So, after a rather long summer break of beach vacations and the following struggle to keep up with the workload I finally get around to write a new post. Actually a couple of interesting things have happened during the summer months, but one topic has been hot across a variety of different countries: immigration and xenophobia.It seems that looking for scapegoats remains a strong human inclination in hard times. Even though the world is slowly recovering from the financial and economic crisis, people in many western countries are still jealously guarding the economic recovery against perceived threats from the outside.
Already in spring the US State of Arizona passed the harshest anti-immigration bill of the US. After scores of illegal immigrants from Latin American and Middle American states had upheld economic growth in the US by working for wages no American would move a finger for, these illegal immigrants had become unwanted competition on the labour market. The bill introduced a duty to have immigration papers ready 24/7 and allowed police officers to check the immigration status of people if there were 'grounds for suspicion'. The Obama Administration has sued in Supreme Court against the bill.
In France, President Sarkozy has decided to deport illegal Roma living in camps in France in a populist move to appeal to right wing voters who want illegal immigrants out, especially during times of economic strife. This initiative has met harsh criticism by European countries and the European Commission. A trial at the EU Court is a possible consequence as the illegal Roma are Romanians and thus EU citizens.
Still, the initiative by Sarkozy does not only meet disapproval. When I was in Spain, a survey about Sarkozy's deportation plans was conducted in the scope of a political talk show there. Over 70 per-cent of the Spaniards calling in demanded that their President Zapatero should do the same thing in Spain and 'get rid' of the illegal immigrants in Spain. Yet, Spaniards are at the same time again starting to migrate towards France as seasonal workers during harvest time. Somethign Spaniards did not have to due in a generation as the economic boom boosted living standards across the Iberian peninsula. Due to economic strains they are now again moving to other European countries in the search for work, so one expects that they would have more sympathy for the situation of migrants.
In Germany, the former Secretary of Finance of Berlin and current board member of the Federal Bank Thilo Sarrazin has published a book about the unwillingness of immigrants to integrate in Germany, and has attributed some problems with integration to genetic causes. A concept frighteningly close to 20th century racism. Nevertheless he has also received public approval and attention.
Last but not least the US have mourned the 9th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11th 2001 amidst outbreaks of xenophobia and distrust towards their Muslim minority. Taking into consideration that the US have a history of immigrations by people fleeing from religious prosecution and that al-Qaeda explicitly planned to unleash a war between Islam and the West, these developments are worrisome indeed.
These developments are a consequence of our everyday approach towards migration and integration. As long as we are profiting from it, or we can just forget about it, we do not deal with the problems migration brings with it. Integration is a challenge for both the recipient society and for the immigrants due to a number of reasons. The book by Thilo Sarrazin has the virtue of at least addressing this topic and illuminating the problems migrants also tend to bring with them. Yet, migration should not only be a topic to vent steam in bad times. There should be a genuine and permanent effort to address the problems of immigrations on both sides and a strive for searching better ways of living together in the future. It is clear that immigration is the future in a globalised world, so we better start thinking of ways to make integration work despite economic strains.
Thilo Sarrazin
