06-16-2018, 11:01 PM
*** 17-Jun-18 World View -- Italy's migration policy opens up battle lines within the EU
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** As Aquarius migrants head for Spain, Spain rescues 900 more migrants from Mediterranean
****
Migrants on the Aquarius (AP)
Spain's new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered to take in 629
migrants who are on board the rescue ship Aquarius, as we described
early last week, after both Italy and Malta refused to allow the
vessel to dock in their ports.
That was after Italy's new interior minister, Matteo Salvini, had
refused to allow the Aquarius to dock at an Italian port to allow the
migrants to disembark, which had been the practice for several years.
The NGOs SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors
Without Borders) were concerned that if the Aquarius had to stay at
sea for three or four more days to travel an additional 1,300 km to
reach Spain, then the delay would be dangerous to the migrants, many
of whom were ill and had come close to drowning when their rubber
dinghies sank before the migrants were rescued by the Aquarius.
Nonetheless, the Aquarius began its journey to Valencia, Spain. In
order to relieve the suffering on the Aquarius, Maltese and Italian
navy ships resupplied the Aquarius with bottles of water, food
packages and clothing for the 1,300km voyage. Furthermore, in an
ironic twist, two Italian naval and coastguard vessels took on board
400 of the 629 migrants to relieve overcrowding, and now all three
boats are expected to arrive in Valencia on Sunday.
Pope Francis had condemned Italy's decision to block the ship from
port, denouncing acts that make the Mediterranean into "an anonymous
grave." According to the Pope:
<QUOTE>"The Aquarius, has been like a slap that has shaken
our consciences and has put us on our feet to attend to those who
knock at the door of the heart and the collective conscience of
peoples and nations. And they call upon people of good will, and
above all they call upon the humanitarian and Christian
conscience."<END QUOTE>
The people of Valencia, Spain, are reportedly ready to welcome the
migrants with food and shelter. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of
Valencia, after meeting with the pope, sent a message to the entire
archdiocese of Valencia, said that the pope has thanked the diocese of
Valencia for its generation. Cañizares quoted the pope as telling
him:
<QUOTE>"This is the path, don’t ever abandon it: that of
charity; remain steady in charity, in the good example, in the
light and the good taste of charity and works of charity. The pope
is with you, with the diocese of Valencia."<END QUOTE>
After the migrants dock in Valencia, they will receive assistance and,
eventually, be distributed across Spain.
In addition to the Aquarius, Spain's own vessels are rescuing hundreds
of migrants in the Mediterranean. Spain’s coast guard rescued 933
migrants and found four dead bodies in the Mediterranean Friday and
Saturday. The rescues were from dozens of small dinghies in the
Gibraltar strait, and in the Alboran Sea, between northeastern Morocco
and southeastern Spain.
Spain's new Socialist government, led by prime minister Pedro Sánchez,
has taken up the cause of the migrants' plight to demonstrate its
commitment to protecting human rights and respecting international
law. He can take that position when only a few hundred migrants are
involved, but he may have to change his mind if there are tens or
hundreds of thousands. Reuters and Crux Now and AP and Reuters
****
**** Italy's migration policy opens up battle lines within the EU
****
Italy’s new interior minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right
anti-immigrant party La Lega, doubled down on Saturday on his policy:
<QUOTE>"Italy no longer wants to be an accomplice of human
traffickers and contribute to the business of illegal
immigration."<END QUOTE>
He said that in the course of blocking two additional NGO-operated
ships flying Dutch flags, the Lifeline and Seefuchs. An NGO worker on
one of the vessels posted a tweet referring to Salvini as a "fascist,"
though the tweet was taken down soon after. Salvini responded, "As a
father and as a minister, they can attack and threaten me all they
want, but I won’t give up and I’m doing it for everybody’s sake."
In fact, a recent poll shows that Salvini's anti-immigration policy is
extremely popular, with 59% of Italians favoring it.
