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Europe in an uproar over immigration, too
It's tough for politicians perceived as lax on borders, such as Blair



12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 7, 2006
By TOD ROBBERSON / The Dallas Morning News


LONDON – On both sides of the Atlantic, immigration is emerging as the hot potato that leaders acknowledge they can no longer ignore but are desperate to get rid of.

As the U. S. copes with massive protests over proposals to tighten immigration laws, anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe is prompting politicians to consider their own clampdowns.

The most recent target of that sentiment was Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, whose Labor Party suffered its worst setback since 1968 in local elections last week.

The party has blamed various issues for its defeat, which prompted a full-scale Cabinet shuffle on Friday.

But political analysts said there was no mistaking the chief role immigration played in swaying voters toward parties that vow to tighten the rules on asylum seekers and foreign residents deemed to be undesirable.

"Of course, the elephant in the room ... is immigration," the conservative Daily Mail said in an editorial. "Britain has lost control of its borders."

The British media hammered Mr. Blair's government leading up to the election after reports emerged that authorities had failed to deport more than 1,000 foreigners who had committed serious crimes in Britain since 1999. Instead, those foreigners were freed after serving prison terms, with many of them returning to the streets to commit even more heinous crimes, including rape and murder.

One was an immigrant who sought asylum after fleeing violence in Somalia. He served jail time for robbery, burglary and violent behavior. Released back to the streets last year, he participated in a burglary that led to the death of police Officer Sharon Beshenivsky. Her death prompted a nationwide outcry, which included a headline-grabbing protest resignation by Ben Johnson, a former Garland police officer who had become a British constable.

"That's why a lot of the public is really upset, because they're starting to see a difference between the local, old-fashioned English criminals, who sort of know the rules of the game. They know that police aren't armed, and you're not supposed to do anything to police officers," Mr. Johnson said.

"But we're facing a situation where we've got criminal elements from ... countries that really are quite violent" and where "the police are just as violent as the criminals," he added.

The result is that British police are ill-equipped to cope and crime is rising, leading "to an unpredictable level of violence," Mr. Johnson said. He plans to return to Texas in October and resume his job with Garland police.

Europe has no equivalent of the Minuteman group, which has gained popularity across the U.S. Southwest, but right-wing political groups across the continent have soared in popularity with populist promises to close borders and kick out migrants.

In Thursday's election, the far-right-wing British National Party gained 15 seats in local councils across the country. It previously had five. The right-of-center Conservative Party, which also favors tighter controls on immigration, gained 317 seats. Labor, which polls suggest is perceived as being lax on immigration, lost 319.

Last year in Germany, anger fueled by rising immigration from Turkey and Eastern Europe prompted the election of a conservative chancellor, Angela Merkel, who promised to clamp down on immigration. She has resisted pressure from President Bush to campaign for predominantly Muslim Turkey's entry into the European Union.

Following 27 days of nationwide violence by mainly North African immigrants in France late last year, the hard-line interior minister, Nikolas Sarkozy, called for sweeping new laws on Thursday aimed at sharply curbing immigration. He is now seen as a top contender for the French presidency, up for grabs next year.

Several countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, have considered laws requiring immigrants to learn the host nation's language. When a German legislator recently proposed translating the national anthem, "Deutschland Uber Alles," into Turkish to accommodate the migrant population, the magazine Spiegel International joked that some Muslims might have difficulty with some verses, such as one praising, "German Women, German Loyalty, German Wine and German Song."

Human-rights activists warn that Europe could be entering a dangerous new phase in which populist appeals by politicians for immigration controls serve to mask what amounts to an attack on mainly Muslim migrants who don't fit the white, Christian mold that has been the traditional profile of Europeans for centuries.

Jennifer Preece, a London School of Economics lecturer on nationalism in Europe, said public sentiment toward immigration appears to have shifted after the 9/11 attacks in the U. S. and subsequent bombing attacks by Islamists in Madrid and London.

Before, the focus was on protecting jobs from being taken by East European migrants – the so-called "Polish plumber" syndrome. But now the main impetus is limiting migration from the Muslim world because of professed fears that those immigrants are criminals and would-be bombers.

"They're clearly playing the whole race card," Ms. Preece said. "There's a clear profile, which I think, disproportionately, is Muslim immigrants who are visibly apparent to the population." Ms. Preece said it is questionable whether any leadership would be able to halt the influx, largely because the traditional European population is aging and declining, and labor shortages increasingly must be filled by importing workers.

"Europe needs immigration," she explained. "You could not possibly shut the gate on the entry of legal or illegal immigrants into the economy. But it's a way to get voters to go to the polls, and for that reason, it's a card that is very tempting [for politicians] to play."

E-mail trobberson@dallasnews.com