The European Parliament has given the green light to the first list of “safe countries of origin” whose citizens will no longer be able to seek asylum in the EU.
The list includes Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia as well as EU candidate countries such as the Western Balkans nations, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
Ukraine? But there’s still a war going on?
European xenophobia is just fucking pathetic. Pathetic. On the one hand we make a big stink about the rules based order and liberal values. And in the other we make a mockery of all of that to appease the worst among us. Pathetic.
Pretty sure being openly queer is not safe in most of those countries.
It will be up to the asylum seeker to prove that there is a real threat of persecution or serious harm if they return.
This leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
The end of that list reads like it’s straight out of the Russian propaganda playbook.
If the eu does not take a line somewhere on immigration the far right will make further gains. Given most of these places tout themselves as holiday destinations i can see the rationale.
I am not saying I believe it to be fair. I understand there is nuance and persecution in many places and people want to escape oppression.
Giving in to the far-right will only lead to the nomalisation of dehumanising immigrants and asylum seekers. Maybe they should try reducing the wealth-gap instead of blaming a small group of vulnerable people.
Far right is not gaining votes due to immigration! This is just a scapegoat that they themselves designated to keep people’s attention away from the worsening living conditions and deteriorating safety nets, and capitalize on anger stemming from that.
The only way to resolve this for good is to improve the lives of working class people through economic policies which benefit them. But that would require stepping on the toes of the oligarchy, so it’s not going to happen without workers organizing and fighting for their rights.
I absolutely agree. But in the aftermath of the US the question was how could this happen?
This thread is a classic example.
Do better is an ideal we would all love. But in real life a huge majority of people are feeling poor and downtrodden. I don’t personally believe what they are voting for is the best thing for them or others, but it’s their vote. The result will repercussions for all.
in the aftermath of the US the question was how could this happen?
In the US the pattern is blindingly obvious and has been repeating for more than 50 years. One party makes life worse for the working class while making the rich richer, people get angry and vote for the other party, which then does the same thing but under different guises and with different policies. The exact policies in question (neoliberalism vs. neoconservatism) were not that relevant to these mechanics, except everything kept naturally shifting to the right (which is the ideology most convenient for the billionaires).
Now neocons are straight up fascists, and it’s not clear there will be another election.
But in real life a huge majority of people are feeling poor and downtrodden.
So, yeah, there’s an obvious solution to this: improve their economic status! There are dozens of “mechanically easy” policies that would lead to this: taxing the rich way more, reindustrializing the country, building and leasing out social housing, implementing strict rent control (or abolishing rent entirely), setting price caps on daily necessities, etc. Immigration is irrelevant to this.
Shifting your ideology to the right to appease nazis literally never works, it is a death spiral for any political organization, leading either to irrelevance or nazism. Instead you resolve the underlying grievances of the working class. However, most political parties in the west are beholden to billionaires and will not do this without significant organizing and pressure from the workers.
I applaud your ideals. I hope it works out for where ever you are located. Everyone deserves some peace and love.
In German, there is a perfectly descriptive word for the right. “Wutpartei” (Anger party). Kind of fits these categories. Most people just want the status quo to change and they think by electing extremists, they’re going to get that, not realising that it is exactly these radicals fucking them over in the end. If in doubt, look at MAGA.
That’s the line the democrats in the US have been following for decades. The reality is that this is just another step in that direction and there will be more to follow because nobody is fighting the right, just appeasing it.
Europe is a totally different continent with a wider range of cultures between countries.
I think in the US given the amount of people who have quietly supported recent actions indicates a lot of people felt not heard on the matter and now there is this crazy result.
Again I’m not saying I support this just that if there is not fair and balanced talk on migration, there is a risk of a lurch to the right.
I consider myself more left however I notice a tone of condescension that I feel does more harm than good. I feel balance, and open conversation is a great tool that’s overlooked in communities.
Ignoring the voices in the community comes at a peril.
I disagree with you. If you look at the points that the far right is pushing in each country, they are pretty close to the ones made in the U.S.: immigration and sexuality. There is an added point in the E.U., which is about Brussels overreach, which is also not that far from the Central government vs. States rights. Also, the points are being driven with the exact same strategies, since they are driven on the same platforms with the same reasonings. All in all, I think you can take the U.S. as a precursor of what is happening in the E.U. Including the fact that the community voices are in many, many cases, either astroturfed or poisoned.
If you do take it as such, it doesn’t seem that appeasing will work at all. In fact, it will give the far right a foothold for all other topics.
Ignoring the voices in the community comes at a peril.
So, what you’re saying is literally “let’s listen to nazis and compromise with them”?
Setting the moral repercussions aside, this never works out well politically. Nazis will not stop from voting for the nazi party just because you implemented a couple of their policies, and the rest will be disenfranchised because there’s less incentive to vote when all parties are doing pretty much the same stuff.
So one fights the far-right by normalizing their politics i society, adapting their methods and bowing to their demands? Look at germany, it does not work like that!
The MEP’s have a job to represent their constituents from all areas of the community and offer something that fits everyone. What is the middle ground between open migration or no migration. There has to be a line of what countries are safe and what are not. Where does this sit in the scale of left/right?
I know this is an oversimplification and people shouldn’t fit into tickboxes. But the average person does not care for that. They care that they can’t afford housing, can’t get a school place. Telling them to stop caring about that and start having better ideologies will just drive them to vote for populists in secret.
I agree with you in that the priority must be combatting the far right, but at the same time, we need to be cautious of moving the goalposts and Overton window. Does immigration fall under it? Hard to say.
