The Tide is Turning

Thoughts on impact of mass-scale immigration on Europe and rise of right-wing nationalist parties in European Elections

(Originally Published in The Nation on 16th June, 2014)

On 31st of May, 2014, more than 3000 migrants from North Africa reached the shores of Italy. Most of the refugees, using boats to cross the Mediterranean Sea, had arrived from Syria. In 2011, the number of illegal border-crossing detections in the European Union (EU) jumped by 35% to 1, 41,000 as thousands of Tunisians arrived at Italian island of Lampedusa after the start of ‘Arab Spring’. This exodus from Africa continued in 2012-13 due to the uprising in Libya and Syria. In 2013, a boat carrying 360 people from North Africa to Italy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a solitary event and similar accidents have been reported in the last five years. In 2012, 51% of migrants entering the EU illegally did so via Greece. This prompted the Greek authorities to construct a barbed-wire fence at the Greek-Turkish border.

According to the Dublin Regulation in European Union’s Law, entry-point states bear unilateral responsibility for migrants. The law stipulates that asylum seekers must remain in the first European country they enter, and that country is solely responsible for examining migrants’ asylum applications. Migrants who travel to other European Union (EU) states face deportation back to the EU country they originally entered. In Italy, migrants face fines and deportation under the Bossi-Finni Immigration law enacted in 2002, which stipulates that migrants must secure work contracts before entering the country. According to the law, illegal migration is a punishable offense in Italy.

The great economic recession that engulfed United States in 2008 affected many countries in Europe as well. The first to fall was Ireland in 2007-08, followed by Spain, Greece, Italy, Iceland, France and Portugal. Economic disparity reached new heights while the number of jobless people was on an all-time high. The Eurozone crisis was blamed on trade imbalance between countries in Northern Europe and Southern Europe.

In November 2008, the European Commission presented the European Economic Recovery Plan which aimed at promoting austerity and decreased government spending in the affected countries. Following the recession, there is a significant decrease in confidence faced by European Institutions and according to data from Eurobarometer, levels of mistrust towards the European Commission escalated from 27% to 47% in the period between 2007 and 2013.

Results of the latest round of European Elections should be evaluated in the backdrop of increased immigration and financial crisis. Far-Right nationalist parties witnessed a surge in their vote share and were able to win a few seats in different countries in the European Union. From among 751 electoral seats in the EU parliament, far-right or euroskeptic parties were able to win 108 seats, compared to 56 seats in the previous election. Countries where Euroskeptic parties made inroads included Germany, France, United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Austria. Major political parties across Europe did not place too much importance on these elections and a sharp decline in number of voters was seen.

Judy Dempsey-an expert on European politics at Carnegie endowment for International peace-was of the view that “the turn out continues to decline [in the EU elections]. This time around, the recent economic crisis has fed into this sense of disillusionment with Europe and boosted Euroskeptic parties across the continent. The two most prominent are Britain’s UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and France’s Front National. It must be said that mainstream parties standing for European parliament have not done the kind of grassroots campaigning necessary to defend Europe. In contrast, the nationalist/populist parties are exploiting this weakness with their own high-profile campaigning. They are well-organized and highly motivated, and they are able to sell a very clear message.”

Founder of France’s ‘Front National’ party suggested prior to the elections that “releasing the deadly Ebola Virus could sort out Europe’s immigration issue in three months”. A neo-Nazi party called ‘Golden Dawn’ in Greece vows to “rid Greece of Filth” and a good number of members of the party are in prison for hate-crimes against immigrants.
In the last few months, Russia and its annexation of parts of Ukraine, has threatened to bring war to Europe, after relative peace for the last 70 years. Russia is the main supplier of Natural gas to Europe and a conflict can lead to serious energy crisis in European countries including Germany. Presence of far-right parties in the European parliament is not going to cause too much trouble for the European populace because of limited powers of legislation. The maximum that can be achieved by the nationalist fringe is ‘nuisance value’ during legislation.

Due to unexpected results in the elections, multiculturalism and integration have been deemed to fail in European societies. It is far too early to mourn the demise of an idea as big as multiculturalism. Societies across Europe are changing at a sluggish pace and it would still take many decades to integrate migrants from places that are less developed socially and economically in the diverse native cultures. The far-right/nationalist movement is a reactionary enterprise and would defeat itself in the near future.

Hello, its Goebbels Speaking

Hello, Its Goebbels

(Joseph Goebbles was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism.

