Yesterday, the Interior Ministers of the European Union approved the plan proposed by the Commission regarding the reception of migrants.
The European Commission has asked the member states of the European Union to take in 40,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who have arrived in Italy and Greece, as a sign of solidarity with Rome and Athens. On July 10, France decided to take in 2,375 refugees and 6,752 asylum seekers over two years.
According to estimates from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) dated July 10, more than 150,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea since the beginning of the year, half of whom landed in Italy, where arrivals still exceed the records set in 2014. The other half are choosing Greece as their destination, where the arrival of migrants is growing significantly.
According to the IOM, nearly 1,900 men, women, and children have died or gone missing while attempting the crossing, including some 800 migrants in a shipwreck in April, the worst tragedy in decades in the Mediterranean.
Migratory flows are a fundamental part of human history, and only fear lays the foundation for superficial demagogy.
Responsibility and solidarity are two concepts that go hand in hand.
But Europe needs to have a strategy. And it must be clear. The current indecision will cause tomorrow’s problems.
If responsibility and solidarity prevail, solutions will be found: those entitled to refugee status must be welcomed. For others, operations for identification and admission, including economic support, should be adopted and implemented.
Rejected asylum seekers must be sent back to their home countries, and in these countries, it is Europe’s duty to do more in terms of development aid, international cooperation projects, and cultural and technological exchanges.
The European Union has its own identity, it is a community of souls, destiny, and ideals. It must assert its values of civilization and peace.
It cannot fall into hysteria over a few thousand additional migrants arriving this year.
Europe is and must remain a beacon of civilization, not a wall of fear.
Migratory flows are a fundamental part of human history, and only fear lays the foundation for superficial demagogy.
Responsibility and solidarity are two concepts that go hand in hand.
The instrumental and xenophobic nature of the opposition to a reception policy is evident in the numbers: if a few hundred thousand migrants disrupt the social (and mental?) balance of over 500 million people, it raises doubts that something is not functioning well in this ‘cradle of civilization’…
In 2013, 232 million people did not live in their country of birth (3.2% of the world population). There were 154 million in 1990, 2.9%. Not exactly a tsunami in fifteen years!
Two countries alone were the destination in 25% of the cases: the United States and Russia, with Germany being third.
There were 60 million refugees in 2014, 8.3 million more than the previous year, showing a resurgence of the phenomenon; Syria (3.8 million), Afghanistan, and Somalia are the main countries of origin.
The South-North direction represents only 1/3 of migration flows, far from being a European scourge. In fact, the country that is the largest receiver is Turkey (1.59 million), followed by Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia, and Jordan.
This increase is determined by the disintegration of post-colonial states in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeastern Europe with epicenters in Syria-Iraq, the Sahel, and Ukraine.
And yes, the world is changing.
And to conclude, a fact that may displease the most reluctant: 1/3 of the French, themselves or one of their parents, were not born in France.