Furthermore, Italy's policies are achieving their goals, in that the
number of people leaving Libya for Italy, 22,000 so far this year, is
down an enormous 70% from the same period last year. The number that
actually reach Italy is down even further, because Libya's coast guard
is also performing rescue missions, and returning the migrants they
rescue to Libyan soil, where they're put into brutal detention
centers.
This is the result of an EU policy adopted last year, led by Italy's
government, to revive Libya's coast guard. The Libyan coast guard had
fallen into disrepair after the death in 2011 of dictator Muammar
Gaddafi. But Italy has worked with officials in Libya to allow the
Libyan coast guard to perform a large portion of the sea rescues.
This has created a competition between the NGOs and the Libyan coast
guard, when they both arrived at the same scene with migrants in
rubber dinghies facing drowning. In one instance, 20 migrants drowned
in competition between an NGO and the Libya coast guard, competing to
save dozens of migrants.
The result is that among the nine most prominent NGO rescue
organizations, three have stopped or suspended their operations over
the past year. A spokesman for the Aquarius says, "We will not enter
into a battle with the Libyan coast guard, where people are armed."
Instead, the Aquarius will stay on the horizon, watching from several
miles away. "We had this situation several times, where we had to look
completely helpless."
There are basic Generational Dynamics principles at work here. As
I've written many times, it's a core principle of Generational
Dynamics that, even in a dictatorship, major decisions are made by
masses of people, by generations of people. The attitudes of
politicians are irrelevant, except insofar as they represent the
attitudes of the people.
So in the current situation, it's not Matteo Salvini who is making the
decisions to adopt anti-immigrant policies. Salvini's policies have a
59% approval rating, and it's doubtful that he could implement any of
them if their approval rating were only 30%. It's the people of
Italy who are deciding these policies, first by electing MPs from
Salvini's party, and then by approving of his policies.
Most people, even the most hard-hearted Scrooges, would say that they
would like to see migrants, especially women and children, sheltered
and fed, provided that it didn't cost anything. But the irony is that
the humanitarian system that protects migrants, and feeds and shelters
them, can get overwhelmed, and the costs become overwhelming as well,
and that's the reason why voters turn against that humanitarian
system. As Karl Marx might say, the humanitarian system contains
the seeds of its own destruction.
The issue of migration is dealing one blow after another to the unity
of the European Union. A lot of the motivation for Britain's
affirmative vote on the Brexit referendum was to keep migrants out --
although I always like to point out many of the migrants that the
British wish to keep out are not Muslims but are Christians from
Eastern Europe, just as many Americans wish to keep out Christians
from Latin America. Migration is far from being just a religious
issue.
Germany's Angela Merkel has been widely condemned for her decision, in
2015, to encourage Syrian refugees to come to Germany. Her decision
was based on the founding principles of the European Union and the
1957 Treaty of Rome where, having suffered the devastation of two
world wars and fearing a third, the European survivors saw as a major
cause of those world wars the same nationalism and xenophobia that's
increasingly prevalent today.
Merkel's government may not survive the next two weeks. Merkel is now
facing an open revolt from her own interior minister, Horst Seehofer.
Seehofer wants Germany to adopt a policy to unilaterally to send back
migrants who have registered in other European Union countries, which
would amount to a rejection of all migrants into Germany. However,
Merkel is standing her ground, saying, "This is a European challenge
that also needs a European solution. And I view this issue as decisive
for keeping Europe together." The MPs may not agree. Politico (EU) and Guardian (London) and Washington Post and Reuters
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Italy, Matteo Salvini,
SOS Méditerranée, Aquarius, Libya, Malta,
Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders, MSF,
Valencia, Spain, Pedro Sánchez, Germany, Angela Merkel,
Pope Francis, Antonio Cañizares, Lifeline, Seefuchs,
Libya, Muammar Gaddafi,
Britain, Brexit, Syria, Treaty of Rome, Horst Seehofer
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- As Aquarius migrants head for Spain, Spain rescues 900 more migrants from Mediterranean
- Italy's migration policy opens up battle lines within the EU
****
**** As Aquarius migrants head for Spain, Spain rescues 900 more migrants from Mediterranean
****
Migrants on the Aquarius (AP)
Spain's new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered to take in 629
migrants who are on board the rescue ship Aquarius, as we described
early last week, after both Italy and Malta refused to allow the
vessel to dock in their ports.
