Thread: The EU is too woke to defend its borders

The EU is too woke to defend its borders



William Nattrass
Thu, February 9, 2023 at 11:04 AM EST







Migrants gather on the Belarusian-Polish border in an attempt to cross it


While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky focuses minds on the urgent task of supporting his nation’s war effort today, EU leaders are also discussing another crisis facing Europe: mass migration.

Growing public anger is forcing Brussels lawmakers to finally confront problems that have been clear for years; if, that is, they can overcome their own ideological opposition to a tougher stance on migration.

Ahead of the EU summit, a group of eight leaders penned a letter to the heads of the European Commission and European Council describing how “irregular migration has once again become one of the most pressing issues,” with the situation for many countries as bad as it was during the migration crisis of 2015.

Last year, victory for Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition in Italy and remarkable success for the nationalist Sweden Democrats proved just how important the issue has become for voters.

Sensing a threat to their dominance, centrist forces are now trying to adopt a tougher stance. Ahead of today’s summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out new proposals to strengthen the EU’s external borders, while the head of the centre-right European People’s Party group, Manfred Weber, adopted the rhetoric of Viktor Orbán, saying the EU is “sleepwalking into a new migration crisis.”

An example of the fate which could befall the European centre-Right if it fails to deliver on migration can be seen in Austria, where polling shows that the nationalist right-wing Freedom Party has overtaken the ruling Austrian People’s Party, a member of Weber’s EPP group. Voters believe conventional political forces have downplayed and underestimated the problems posed by mass migration for years.

And as illegal immigration on the main migrant routes shot up in the second half of 2022, the threat it poses to freedom of movement, that most cherished of EU values, was demonstrated by the unilateral imposition of national border checks by countries such as the Czech Republic and Austria.

Brussels decision makers now face an uncomfortable choice. They can embrace the kind of tough action on migration which they are continually told by lobbyists, NGOs, and pro-migration politicians is cruel and racist; or they can face political extinction at the hand of those more willing to tackle the issues head-on.

Every proposed reform to toughen up migration policy faces an inevitable, emotionally-charged backlash. Those who argue that countries which finance NGO migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean should not expect Italy to host everyone they save, for example, face the wrath of those who describe Italy’s tougher stance on migrant boats as “a call to let people drown.”

Even the piecemeal and half-hearted proposals now being put forward by the European Commission face stiff opposition. Oxfam has condemned von der Leyen for following “narrow-minded political objectives,” calling for a “migration policy that works for people, not one built on blackmail, forced returns and fences.”

Such trite and false dichotomies fail to acknowledge that there are distinct groups of people affected by mass migration to Europe – genuine refugees and asylum seekers, economic migrants, and the local populations of EU countries living under varying social and economic circumstances – and that they all have competing interests in migration policy.

The headache caused by such ideological preconceptions is clearest in the issue of EU funding for border fences, which is being called for by various member states at today’s summit, but which has long been seen by the European Commission as an affront to “EU values” and human rights.

As in the UK, the EU’s debate over migration policy is hobbled by an intractable dilemma.

Stopping enormous suffering caused by systems for illegal immigration to Europe may only be possible through solutions that risk avoidable suffering for individuals currently being exploited by those systems.

Yet until now, the EU’s preference for sticking its fingers in its ears, accepting mass migration as a fact of life and focusing on redistribution rather than prevention, has proven an abject failure.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/eu-too-wo...160411701.html

ship every one of them back home it out of hand - now Joe & Obama your no good & you Dem as well