Michael Bröning decries centre-left parties that bow to political pressure, and adopt the far-right groups’ hard stance on refugees and migrants who seek asylum in Europe. He says “they should pursue a three-pronged strategy that can be popular without being populist.”

In recent years centre-left parties have been in retreat across much of Europe after losing elections in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, etc. more comprehensively than ever before. Their voters say these parties no longer offer an agenda they used to have, because centre-right parties have hijacked their political ideas, leaving the line between left and right blurred. They are also fragmenting at the very moment when far-right populists are making inroads.

There have been a major social and economic upheaval throughout Europe over the past 30 years. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in traditional heavy industries like steel-making, coal-mining and ship-building have gone, and with them the central role of trades unions and their political allies. Observers say centre-left parties have been suffering from a “deficit of ideas,” unable to respond to the changes and challenge as the more flexible centre-right parties do.

Besides, over the past decade centre-left parties in Europe had been unable to decide whether to “disown or embrace” the electoral strategies which had served them so well during the 1990, said ex-Labour foreign secretary, David Milliband in 2011. Issues they had to address included immigration - in which the centre-left was regarded as "suspect at best and guilty at worst" - the balance between tax and spending and how to stimulate economic growth and job creation beyond direct state control.

In an effort to regain popular support, centre-left parties are now “following in nationalist right's footsteps.” European voters “are increasingly opposed to immigration, and do not trust the left to limit it.” Many people on the left embrace liberal, humanitarian values and feel a sense of moral responsibility towards the weak and vulnerable, especially those who flee war and persecution. They are sympathetic to an open-border migration policy, while rejecting strident chauvinism.

While it is our duty to save human lives and help refugees, it’s the debate on economic migrants that divides public opinion. Critics point out that centre-left parties in the affluent West had had generous immigration policy in the past. By letting in a large number of economic migrants, they not only created conflict with the poorer people at home but also helped slow down the development of the poor countries, which rely on exporting people to rich countries and benefit from their remittances. It also encourages the young and educated people in poor countries, who do not want to wait the several generations it might take for their country to become rich, stable and liberal.

The author urges centre-left parties to not “copy the crude nativist recipes of the radical right, which would not only be economically counterproductive, but would also fly in the face of progressive values, alienating cosmopolitan supporters.” They should “strike a balance between national and international solidarity with a three-pronged strategy comprising effective limits on immigration, a focus on integration, and humanitarian efforts to ease large-scale human suffering.”

It remains to be seen whether this strategy would offer “real, forward-thinking, and morally sustainable solutions that are not populist, but certainly can be popular.” While taking care of those who seek refuge or better economic opportunities, rich countries can become over-dependent on immigration, which then reduces the incentive to improve the training or work ethic of hard-to-employ native citizens. Lacking skills to compete in the job market, they are the ones who come to resent migrants and reject global trade and open borders, falling prey to populist rhetoric. Poorer countries can become over-dependent on emigration, which provides a flow of hardcash from abroad, but slows their own economic development and productivity.