That was after Italy's new interior minister, Matteo Salvini, had
refused to allow the Aquarius to dock at an Italian port to allow the
migrants to disembark, which had been the practice for several years.
The NGOs SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors
Without Borders) were concerned that if the Aquarius had to stay at
sea for three or four more days to travel an additional 1,300 km to
reach Spain, then the delay would be dangerous to the migrants, many
of whom were ill and had come close to drowning when their rubber
dinghies sank before the migrants were rescued by the Aquarius.
Nonetheless, the Aquarius began its journey to Valencia, Spain. In
order to relieve the suffering on the Aquarius, Maltese and Italian
navy ships resupplied the Aquarius with bottles of water, food
packages and clothing for the 1,300km voyage. Furthermore, in an
ironic twist, two Italian naval and coastguard vessels took on board
400 of the 629 migrants to relieve overcrowding, and now all three
boats are expected to arrive in Valencia on Sunday.
Pope Francis had condemned Italy's decision to block the ship from
port, denouncing acts that make the Mediterranean into "an anonymous
grave." According to the Pope:
<QUOTE>"The Aquarius, has been like a slap that has shaken
our consciences and has put us on our feet to attend to those who
knock at the door of the heart and the collective conscience of
peoples and nations. And they call upon people of good will, and
above all they call upon the humanitarian and Christian
conscience."<END QUOTE>
The people of Valencia, Spain, are reportedly ready to welcome the
migrants with food and shelter. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of
Valencia, after meeting with the pope, sent a message to the entire
archdiocese of Valencia, said that the pope has thanked the diocese of
Valencia for its generation. Cañizares quoted the pope as telling
him:
<QUOTE>"This is the path, don’t ever abandon it: that of
charity; remain steady in charity, in the good example, in the
light and the good taste of charity and works of charity. The pope
is with you, with the diocese of Valencia."<END QUOTE>
After the migrants dock in Valencia, they will receive assistance and,
eventually, be distributed across Spain.
In addition to the Aquarius, Spain's own vessels are rescuing hundreds
of migrants in the Mediterranean. Spain’s coast guard rescued 933
migrants and found four dead bodies in the Mediterranean Friday and
Saturday. The rescues were from dozens of small dinghies in the
Gibraltar strait, and in the Alboran Sea, between northeastern Morocco
and southeastern Spain.
Spain's new Socialist government, led by prime minister Pedro Sánchez,
has taken up the cause of the migrants' plight to demonstrate its
commitment to protecting human rights and respecting international
law. He can take that position when only a few hundred migrants are
involved, but he may have to change his mind if there are tens or
hundreds of thousands. Reuters and Crux Now and AP and Reuters
****
**** Italy's migration policy opens up battle lines within the EU
****
Italy’s new interior minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right
anti-immigrant party La Lega, doubled down on Saturday on his policy:
<QUOTE>"Italy no longer wants to be an accomplice of human
traffickers and contribute to the business of illegal
immigration."<END QUOTE>
He said that in the course of blocking two additional NGO-operated
ships flying Dutch flags, the Lifeline and Seefuchs. An NGO worker on
one of the vessels posted a tweet referring to Salvini as a "fascist,"
though the tweet was taken down soon after. Salvini responded, "As a
father and as a minister, they can attack and threaten me all they
want, but I won’t give up and I’m doing it for everybody’s sake."
In fact, a recent poll shows that Salvini's anti-immigration policy is
extremely popular, with 59% of Italians favoring it.
Furthermore, Italy's policies are achieving their goals, in that the
number of people leaving Libya for Italy, 22,000 so far this year, is
down an enormous 70% from the same period last year. The number that
actually reach Italy is down even further, because Libya's coast guard
is also performing rescue missions, and returning the migrants they
rescue to Libyan soil, where they're put into brutal detention
centers.
