On Migration, Europe Warms to Ideas Once Seen as Fringe

Europe|On Migration, Europe Warms to Ideas Once Seen as Fringe

Europe has been struggling for years to limit the number of unauthorized migrants entering by land and sea, instituting increasingly tough policies. Those moves now appear to be working, with the numbers of migrants crossing into European Union countries decreasing dramatically from highs last year.

But despite the decline in migrant arrivals, anti-immigrant sentiment is flourishing, with leaders adopting or considering harsher policies that mainstream political parties would have balked at just a few years ago.

As in the United States, the steep drop in border crossings has done little to diminish the political potency of the issue.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is trying to send migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Albania. Germany, one of the most welcoming countries during the wave of migration in 2015, has extended patrols to all its land borders. And Poland plans to introduce legislation to temporarily suspend the right of new arrivals to ask for asylum.

The crackdowns have been driven in part by xenophobic, anti-immigrant parties that have played on fears of uncontrolled migration and a dilution of national identity. Their arguments are gaining a more receptive audience with Europeans who worry that the influx of migrants is unmanageable and are frustrated that roughly 80 percent of failed asylum seekers never leave, according to E.U. data.

Their leaders, some of them facing elections, have taken note. In Germany, the Christian Democrats — the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel, who famously welcomed immigrants in 2015 — have been pressing hard for tougher measures to control illegal immigration and is leading in the polls.