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«We cannot host all the poverty of the world». The phrase is already a quarter of a century old, but it is still relevant. Macron repeated this idea, which has already become a proverb, in his latest interview with French television.
The EU has been stirred for two weeks after between 8,500 and 10,000 migrants landed on Lampedusa, while the Italian island has a population of 6,000.
Giorgia Meloni has made migration a key issue in her election campaign. But none of the ideas has been fully implemented, at least not with the expected results. For example: lifeguards at sea were allowed to take people on board only once. Rescued, taken to the shore, — and that’s it, until the next time. You can’t go back to look for the rest.
«In 2022, we went to sea 59 times and rescued 3,848 people», says Jerome Toubiana, coordinator of Doctors Without Borders, «And if we had followed government regulations, we would have gone to sea 14 times and rescued 1,033 people. And 2,815 would have been left to die».
Another idea is to come to an agreement with North African states, which for a fee could stop migrants on their shores. This idea even materialized in Italy’s interstate treaty with Tunisia. Also no. It doesn’t work.
«It turns out that these agreements provoke panic among migrants: they see increased control measures, they are pressured by smugglers, and eventually they form the idea of a ‘last chance’ to get into Europe», says Helena Hahn, a researcher at the European Policy Center in Brussels. — As a result, there are even more attempts to cross the sea. And there are more fatalities — 25,000 since 2014 in the Mediterranean alone».
Then let’s make humanitarian corridors, says the Italian government. We will accept only legal, verified and needed migrants.
The result is thousands of people wandering around the Sahara without food or water. In fact, the Italians actually need to recruit 452,000 workers by 2025 with their aging population, and according to the Financial Times, the Italians are already on track to issue 31,000 residence permits with the right to work by the end of this year. And they are ready to continue at this rhythm every year.
The same logic applies in France. There they have come up with the idea of legalizing those migrants who are already working, but in the right places where the French do not work. This idea is also doomed, because the cunning of migrants knows no limits of perfection. It will be either one residence permit for all brothers and cousins (like Chinese migrants), or buying, selling and reselling jobs, and so on.
In this connection, I recall an episode at the FRG embassy in Moscow. Spanish colleagues signaled that they were getting a lot of seasonal workers from Russia with «German Schengens», and Germany was willingly giving them out at the time. The consulate staff announced: «Okay, we have Germany here, Ordnung, so everyone who is going to Spain — to the right, and who is going to Germany — here». Everyone lined up on the right was enumerated and blacklisted.
After the shock at Lampedusa, Macron called Meloni and announced he would not let anyone in. The interior minister confirmed that France would «hold the border». Germany, in turn, announced a complete, until special order, halt to the admission of refugees from Italy because it was not respecting previous agreements. This is meant countering a policy that has been conventionally dubbed «Let Pass». Italy has been used by African migrants as a transit territory.
In general, it turns out that Denmark has been the most effective for the last 20 years. There, serious sanctions are imposed against city governors, heads of districts, municipalities, villages and any territorial units where «anti-ghetto» neighborhoods have been created, but an increase in crime due to migrants has been noticed. But even the Danes are now pondering the idea of considering asylum applications directly in African countries. It’s not working yet either, by the way.
Der Leyen flew to Lampedusa a couple days after landing with a 10-point plan — it includes the already well-known proposal to cooperate with African countries to stem the flow.
This is the model of the 2016 EU-Turkey pact and the 2017 Italy-Libya and then Italy and Tunisia pacts. All of these usually end with a memorandum of mutual understanding, but in reality no restrictive measures work.
Another proposal is to transport the newcomers to other camps. Before that, the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy herself proposed to create new refugee centers — in Sicily and in the north of Italy, as well as to increase the terms of consideration of applications from 135 days to 18 months.
But these ideas will not solve the problem. Sooner or later, Italy will burst due to the number of these camps, while other countries will not meet its needs, no matter how much Ursula von der Leyen insists on it in her ten-point plan. And by the way, there is an interesting notion there — EU countries should «use the mechanism of voluntary solidarity». Well, really…
Even Pope Francis, who decided to come to Marseille, the criminal capital of France, where the majority of newcomers are migrants, has taken up the cause. The pontiff is generally known as a «left-wing pope» and even an «Islamophile» in certain Catholic circles.
«He often goes beyond Christian charity in terms of the Catholic Church’s relationship with the outside world. He defends a mixed society with ideas of integrating foreigners», said Vincent Jaser, a researcher at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. — He made peace the central idea of his pontificate and restructured his policies and diplomacy around it».
This refers to many episodes: washing the feet of migrants, including Muslims and Hindus. Or a speech to 80,000 pilgrims in Hungary, where he called for «opening doors like Jesus» to all who suffer, even though the self-proclaimed proponent of Christian European roots, Protestant Viktor Orban, was present. When Trump called for a wall against Mexico, the pope celebrated Mass a few hundred meters from the border, where he declared that «the one who builds walls and not bridges is not a Christian».
In the last year and a half, however, in his speeches on the topic of migration, the idea that it is necessary to fight against the political and economic causes of the phenomenon appears more often. In general, many Italian observers believe that Francis wants to tone down Meloni’s ultra-right-wing rhetoric with his speeches.
Finally, in June 2024, the European Union will hold elections. The theme of migration will be played by all parties without exception. And it is clear that those political formations that fear the broad front of the far-right will have to take advantage of the same ideas, which are increasingly influencing the mood of voters in Europe.