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Friday, August 30, 2024
The climate is getting tougher for migrants in Europe
The climate is getting tougher for migrants in Europe
Article by RP ONLINE • 5 hours • 2 minutes reading time
The European Union cannot be indifferent to what its largest and economically strongest country is doing. Especially not when the traffic light coalition makes decisions on migration that affect everyone. A change of course as confirmation of a trend.
The rapid agreement by the traffic light coalition to tighten migration policy in Germany is also being followed with great interest in the EU partner countries. In many countries where migration flows enter and pass through, Germany's list of services with its supposedly magnetic global effect is seen as one reason for the ongoing pressure to move in.
For a long time, it has been a standard recommendation from many European politicians that the German traffic light coalition should learn from the Danish/Swedish/Italian model. The actually cosmopolitan Scandinavians changed their approach to migrants years ago to tough "not welcome" messages with prison-like fortified camps. The Italian government is taking a similar approach and is preparing to move the procedures to Albania.
The EU as a whole has also long since agreed to move the majority of procedures for asylum seekers from countries with a very low recognition rate to the external border in the future. This follows the realization that it is better for everyone involved not to allow entry to take place in the first place if the right to remain is questionable anyway. This also eliminates the laborious and expensive procedures of deportation and does not raise hopes where there should be none.
Migration issue continues to affect EU states
An abbreviated description of the traffic light agreement, according to which supposedly "all" Dublin refugees will no longer receive "any" benefits, leads to the impression that this is unlikely to hold up before the European Court of Justice. Of course, lawyers specializing in asylum procedures will subject the new German course, which will eventually be enshrined in law, to judicial review. A first look at the details, however, allows the assumption that a regulation is in order under European law if it only applies to migrants who, under current EU law, must and can move to another country in which they have long been granted benefits. And they will continue to receive humane care with "bed, bread and soap" in Germany.
When the Chancellor speaks of "tough talks" with partner countries about taking back refugees, this also shows a new symbolic choice of words as a message to the world that Germany is finally saying goodbye to a naive welcoming culture. The next summit meetings in Brussels will show where Olaf Scholz is now hooking up. In the field of migration policy, too, new factions are emerging of countries that want to take an even tougher approach and those that are trying at all costs to avoid the impression of a "Fortress Europe".
However, it also remains clear that even the most radical change will not eliminate the pressure to migrate. The causes, motives, methods and goals are too different. Furthermore, Europe can only meet its own demographic challenges and compete globally if it remains attractive to capable and hard-working people around the world. However, this needs to be managed much better.