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Europe's problem? It is very attractive

2023-11-26 20:44:09Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA TIMOTHY GARTON ASH
Europe's problem? It is very attractive
Europe's problem? It is very attractive

Crackdown and shameful rhetoric on migration make the continent look like it is betraying its own values

The distinguished professor Joseph Nye defines Europe's soft power as the power to attract. A recent global survey confirms once again that Europe has this in abundance.

If you ask people in countries as diverse as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa and Brazil where they would like to live, if not in their own country, most of them choose the US or Europe.

By contrast, far fewer want to live in China or Russia. And precisely there is the problem of Europe. Europe is so attractive that millions of people would like to move here.

Hundreds of thousands actually try, risking their lives on dangerous rafts across the Mediterranean.

"Either Europe or death," said one of them.

But the fear of uncontrolled mass migration is driving some European voters to xenophobic populist parties that don't just exploit it, but actively incite civilizational panic about it. More and more, 2023 is looking like the new 2015.

The refugee and migrant crisis that began that year fueled the vote for the Alternative for Deutschland in Germany and the Freedom party in Austria – not to mention, for Brexit.

The Freedom Party leads the opinion polls in Austria. This week, Geert Wilders' populist anti-Islam party scored a shock victory in the Dutch elections. And we have elections for the European Parliament next June.

In response, the main parties advocate increasingly tough measures to control illegal immigration. A European head of government told me recently that he thought Europe needed to do "something wild" to address this issue.

I was tempted to reply: haven't we already?

Isn't it scandalous that the Greek coast guard is accused of illegally pushing off refugee boats? Isn't it scandalous that the EU has been complicit in Libyan forces dragging would-be migrants into horrific detention camps?

Isn't it scandalous that Giorgia Meloni's Italian government is preventing private charity lifeboats from saving people from drowning in the Mediterranean? Isn't it scandalous that the British government is considering abandoning the European Convention on Human Rights, just to send a few hundred asylum seekers to Rwanda? People all over Europe and around the world see the freedom of movement that Europeans enjoy within the Schengen area as bought at the expense of their travel, which is severely limited in Europe.

Ask any Turk or Indian about their experiences trying to get a Schengen or UK visa. The disgraceful rhetoric of right-wing populists such as former British home secretary Suella Braverman, who has described illegal immigration as an "occupation" and protesters against Israel's military action in Gaza as "pro-Palestinian mobs", also it risks alienating millions of people with a migrant background living in Europe.

Europe's soft power is not only about its prosperity, welfare systems and quality of life. It is also about freedom, the rule of law, tolerance and respect for human rights.

In the same survey, respondents in many parts of the world said that Vladimir Putin's Russia was not part of Europe "when it comes to its current political values".

Europe is associated with a number of values.

But Europe is unreliable as a continent of values ​​if it violates them itself, precisely at the points where people from the rest of the world encountered it: at its borders, above all, but also in the reception of asylum seekers and the inciting mischaracterization of people with migrant background already within those borders.

There is no doubt that migration in Europe needs to be managed.

If European governments fail to convey to their electorates a sense of immigration being under control within the next six months, next June's elections could find the European parliament shifted to the illiberal right.

However, managing migration must be done in ways that are safe, humane and legal, or Europe is betraying its own values.

Failure in one direction or the other and the way in which Europe deals with the consequences of its "pull power" will begin to destroy another important aspect of its soft power - its values. Here is Europe's soft power dilemma.

*Timothy Garton Ash is a British author and historian/ Source: Financial Times


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