The Immigration Crisis: It’s Not Just a US Problem
Migrant politics across the pond are beginning to uncannily resemble ours.
By this time you’ve probably heard news of migrant families being separated at the US-Mexico border, “zero-tolerance,” and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ distasteful joke in which he compared asylum seekers fleeing violence to burglars trespassing within the US.
There is no immigration crisis. There is no surge in crime. It’s just racist politics. https://t.co/earztoi9uf pic.twitter.com/9MoepXC42o
— Pedro da Costa (@pdacosta) June 27, 2018
As crazy as it may sound, that’s not even the half of the immigration woes occurring in our country, and we also aren’t the only ones with a huge problem on our hands. The EU’s migrant crisis has been an ongoing fiasco for the past few years just as well.
Even with numbers of illegal immigration in the EU down 96% from 2015, tensions are higher than ever surrounding their debate on migration. This is due, almost entirely, to the growth of far-right protectionist groups throughout the EU’s member countries–sound familiar?
With many far-right leaders gaining support and power in governments across Europe, it seems like the debate on migration is moving closer and closer to the ideological equivalent of “Not our people, not our problem.”
This is no more apparent than in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel was met with jeers from far-right party members during her recent address to the German parliament upon mention of sympathetic migration policy.
On #AJNewsGrid: Hours before the crucial migration summit begins in Brussels, German leader Angela Merkel says the fate of EU rests on its ability to find solution to refugee crisis. Share your thoughts 👇 https://t.co/ALl2rlJ7sM pic.twitter.com/1QwkoYyAn5
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 28, 2018
Similar ideologies are spreading in Italy as well, where just last week the government closed its ports to a migrant ship carrying more than 600 asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees.
