For Britain it found that an annual in take of 125,000 immigrants would be needed until 2050. This is almost double the average of 73,000 migrants a year from 1990 to 1998. To maintain the current PSR until 2050, Britain would need a net immigration total of more than 1m migrants a year. For Germany, 3.4m migrants would be needed every year to keep the workforce in the same proportion to the elderly as it is today. If it were to happen, Europe should understand the implications and be prepared to become a racially hybrid society.
Public opinion needs to be enlightened and convinced.
But the immigrants who are needed in most of Europe are those with skills, and they will not come without the prospect of citizenship. Another solution is to get people to work longer. For Britain to retain the same PSR as it has today would mean lifting the retirement age to 72. In practice, most countries are likely to use a mixture of approaches, by opening the door to migration, changing the pensions system, and encouraging those who want to stay at work after 65. As Antonio Vitorino, the EU's dynamic Portuguese commissioner for justice and home affairs, told European ministers this summer, fortress Europe cannot go on.