Migrants Drawn by Jobs, Welfare in Northern Europe

For tens of thousands of migrants who survive the hazardous crossing of the Mediterranean, the journey often continues as they slip through cracks in Italy's border controls and head north. With Italy's unemployment at 13 percent, many new arrivals would rather settle in the wealthier welfare states of northern Europe where there are better job opportunities and more established refugee communities. Helped by a blind eye from Italian authorities and visa-free travel inside Europe, migrants can relatively easily make it all the way to Scandinavia before they apply for asylum — even though European Union rules state they should do so in the first EU country they enter. Of the 435,000 people who applied for asylum last year in the 28-nation European Union, nearly half did so in Germany and Sweden.