Europe revs up new policies to curb immigration

Since Sept. 11, and following years of simmering across Europe, the growing problem of illegal immigration to the continent has been boiling over. Country after country has been showing increased approval for candidates of the right. Capital after capital seems to be engulfed in promulgating chaotic laws to control it.

The mood of the continent has changed dramatically, as ordinary citizens challenge the idea that they are intolerant or prejudiced because they see their cultures and identities being destroyed.

But far less known is the fact that, since the terrorist attacks in the United States, European governments have been working persistently behind the public scenes of confusion to hammer out a new approach to immigration.

The first and dominant part, already made public in the last month, is the formation of a common European border guard, to be put in place by 2007 and to be paid for by all member states. Because Europe has no recognized border controls within, the only way to control massive immigration is to have unified external border controls on its common outer border. In fact, this kind of cooperation is already partially in place with the deployment of a naval group, EUROMARFOR, which has in recent months been given the explicit mandate of pursuing immigrant-smuggling ships on the high seas.

To accompany this basically punitive police action, the European states have been working to establish special new relationships, both with “immigrant-producing nations” and with “transit nations.” The Italians, for instance, consider themselves a frontline state in a new war, and they believe that cooperation with the countries of origin is a crucial front. Thus they have already worked out agreements with countries such as Albania, Tunisia and others to encourage Italian investment and to introduce a new principle–one that ties immigration to labor through work permits. Finally, as these cooperative initiatives deepen in positive economic ways, both Italy and Albania, for instance, are also thinking about having their navies work together against the smugglers.

Italy, in particular, is considering limiting family reunification, which in many countries (including the United States) has effectively given immigrants control by allowing them to bring in any number of family members. The new Italian version would limit immigration to a husband or wife, to children under l8, and to parents only when there are no children in the home country to support them.

Nowhere was the deepening concern–even desperation–shown in Europe more than in British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s recent meeting with Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar in London.

The men agreed that they were not advocating a Fortress Europe, but felt there has got to be some order and some rules brought into the system whereby people come into Europe. They then agreed to put forward at a European Union meeting in Seville, Spain, this month, proposals, unthinkable before, to tighten borders, to act against people-traffickers, and to review aid to countries outside the E.U. that failed to take enough action to stem the influx of people that is overwhelming Europe.

Prime Minister Blair particularly shocked many in Europe when he announced he was considering making aid to countries like Somalia, Sri Lanka and even Turkey contingent on their promise to take back rejected asylum-seekers from their countries.

What I am beginning to see–and even more, hear–here on the continent, after many years of covering immigration, are constantly repeated themes. This is the “new war.” We “haven’t seen anything yet.”

Both thinkers and actors within the European governments are rapidly coming to these conclusions. They speak, with grave private concern, of a world that has grown from 2.5 billion people in one generation to 6.2 billion people today–and which will reach 7.2 billion in 15 or 20 years. They see a country like Denmark, which is now 17 percent Islamic, with Muslims living in isolated ghettos.

They see immigrants attacking the trains every day. And they see Europe as the prize for people across the world. For the first time, one finds here little of the Pollyanna-ish attitude of the past, that everyone will simply “become European” and everything will work out. Indeed, realism has set in like a morning-after headache. The realism is hopeful; but even more so is the fact that the Europeans are trying to meet this vast challenge with tough-minded and rational, but also cooperative and preventive, means.

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