While the American media remains transfixed by the public clash between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, a significant development across the Atlantic passed largely unnoticed. In one of Europe's most advanced economies, the Netherlands, the constitutional government collapsed. The four-party coalition unraveled when the leader of the conservative bloc withdrew support, citing the government's failure to uphold its promise to limit illegal immigration.
Just days earlier, Poland saw a resounding shift as voters rejected a pro-European Union candidate in favor of a strong conservative who campaigned on nationalist themes and stricter immigration controls. Liberal leaders across Europe did not anticipate these outcomes. Mere hours before the Polish election, exit polls had predicted a victory for the pro-EU candidate. Unlike in past instances in Romania, Germany, and France, where political establishments used procedural maneuvers to sideline conservative parties, no such intervention occurred this time. In every instance, the conservatives were highlighting a bitter truth that unbridled illegal immigration was taking away jobs from domestic workers, impoverishing them.
Denmark, under its center-left Social Democratic government, has implemented some of Europe’s toughest immigration policies, slashing asylum applications by nearly 90% since 2015. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s approach focuses on deterrence: tightening legal standards, reducing benefits, and even relocating asylum centers outside the country. This hardline yet stable strategy has drawn quiet admiration across Europe and poses a challenge to leaders like the UK’s Keir Starmer, who must balance public concern with progressive values. While Labour has signaled tougher immigration controls, its policies remain far more cautious than Denmark’s blunt and effective model.
The UK’s recent surge in net migration, especially post-Brexit, has intensified pressure on Labour to act, as Nigel Farage’s Reform party capitalizes on public frustration. The data makes clear why Starmer now faces a Denmark-style dilemma.
Immigration has been at the center of global policy debates for over 15 years, often framed by media narratives about refugees fleeing war and conflict. But beneath that narrative lies a simpler economic reality: many migrants are seeking better livelihoods, not fleeing persecution. In other words, these are economic migrants, not asylum seekers. International asylum law is clear: economic migrants do not qualify for asylum.
Nevertheless, many Western governments have embraced mass illegal migration. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel notably opened the door by admitting more than one million migrants from Africa. Since then, illegal immigration flows have surged, overwhelming asylum systems and straining nations' ability to process and absorb new arrivals. The wealthier economies—Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands—find themselves in constant contention with less prosperous countries like Greece and others in Eastern Europe over how to distribute and support these migrants.
While cultural integration remains a pressing concern, the more immediate and systemic challenge is employment. In an age of outsourcing, global imports, and rapidly evolving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), many traditional jobs for domestic workers are disappearing. How, then, can wealthy economies absorb an ever-growing labor supply?
This dilemma unfolded in real-time under the Biden administration, which admitted nearly 19 million illegal immigrants, none of whom were vetted for criminal records or employable skills. The administration justified this policy by suggesting that, in the post-COVID recovery period—amid high inflation—these individuals would fill jobs Americans were unwilling to do, such as agricultural labor or meat processing. While there was some truth to this argument—as evidenced by media coverage of labor shortages in Springfield, Ohio—it masked a deeper structural problem: what happens to domestic workers when unchecked immigration dramatically increases labor supply?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has long tracked employment outcomes for U.S. college graduates. An April 2025 report from the New York Fed painted a startling picture: unemployment for domestic graduates in computer engineering had reached 7.5%, far exceeding national averages. Even more surprising, graduates in fields like sociology and communications were faring better in the job market than their STEM counterparts. For decades, business leaders have argued that the U.S. faces a dire shortage of skilled labor in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, advocating for more visas to bring in foreign talent. The Fed finding reignited a longstanding debate: Is America truly facing a shortage of tech talent, or is it merely creating one through liberal visa policies promoted by big businesses and educational institutions that attract unlimited numbers of international students and give them unlimited numbers of optional practical training permits that ultimately feed into H-1B specialty occupation visas?
Meanwhile, India's External Affairs Minister offered a dramatically opposing vision. In a meeting with ambassadors from multiple countries, he outlined a strategy whereby India would train its youth in vocational and technical skills while negotiating labor migration agreements with partner nations. These pacts would allow skilled Indian workers to migrate temporarily—and in some cases, permanently—to meet labor demands abroad. Suddenly, exporting labor had become an official policy objective of the Indian government.
The External Affairs Minister left unsaid a harsh truth—that India is struggling to create jobs for its youth and that promoting emigration was a clever way to improve incoming remittances from its vast diaspora. India, already the world's largest labor exporter (over 34 million people) and a recipient of over $125 billion a year in remittances, appears poised to expand this strategy dramatically.
