In the first half of 2025, applications seeking asylum in the European Union dropped by 23%, the EU’s asylum agency said Monday.
The Malta-based European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said 399,000 new applications were lodged between January and June, down 114,000, or 23%, from the same period in 2024.
Germany lost its spot as the most preferred country for asylum seekers and saw the biggest decline in asylum applications standing at a 43% drop.
It was followed by followed by Italy and Spain, which saw 25% and 13% declines, respectively.
The far right will take credit for this, even though it has probably little to do with it—if anything, only indirectly.
But let them: it will then be even easier to identify their hate speech against foreigners as a key factor in the shortage of skilled workers.
In Germany, for example, there are approximately 68,000 doctors from abroad, a significant proportion of whom (approximately 6,500) come from Syria and entered the country as asylum seekers (source).
So it would be great if we could finally shift the migration debate away from mindless racism and toward meaningful politics—not only because racism is repugnant, but also for purely practical reasons: with dull-witted Nazis, the future cannot be secured; that much is certain.