ECONOMIC migration from poor to rich regions has taken place throughout history and, throughout history, it has been feared and resented by those already established in prosperous societies. In the last century Europe has been disfigured by virulent racism that found its most obscene expression in the Nazi extermination camps and in the mass graves of Srebrenica. Politicians who take up the issue of illegal immigration into Europe must therefore do so with a mix of humanity and objectivity. The minute emotion is introduced into the debate, the way is clear for the racist bigots who lurk in far-right parties throughout Europe.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the current favorite to succeed President Jacques Chirac, has taken the lead in calling for a single EU immigration policy with a single security force to patrol Europe’s long and porous borders. There is particular concern at the current flood of African immigrants making the trip across the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain or crossing into Italy. Lack of an agreed policy for such economic refugee is a problem for Europe because of its open internal borders. Once someone has been granted even temporary residence, or simply enters the EU illegally, he or she can generally move freely to other EU countries. Germany was particularly incensed when the Spaniards last year declared an amnesty and granted residence to half a million undocumented migrants. This was both a practical and humane step. It robbed criminals of a vast source of scared immigrants to be exploited and it created a large batch of new taxpayers.
Sarkozy has however this week also chosen to be bitterly critical of Spain’s decision. Given his ambitions for the Elysée Palace, it must be suspected that there is more than a little politicking in this initiative. The politicians best able to deal with such an emotive question are those already in office with a broad mandate from the voters. When a man seeking power chooses to make the issue a very specific part of his electoral platform, as is Sarkozy, then however honorable his original intentions, he is entering into an electoral bidding war with the France’s racist and deeply objectionable National Front. The clear danger is that he is legitimizing the profound racial prejudices that drive these fascists.
And Europeans choose to forget their own emigration past when waves of European colonists came with guns and settled themselves by force in Africa. They then plundered the natural resources of Africa, propped up local strongmen and covered millions of Africans under the tent of a sometimes-brutal empire. Now, Africans are returning the favor by seeking refuge in the lands of their former overseers. They now risk their lives in tiny boats to win a little piece of the European prosperity — earned in a large part from Europe’s colonial past. And, unlike their European hosts, these immigrants come without guns, armies or a desire to prop up corrupt sycophant puppet regimes. Mostly the motives of these so-called invaders are humble: to earn money to send to their impoverished families back home.
