On Wednesday, May 28, French authorities evicted and bulldozed three immigrant camps housing as many as 800 immigrants fleeing disastrous humanitarian conditions in war-torn countries. Those expelled included Syrian, Sudanese and Afghan refugees. The official reason was given as concern over an outbreak of scabies - a contagious skin condition.
Nicolas Sarkozy's government presided over a wave of anti-immigrant police actions and also oversaw the forced eviction of Roma communities across the country. These practices, however, have continued under the “socialist” government of President François Hollande.
Caught between violence in their home countries and hostile governments in Europe, refugees face an uncertain and dangerous future. Xenophobic and nationalist politics has grown more and more entrenched throughout Europe. We face manipulations, lies and exaggerations from the media accounts of immigration and asylum seekers. The rise of neo-nazism and ultra-nationalistic movements can only spell hate, ignorance and human suffering on a huge scale. Immigrants who now try to settle in Europe come at the bottom of the social scale, taking the worst houses, accepting the worst conditions. Yet many workers cannot contain their indignation that they should try to come here at all. The problems facing working people and their families are not caused by immigrants and will not be solved by the Fortress Europe.
The capitalist system is marketed with promises of equality and freedoms. It is taught that capitalist countries are mosaic countries of various diverse cultures co-existing alongside one another. In reality, all these cultures are eventually assimilated in a melting pot, a term with a negative connotation used to describe societies experiencing large-scale immigration from many different countries that seem to “melt” into the existing society. Only those who assimilate into the capitalist system are able to experience the "freedoms" it promises, but often at the cost to their culture. And so now we witness Cameron and Gove insist upon acceptance of British “values”, which naturally is all things to all people but apart for the words little different from John Major’s imaginary Britain of warm beer and cricket on the village green.
Nicolas Sarkozy's government presided over a wave of anti-immigrant police actions and also oversaw the forced eviction of Roma communities across the country. These practices, however, have continued under the “socialist” government of President François Hollande.
Caught between violence in their home countries and hostile governments in Europe, refugees face an uncertain and dangerous future. Xenophobic and nationalist politics has grown more and more entrenched throughout Europe. We face manipulations, lies and exaggerations from the media accounts of immigration and asylum seekers. The rise of neo-nazism and ultra-nationalistic movements can only spell hate, ignorance and human suffering on a huge scale. Immigrants who now try to settle in Europe come at the bottom of the social scale, taking the worst houses, accepting the worst conditions. Yet many workers cannot contain their indignation that they should try to come here at all. The problems facing working people and their families are not caused by immigrants and will not be solved by the Fortress Europe.
The capitalist system is marketed with promises of equality and freedoms. It is taught that capitalist countries are mosaic countries of various diverse cultures co-existing alongside one another. In reality, all these cultures are eventually assimilated in a melting pot, a term with a negative connotation used to describe societies experiencing large-scale immigration from many different countries that seem to “melt” into the existing society. Only those who assimilate into the capitalist system are able to experience the "freedoms" it promises, but often at the cost to their culture. And so now we witness Cameron and Gove insist upon acceptance of British “values”, which naturally is all things to all people but apart for the words little different from John Major’s imaginary Britain of warm beer and cricket on the village green.
No comments:
Post a Comment