|
The Italian connection
There have never been more humans forcibly displaced than in 2017. And this was the sixth record-setting year in a row. Little wonder then that Italy's politicians are only too aware of what forced migration means for their country. Despite (or perhaps due to) their country being arguably the most conquered landmass of the last two millennia, many modern Italians gravitate toward harsh refugee policies. This hardened attitude is personified by the new Interior Minister - the famed xenophobe Matteo Salvini - who last week drew a line in the sand by declaring that no more NGO rescue ships would be allowed to dock in Italy. Having (alongside Greece) borne the brunt of a decade's worth of trans-Mediterranean boat arrivals it is perhaps understandable that the Overton Window (the gamut of acceptable ideas) has closed on the intake of refugees.
The effect has been immediate: the French aid ship Aquarius carrying 630 migrants was turned back off the Italian coast (Spain took them in after a week-long ordeal). Using a line of argument that would be familiar to our Australian readers, Salvini insisted that the charities pulling drowning migrants from the sea were in fact aiding and abetting people smugglers. The event sparked a minor diplomatic row between Rome and Paris; yet such external pressure only adds credence to the Eurosceptic coalition's raison d'être. But while Salvini has the power to spurn NGO rescue ships, Italy's coast guard is still (begrudgingly) doing its job; on Wednesday one of its ships landed in Sicily, carrying 522 migrants.
It must be noted that Italy's dismissal of migrants is not limited to new arrivals; the firebrand Salvini has called for a complete census of the Roma living in Italy and the forced deportation of any non-Italians. This - a favoured policy of Mussolini's - carries within it a kernel of centuries-old prejudice.
Budapestilence
Italy is hardly alone in deploying such tactics. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán won his own reelection campaign on a platform that started and ended with racism. Despite the fact that a vanishingly small number of refugees have set down roots in Hungary, the country has been whipped into a frenzy over migration. In the run-up to Orban's election, bus stop posters cast vile racial slurs on the African population in the country. This week Orbán's lawmakers passed a bill to criminalise the work of any charities or rights groups that help migrants. Any legal, language, housing or support network that once supported Hungary's migrants must now cease its work immediately. The protofascism favoured by Orbán's supporters can also be read in the new legislation which rules that 'alien populations' cannot be settled in Hungary.
European solutions
All of this makes for a fascinating backdrop to Sunday's emergency meeting on immigration in Brussels. In the lead-up French President Emmanuel Macron bemoaned Italy's drift to the right as 'extremist' and as a betrayal of 'European values'. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains keen to hash out a consensus ahead of the full European summit next week; she is facing challenges both at home and abroad. The issue is a burning platform among her own Christian Democrats with pressure mounting to stop the free-flow of migrants who are already within the European bloc. And all the while a quartet of stubborn central European countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia) is threatening to boycott the upcoming talks.
While European countries bicker about how to protect their borders from more refugees, the actual migratory movement has largely been stemmed. The sea-route to Greece was closed after an expensive deal with Turkey and the trans-Mediterranean crossings have tapered off. The EU has invested heavily in Libya - and while it is still a failed state - the local militias have helped diminish the people-smuggling business. So what's really at question now is how to deal with the migrants already inside the bloc. It's clear that Germany's desire for a more equal spread of refugees across member states is not going to be well received.
America goes cold on ICE
On the other side of the Atlantic we've seen a rare outcry in admonishment of - rather than support of - a harsh immigration measure. The 'zero tolerance' border controls launched in May by the Trump administration were scrutinised this week. Of particular concern was the practice of separating migrant children from their families (even those applying for asylum) and of housing youths in holding facilities. Already stories of sexual and physical abuse have emerged from such child detention sites. President Donald Trump reacted swiftly to news broadcasts of crying children and distraught parents being separated by armed officials; by mid-week he had signed an executive order ending the policy.
Yet most of the coverage missed the point that the measure was working exactly as planned. As far as deterrents go, having your child ripped from your loving embrace, drugged, and held in prison-like conditions, is definitely is up there. It's an abysmally cynical policy - again, one that our Australian readers may already be familiar with - which expressly seeks to dissuade future migrants. In the US 'zero tolerance' was the brainchild of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, a character who has been described even by his White House colleagues as being, amongst other things, "Waffen-SS". And while the administration has jettisoned this cruel and unusual policy, it continues to advocate for tougher measures at a time when Americans are actually more favourable towards immigration than ever before.
Where does that leave us (and them)?
It has become increasingly clear that lower- and middle-income nations like Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan and Uganda have little choice but to pick up the slack when wealthier countries decide to close their borders. Hence, a global response to the migratory flow of humans is as crucial as it is elusive.
Will the refugee crisis be the undoing of the EU? Will immigration reform lead to a schism among US conservatives? Perhaps. There's one thing we do know: regional conflicts, food and water shortages, famines, and climate change will continue to drive more and more people from their homes. So the politics of the next hundred years will be the politics of refugee and immigration.
|
