Publius' Forum

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is an interesting little report from UPI. It seems that middle and upper middle class farmers in small villages throughout the European Union are… importing Polish wives.

"Well-to-do farmers, aged 25 to 40, from Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain, who would like to stay on their land, have a slim chance, if any, to marry girls from EU countries, the Polish Metro daily newspaper reported Monday."

You may wonder why this might be? Don't women in the EU want to be married? It seems the answer to that is "no". We have seen a precipitous drop in birth rates in the old European countries to the point where replacement the rate is in doubt and certainly no growth is occurring.

Births in the United States stands at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76 ; Canada's at 1.5; Germany and Austria are at 1.3; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, that only about half replacement rate. According to Mark Steyn, "Spain's population is halving every generation. By 2050, Italy's population will have fallen by 22%, Bulgaria's by 36%, Estonia's by 52%. By 2050, there will be 100 million fewer Europeans, 100 million more Americans."

So, farmers in the EU cannot find women that want to have kids or that want to live in small villages and live that placid, rural farm life. Too many European women want that "Sex in the City" life of big cities, sexual freedom, and self-centered lifestyles. Living in a small farming village is not appealing to folks with that mentality.

Apparently European farmers imagine that Polish women are "more traditional" and have been looking to that country for mates.

"Polish girls and middle-aged women alike are conservative, not demanding and embrace traditional family life, and Frenchmen, Italians and Spaniards particularly want their would-be wives to be Roman Catholic, Belgrade's Beta news agency said.

Unlike many other Europeans, Polish women do not mind being farm wives, the Metro newspaper said."

Now this stands to reason, such as it is. After all, Poland is one of the most conservative countries in Europe. If one were to ask a European what the most Catholic country is one might equally get the answers of Ireland and Poland.

Further, Poland has been one of the few staunch supporters of the Bush Doctrine in Iraq and has repeatedly supplied troops to assist the coalition forces there. And Poland has, likewise, been very close to the United States, most likely in thanks for the USA's strong support of them during the waning days of communist totalitarianism and the US fascination with Solidarinosc and Lech Walesa.

But, looking closer into the story, one finds the sad fact that even Polish women are displaying a falling birth rate.

According to the BBC (admittedly an often biased source):

"But while birth rates have been falling steadily across the continent for decades, the fertility rate in Ireland is now 1.98, not too far off the population replacement level of 2.1. In Poland, it's just 1.23, among the bottom five in Europe. The country's population actually fell by almost half a million over the last six years. Estimates suggest there will be four million fewer Poles by 2030."

So, if EU farmers are turning to Polish women because they cannot find women in their own countries, yet even Poland is finding a rapidly falling birth rate, we must all be alarmed for the future ... and an immediate one at that ... of the strength of the countries in Europe.

As Mark Steyn recently said in his aforementioned Op Ed, "It's the Demography, Stupid ", he warns that "Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries."

Perhaps a bit alarmist, but certainly a perfectly acceptable extrapolation of trends should they continue along the lines they are now headed.

Now contrast that with the birth rate of Muslims in Europe.

"More are on the way. Today, the Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one. If current trends continue, the Muslim population of Europe will nearly double by 2015, while the non-Muslim population will shrink by 3.5 percent."

With this single factor, we can see why European countries so often side with terrorists and against the US and Israel. It isn’t out of any stand on principles; it is out of pure fear, fear of that immigrant population turning against them.

Unfortunately, this European appeasement to curry favor from extremists will not garner them much by way of safety (and has not already) and many feel it won’t be long before there are enough Muslims to forcibly and materially alter European traditions and forms of governments.

In any case, we wish those EU farmers luck in love but we hope that they soon find women closer to home ready to bring the next generation of people into the world, none-the-less. And if they do not, their entire civilization is in doubt.