Goebbels earned a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 1921, writing his doctoral thesis on 19th century romantic drama)

Hello,
 
Its me, Dr. Goebbels, writing from my grave, where I am turning with agony upon getting the news of a flowery diatribe launched by a pen-warrior, a key-board jihadi, with penchant for the word “paladin”. See, this is what happens when instead of making them learn by experience, you force your children to cram the SAT word lists, the whole “Word Smart” books and their likes. Just like a rotten apple causing explosive diarrhea, that cramming can lead to an emotional outburst from the yet-green mind of the average Pakistani Child. My advisors told me that exactly Nine hundred and Eleven SAT words were used in the beautiful blog written by the author. I, for one would have jumped upon the bandwagon to find the “hidden meaning” of the number 911 but since my untimely death, that mantle has been handed over to Zion Hamid and Shahid Masood. The writer has shown extremely good skills of copy/pasting from a thesaurus and he should be hired in the first instance by an Urdu newspaper as soon as he turns 18. It is easy to ride on the high horse, on the pulpit, if you allow me to delve into similar verbosity shown by the amiable writer, and pass silly judgements on people without coming up with any facts or agreeable data. This trend is not new and will never cease to exist. In our time, with the mighty Nazi Party at the helm, we cut out all voices of dissent and under the guidance of the supreme leader--a hero of war--reached the technological and sociological heights that were unparalleled by comparison in that era. We were self-sufficient, hard working, hated our neighbours with a passion, believed that we are the best nation in the world and sent the dissenters to camps where we used their labour for the greater good. Sounds familiar? Oh, I digress.

Despite my poor English language skills and scant interest in the happening of far off countries like Pakistan, I still keep tabs on major players in the news arena. Express Tribune as a Pakistani newspaper is one of the few that I am interested in. It is not exactly “Der Angriff” in terms of propaganda-spewing but it certainly has an agenda: An agenda to cater to the English-reading population of Pakistan and to project a progressive image of the country. While my opinion on this matter does not mean much to you dear reader, I have one simple Question, Who doesn’t have an agenda? Name one newspaper in the world without an “agenda”. The rhetoric against Express Tribune is a spin-off of the video created by the modern day crusaders at Pakistan Cyber Force(How I wish we had developed Internet in our time.!!!). 

While the whole blog peiece was a piece of art and I would highly recommend the Lahore Museum to store its manuscript,
the most enlightening parts were
 
“Today Imran Khan is like a classic hero who has emerged as a paladin of nationalism, baptised in the waters of public opinion, made great and filled with courage”

and

“He who is conscientious enough to prefer steep heights of truthfulness, selflessness, patriotic spiritedness over the primrose path of least resistance, of timid appeasement, of petty self seeking, always gets pilloried by the forces of status quo and inertia, so goes another law of history. Imran Khan has committed no crime, violated no law, breached no trust, betrayed no cause, wrecked no chariot-merely that he was guilty of sticking to his guns and having the courage of his convictions, courageous and cognizant enough to chart a different course, sing a different tune, and write a different script” and

“Granted that these writers always ran low on writer’s ink and that logic and profundity were never their forte, but have they become so sterile, jaded and pathetically predictable as to be unable to write a single article without hurling mud at a celebrated national hero? History is replete with examples of once high and mighty writers, eventually running out of ideas and becoming clichéd and banal towards the fag end of their careers, but what to talk about the desultory and vapid ways of these writers who seems to have met their waterloo even before a Toulon?”

I am tempted to ask the amicable writer (Did you notice how I  changed the words, while saying the exact same thing ?) about his knowledge about the Great Khan beyond watching Television Anchors swooning over the “change” initially(and later eating a humble pie) and posts on his party’s official Facebook page but I won’t. It would be cruel of me to remind the young gun of all the “turn-coats” becoming the faces for the “Change” promised by the 59(or is it 60?) year old leader of the youth. I will not invite inevitable curses and trolling by the party faithful by suggesting a change in temperament with regards to the party and its “supreme leader”. I would also not waste your and my time advising the previously apolitical youth to read “actual books” or to attend “actual protests” if they want a political education. Why should they come out of their schools, colleges, coffee houses and air-conditioned cars(Glass Houses?) to find nothing but dismay? This would all be in vain. Nobody changes parties or opinions after debating their merits and de-merits. Proponents of such deluded mind-set should look at how democrats/Republicans in the United States and Conservatives/Labor Supporters in the United Kingdom always vote for their respective parties. As the last man standing for the once-great Nazi party, I see potential in the uprising of the youth of Pakistan. 

May the Shadow of Fuhrer remain upon us forever, 

Yours Faithfully,

Jospeh Goebbels

Magdeburg Cemetry