In the fourth annual Walter Picard Lecture yesterday, a German economics professor said European countries should pursue a policy of selective immigration.
About 60 people gathered in the Hinman Forum of the Rockefeller Center yesterday afternoon to hear Klaus Zimmermann's speech, titled "European Migration and the Changing Economy."
Zimmermann, the dean of the faculty of economics at the University of Munich, spoke on the economic impact of immigration to the major European powers, focusing on Germany and France.
In the future, the aging of the general population and labor demand will force European states to continue to allow immigration, Zimmermann said.
But he said the nations should follow a policy of 'selective immigration' by accepting skilled immigrants in order to fulfill their economic needs.
Zimmermann examined several types of immigration into Germany: people of German descent returning to the country, people from other European Union nations immigrating to Germany, and people from outside the Union who come to the nation.
Also examined in detail in his oration were the immigration policies of France, a country which he said was "neither prepared nor willing to become a multicultural society."
While Zimmermann acknowledged that studies have shown immigration improves life in a community, he noted that studies have been conducted in North America and do not necessarily apply to the "less flexible" European nations.
The results of immigration to Europe were "less predictable" than immigration to North America, he said.
Despite increasing restrictions on immigration in European nations, since the end of World War II the higher birth rates of foreigners and the immigration of family members to European countries has undermined policies designed to decrease the number of people immigrating, he said.
The speech was sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty and the W.P. and D.N. Harris German-Dartmouth Distinguished Visiting Professorship. The Walter Picard Lecture series brings German scholars to speak at the College.