And then there's the disruptive force of technology. Leading tech executives now concede that most entry-level and mid-level jobs in software development may be automated within a few years. A recent study revealed that Waymo's self-driving robotaxis are now making more trips in the Bay Area than Lyft. On a recent podcast, Stephen Bannon, who has long since parted ways with Elon Musk, criticized Tesla's aggressive development of autonomous vehicles. His concern is that many low-income workers rely on taxi and rideshare driving as accessible ways to enter the labor market. While grueling, such jobs have long enabled workers to support families.
As if in response to Bannon's critique, a Pittsburgh-based tech company launched road trials in Texas with fully autonomous 18-wheeler trucks, carrying over 25,000 pounds of freight up and down Interstate 45 connecting Dallas and Houston. The implications are profound—not just for the trucking industry but for labor markets everywhere.
At the core of the immigration debate lies a simple, stubborn truth: the global supply of labor now vastly exceeds demand. That imbalance—between the number of people seeking work and the number of jobs available—is the elephant in the room. Yet astonishingly, even the sweeping new One Big Beautiful Bill recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives does not even mention this fundamental issue, far less address it.
Without confronting this mismatch, immigration policies, or lack thereof, risk exacerbating economic inequalities and fueling dangerous divides between native and immigrant communities worldwide.
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Trump-Musk Feud – TIPP Staff, TIPPInsights.com
1. Bannon Says Musk 'Crossed The Rubicon' With Backing Trump Impeachment Call
2. Epstein Lawyer: No Dirt On Trump, Refutes Musk's Claim
3. ‘Absurd’: Conservatives Slam Musk’s Trump-Epstein Claim
4. Trump Brushes Off Musk Feud, Says ‘Poor Guy’s Got A Problem’
5. DOGE Dividend Creator Quits Over Musk's Trump Attacks
6. Trump Threatens To Pull Musk’s Federal Contracts
7. Musk: I Helped Trump Win, Now He Turns On Me, Such Ingratitude
8. Musk Pushes Back: EV Cuts Fine, Bill Is The Problem
9. Trump On Musk: ‘I Don’t Know If We’ll Still Be Friends’
Other Opinion/News
10. Victor Davis Hanson: Is The Age Of American Empire Over Or Just Beginning?—Bradley Devlin, The Daily Signal
11. Where Trump And Putin Could Make A Deal—Samuel Charap & Kingston Reif, Project Syndicate
12. Take A Hike: Driving Will Be Verboten—Editorial Board, Issues & Insights
13. The World Shuns Renewable Energy—Editorial Board, Issues & Insights
14. Consumer Confidence Inches Closer To Optimism, RealClearMarkets/TIPP Survey Finds—Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
15. Ukraine’s Operation “Spider’s Web” Redefines Asymmetric Warfare—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
16. Plummeting Japan Birthrate A “Silent Emergency”—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
17. Virginia Municipalities Dispute Their ‘Sanctuary’ Designation—Joe Thomas, The Daily Signal
18. The Deadly Consequences Of Campus Chants—Victor Joecks, The Daily Signal
19. House Republicans Dispute CBO’s Deficit Scoring Of ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal
20. Return Of Warfighters: Army Hits Recruitment Numbers Four Months Early—Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal
21. Meet Trump’s Judicial Nominee Under Scrutiny For Christian Faith—Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal
22. Marc Elias Moves To Thwart Trump DOJ’s Litigation Over Alleged Voter Inaccuracies—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal
23. House Anti-Opioids Bill Easily Passes Despite Unexpected Opposition—Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal
24. House DOGE Panel Members Assess Musk’s Legacy—Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal
25. Karine Jean-Pierre Ditches Democrat Party—Lorenzo Prieto, The Daily Signal
26. Americans Rate Mike Johnson’s Performance As House Speaker—Lorenzo Prieto, The Daily Signal
27. Trump Orders Investigation Into Biden’s Alleged Use Of Autopen—Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal
28. Trump Issues Travel Restrictions On Predominantly Muslim Nations, Vowing To Prevent ‘What Happened In Europe To Happen To America’—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal
29. Supreme Court Rules On Mexico’s Attack On US Gun Manufacturers—Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal
30. Supreme Court Protects Majority Groups From Discrimination—Lucy Spence & Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal
31. Elon Built The DOGE Rocket And It’s Going to Keep Flying—EJ Antoni, The Daily Signal
32. Where Is The National Conversation On Antisemitism?—Ian Haworth, The Daily Signal
33. Trump Announces U.S.-China Delegation Meeting In London—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
34. Judge Blocks Trump Visa Ban Targeting Harvard’s International Students—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
35. Trump Urges Fed To Slash Interest Rates By A Full Point—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
36. Netanyahu Defends Arming Gaza Militias Amid Fierce Backlash—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
37. Trump And Xi Decide To Meet In Person After Phone Call—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
38. White House Bans Foreign Enrollments At Harvard—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
39. Xi, Trump Discuss Trade In First Call Of New Term—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
40. Biden Denies Claims As Trump Launches Investigation—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
