Future historians are likely to label the current phase of European history as the age of uncertainty. Following one of the longest economic recessions in its history, Europe now struggles with an even greater threat that is likely to tear it apart: the inability of its leaders to deal with the immigration crisis and the persistence of fundamentalist terror.
Serious terror incidents have hit various European cities since 2004 when the Madrid train bombings killed 192 people, followed in July 2005 when bombers from Yorkshire killed 55 people on the London transport system, and then again in November 2015 in Paris and more recently the massacre in Brussels.
What is a concern for social and political observers of the European scene is that rather than adopt the right long-term strategies to get to the roots of the terror threat, European politicians are resorting to short-term tactics trying to impress an increasingly sceptical public that they have at last found the right solutions to the old continent’s slow economic, social and political decline. The political reaction to both the immigration and now the terror crisis has become so predictable.
In mid-March the EU leaders meeting in Brussels forged a quick deal with Turkey to halt the multitude of refugees that are likely to flood Europe if nothing is done to deal with the geo-political turmoil in Syria, Libya and other hot spots in Africa. The Financial Times reported that “Europe has moved to draw a line under its year-long migration crisis with a bold gamble to turn back tens of thousands of asylum seekers reaching Greek islands”. Few believe that this strategy will work.
Mass immigration is not new. It is as old as mankind. The current mass immigration from the Middle East and North Africa may be extraordinary but it certainly is not exceptional. What EU leaders must realise is that this immigration will not be stopped by building high walls at Europe’s borders or paying countries like Turkey to keep the refugees in concentration camps until they decide to go back to their homelands.
Investing in young people from ethnic minorities is the solution both for those already living in the EU as well as those knocking on its doors because of troubles in their homeland
Populist politicians are not much better at proposing solutions to the current refugee and terror crisis that they conveniently link as though they were one and the same thing.
Donald Trump’s statement that “Time and time again I have been right about terrorism. It’s time to get tough” is an effective sound bite but it is devoid of any meaningful strategic thinking.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the France’s far-right Front National came out with another rhetorical no brainer solution: the immediate closure of the French-Belgian border. The UK anti-EU Independence Party linked the attacks in Brussels to migration policy saying that they were “a result of Schengen free movement and lax border controls”.
Traditional politicians came up with more orthodox solutions, even if few show the ability or inclination to tackle the root causes. Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi believes that the solution lies in Europe investing more in Africa to improve the quality of life of people in this continent that has hardly benefitted at all from trade globalisation.
What makes this proposal difficult to implement is that the model of capitalism that is prevalent in today’s western world is based on the concept that investment only flows to countries that have stable political environments, are relatively free of massive corruption, and promise quick profits on the money invested.
African states hardly fit in this model for foreign investment.
A more practical solution is that being proposed by those who believe that social integration is the single most important factor to deal with the anger and lack of self-value that millions of ethnic minorities in Europe suffer from and that often drives them to resort to extreme violence even if it costs them their own lives.
EU politicians need to admit that in the past five decades they failed to promote social integration sufficiently well to make young people whose parents migrated from Africa, the Caribbean and the Far East to feel that they have the same chances of success as the indigenous Europeans.
Investing in young people from ethnic minorities is the solution both for those already living in the EU as well as those knocking on its doors because of troubles in their homeland.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com