with him, telling that much milk must be difficult to store.
He smiled and said the end of the month was coming up, and rather than letting it expire until the next month, he would trade the milk to others in exchange for something he needed. Laundry detergent is also treated similarly. Free stuff converted to $$$.
I believe the US figure to Mexico alone is close to 10 times that number. Foreign remitances from illegals should be taxed at 50% or higher. US citizens should have to report in full their payments abroad and to whom they are being sent - just like when you have foreign inflows.
"Perhaps simplest of all, stop providing economic migrants with benefits far beyond the basics that they need to survive!"
Let me fix this for you Peter:
Stop ALL economic migrants benefits, block the money, and start the deportations.
No phones, no food, no housing, no school, no medical, no votes.
We have enough "homegrown" economic refugees.
Forced charity via taxes is enslavement. If private individuals want to help people, it's cheaper to support them in their own countries.
Believe it, or not, I’m going to take the contrarian side on this one. This late in the central bank Ponzi scheme we are printing money hand over fist. $1 trillion every hundred days, my goodness! Anything that can be done to shovel some of that outside of our borders will help to stave off the rampant inflation domestically. To keep it all here will only accelerate things.
Hmmm…maybe I should reevaluate my position.
If I am correct, there is no legal definition of an economic refugee. A refugee is escaping political or religious persecution, not an economy that sucks
I'm actually okay with that. For one thing, as long as the reason that he's got money left on his EBT card is because he's thrifty with his food buying and not because he's committing fraud, that's the kind of behavior that we could use more of, not less.
For another, he's providing a presumably needed good to people in just the kind of informal networking that this blog encourages in other contexts.
Now, if you want to argue that this is an indicator that EBT benefits are too high and we should go to benefits-in-kind, like ration cards, do so, but I'm not going to rag on a guy for using what he is provided by law but doesn't need in order to get something he needs that isn't provided by law.
Grew up in Germany. They had guest workers from the Balkans and Turkey living in rolling bunkhouses. They supported family back home. They sent money that allowed their families to survive at home and not be forced to emigrate. They married and had families in Germany. All of this is natural. Taxing or sequestering their earnings doesn't solve anything. Send money and keep their relatives at home, and the AfD can find someone else to scapegoat.
Thing is, allowing remittances isn't a matter of "humanity" but realpolitik. If a guy in Germany can support his extended family in a third world hell hole, that disincentivizes the rest of them from going to Germany and putting more stress on the system. Most people don't want to make the dangerous trip north, but do so out of economic necessity. Disallow remittances, and watch the migrant numbers surge.
"Disallow remittances, and watch the migrant numbers surge."
Let me fix that for you:
Enforce the actual laws, cut the free benefits and watch the remittances drop.
End the loop of Business-Lobbyist-Government-Migrant that has drained the lower and middle class and jacked up taxes. Adjust benefits for those capable of working. Stop government backing of student loans.
Illegal alien invaders are "Indians not taxed" under the Constitution, and should not count towards Congressional representation.
Stop feeding the stray cats.
Oklahoma taxes at 1%:
https://cis.org/North/Remittance-Fee-Oklahoma-Georgia-and-US-Congress
Why not tax the remittance at 1-5% and recover some of the cost?
Thing is, that's a state and local thing, not a fed thing.
Yep, Trump had a chance to pass a law to charge a percentage fee of 3-5% on every Western Union and other form of remittance to Mexico, but he never did it.
It would have easily kept his campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the Wall.
Too bad it didn't happen and it certainly will not happen under the Dems.
We met a Hungarian couple who as newlyweds had fled to Austria after the '56 Revolution. They came to the US and had a few weeks in a shelter in NYC, were given $50 and sent on their way. They could barely speak English and worked menial jobs but did them well; she could cook, he could clean. They learned the language, saved, and could always rely on a favorable reference for the next job. When we met them in the '90's they owned about a dozen rental properties in Los Angeles.
Genuine refugees and a credit and benefit to the USA.
Tax them at 26% at a minimum. Medicare and Social Security come to 16% (both deductions since their employers aren't paying) then 10% on top of that.
I'd even have the Feds send them a 1099 form so they can claim the credits back if they actually had a reported job.
After a one-time overseas transfer max of $2K without penalty (for nominal emergencies), tax all cash transfers overseas at a 95% rate.
Problem solved.
The companies (Western Union, etc.) have to do business here, so they'll comply.
Any US expats living overseas should have to present themselves, with bona fide US ID, to the local US consulate annually, to verify eligibility, otherwise any deposits to foreign banks get treated the same way.
But that won't ever happen, because TPTB want daisy-chain illegal immigration to continue endlessly, so it does.
The sooner people understand this is happening solely because of that, the quicker we get to the kinetic phase of stopping it.
Nothing lesser will be ever implemented, nor work.
Back in the 1930's, the government used to give out "commodities". Cheese, peanut butter, flour, etc. The government could go back to that idea, but provide the food to local food banks instead of individuals. No EBT or SNAP to be abused.
I have to agree with Chris here. All aid should be stopped that is provided by tax dollars. That might be the only solution to stop to money from leaving the country. Or atleast stop taxes payers from feeling like they have been duped. I remember a post awhile back here talking about how embargo's don't work and people always find a work around. We'd just see the same thing with a cash export type tax.
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