This is the result of an EU policy adopted last year, led by Italy's
government, to revive Libya's coast guard. The Libyan coast guard had
fallen into disrepair after the death in 2011 of dictator Muammar
Gaddafi. But Italy has worked with officials in Libya to allow the
Libyan coast guard to perform a large portion of the sea rescues.
This has created a competition between the NGOs and the Libyan coast
guard, when they both arrived at the same scene with migrants in
rubber dinghies facing drowning. In one instance, 20 migrants drowned
in competition between an NGO and the Libya coast guard, competing to
save dozens of migrants.
The result is that among the nine most prominent NGO rescue
organizations, three have stopped or suspended their operations over
the past year. A spokesman for the Aquarius says, "We will not enter
into a battle with the Libyan coast guard, where people are armed."
Instead, the Aquarius will stay on the horizon, watching from several
miles away. "We had this situation several times, where we had to look
completely helpless."
There are basic Generational Dynamics principles at work here. As
I've written many times, it's a core principle of Generational
Dynamics that, even in a dictatorship, major decisions are made by
masses of people, by generations of people. The attitudes of
politicians are irrelevant, except insofar as they represent the
attitudes of the people.
So in the current situation, it's not Matteo Salvini who is making the
decisions to adopt anti-immigrant policies. Salvini's policies have a
59% approval rating, and it's doubtful that he could implement any of
them if their approval rating were only 30%. It's the people of
Italy who are deciding these policies, first by electing MPs from
Salvini's party, and then by approving of his policies.
Most people, even the most hard-hearted Scrooges, would say that they
would like to see migrants, especially women and children, sheltered
and fed, provided that it didn't cost anything. But the irony is that
the humanitarian system that protects migrants, and feeds and shelters
them, can get overwhelmed, and the costs become overwhelming as well,
and that's the reason why voters turn against that humanitarian
system. As Karl Marx might say, the humanitarian system contains
the seeds of its own destruction.
The issue of migration is dealing one blow after another to the unity
of the European Union. A lot of the motivation for Britain's
affirmative vote on the Brexit referendum was to keep migrants out --
although I always like to point out many of the migrants that the
British wish to keep out are not Muslims but are Christians from
Eastern Europe, just as many Americans wish to keep out Christians
from Latin America. Migration is far from being just a religious
issue.
Germany's Angela Merkel has been widely condemned for her decision, in
2015, to encourage Syrian refugees to come to Germany. Her decision
was based on the founding principles of the European Union and the
1957 Treaty of Rome where, having suffered the devastation of two
world wars and fearing a third, the European survivors saw as a major
cause of those world wars the same nationalism and xenophobia that's
increasingly prevalent today.
Merkel's government may not survive the next two weeks. Merkel is now
facing an open revolt from her own interior minister, Horst Seehofer.
Seehofer wants Germany to adopt a policy to unilaterally to send back
migrants who have registered in other European Union countries, which
would amount to a rejection of all migrants into Germany. However,
Merkel is standing her ground, saying, "This is a European challenge
that also needs a European solution. And I view this issue as decisive
for keeping Europe together." The MPs may not agree. Politico (EU) and Guardian (London) and Washington Post and Reuters
Related Articles
- Spain's offer to take in Aquarius migrants is rejected as dangerous to migrants (12-Jun-2018)
- Europe faces challenges with new governments in Italy, Spain and Catalonia (03-Jun-2018)
- Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days (30-Jun-2017)
- EU migrant crisis moves to Italy as Austria begins closing border (13-Apr-2016)
- France, Italy have bitter feud over migrants as quota system collapses (16-Jun-2015)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Italy, Matteo Salvini,
SOS Méditerranée, Aquarius, Libya, Malta,
Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders, MSF,
Valencia, Spain, Pedro Sánchez, Germany, Angela Merkel,
Pope Francis, Antonio Cañizares, Lifeline, Seefuchs,
Libya, Muammar Gaddafi,
Britain, Brexit, Syria, Treaty of Rome, Horst Seehofer
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe