The "Others"
This week Denmark has approved a law that permits refugees' belongings to be searched at the border and any assets or valuable objects over €1340 in value seized, "to be used toward the accommodation of the refugees." Other countries already have such a policy in place. Switzerland has had such a law for twenty years, in that any money or valuables worth over €900 can be confiscated from anyone seeking refuge. In Germany, two Lands are implementing such laws. Bavaria, that will take anything worth more than €750, and Baden-Wuerttemberg, which will allow refugees to remain destitute with only €350 to their name. In the Netherlands, the government is slightly more generous. It allows families to keep up to €11,790. Though, when they are permitted to work, they have to pay from their earnings a levy for being allowed to remain in the country.
All these new laws (and Switzerland's old one) have mostly been voted into place by national and regional governments to deter the arrival of refugees. It's hypocrisy and fear at its best. On the news they will describe rescue efforts in the Aegean, and how people are pulled from the water. Newscasters will lament the loss of lives, and even show us footage designed to make tears of empathy roll down our cheeks. Such as when a rescued pregnant woman on a boat pulled back a blanket, only to find that her other child was lying dead underneath. The utter despair on her face as she picked him up and rocked him in her arms, as two rescue workers looked on, understanding, but unable to do anything. And the next news story will be that a terrorist has been picked up before commiting an atrocity in a large European city against innocent people, and that that terrorist came to Europe disguised as a Syrian refugee. With one breath we are told that it is "heroic" and "humane" to rescue these people from certain death. With another breath we are told that to admit them to our countries will bring "insecurity" and "impoverishment." Which is it to be?
Just yesterday Greece was threatened with being cut off from the free-circulation treaty of Schengen if it didn't tighten its border control. That would mean reinstallment of customs between Greece and the rest of the E.U. It would mean the further impoverishment and cutting off of Greece from the rest of the Union. In fact, the rest of the E.U. wants Greece to take in all of the refugees arriving at its shores, register them, and thereby obligate them to remain in Greece. The carrot waved at the Greeks is a condonation of part of its debt. The stick is its being cut off from the rest of the E.U. by rescinding its inclusion in the Schengen treaty. The Greek Minister of the Interior, Yiannis Mouzalas, even confessed in an interview with the BBC that the Belgian Minister of the Interior, Jan Jambon, suggested that the Greeks send back the refugees, "even if they have to drown."
Seventy-one years ago yesterday Auschwitz was liberated. What led to those camps of murder and desolation was total misunderstanding and total contempt. Stereotypes and generalized beliefs that caused millions upon millions of deaths. Hatred of the "other" as an institution. Deeply held misconceptions of an entire group of people that had previously been a part of the emerging Europe. Today there are virtual concentration camps being set up again in Europe. They are meant to house refugees escaping for their lives, but those refugees are seen as leeches, as less than human, as a problem. And now their valuables are to be taken away, as well. To deter their arrival and to dehumanize them by taking away the possibility of making any financial choices for themselves. We hear now that these refugees are different from us, that they have different values at odds with our European values. Yes, some of their ideas of society are different from ours. But they believe in surviving, in loving their children and trying to find a safe haven for their families, which they cherish. In that, they are not different from us. But then, the last conflict in central Europe, in former Yugoslavia, didn't bring out the best in the rest of Europe, either. If we didn't care about Bosnians being shot while searching for clean water to take to their homes, it's not surprising we turn our backs on the Syrians.
Some days I am ashamed of living on a continent that cares only for itself and that has so forgotten its own history.
All these new laws (and Switzerland's old one) have mostly been voted into place by national and regional governments to deter the arrival of refugees. It's hypocrisy and fear at its best. On the news they will describe rescue efforts in the Aegean, and how people are pulled from the water. Newscasters will lament the loss of lives, and even show us footage designed to make tears of empathy roll down our cheeks. Such as when a rescued pregnant woman on a boat pulled back a blanket, only to find that her other child was lying dead underneath. The utter despair on her face as she picked him up and rocked him in her arms, as two rescue workers looked on, understanding, but unable to do anything. And the next news story will be that a terrorist has been picked up before commiting an atrocity in a large European city against innocent people, and that that terrorist came to Europe disguised as a Syrian refugee. With one breath we are told that it is "heroic" and "humane" to rescue these people from certain death. With another breath we are told that to admit them to our countries will bring "insecurity" and "impoverishment." Which is it to be?
Just yesterday Greece was threatened with being cut off from the free-circulation treaty of Schengen if it didn't tighten its border control. That would mean reinstallment of customs between Greece and the rest of the E.U. It would mean the further impoverishment and cutting off of Greece from the rest of the Union. In fact, the rest of the E.U. wants Greece to take in all of the refugees arriving at its shores, register them, and thereby obligate them to remain in Greece. The carrot waved at the Greeks is a condonation of part of its debt. The stick is its being cut off from the rest of the E.U. by rescinding its inclusion in the Schengen treaty. The Greek Minister of the Interior, Yiannis Mouzalas, even confessed in an interview with the BBC that the Belgian Minister of the Interior, Jan Jambon, suggested that the Greeks send back the refugees, "even if they have to drown."
Seventy-one years ago yesterday Auschwitz was liberated. What led to those camps of murder and desolation was total misunderstanding and total contempt. Stereotypes and generalized beliefs that caused millions upon millions of deaths. Hatred of the "other" as an institution. Deeply held misconceptions of an entire group of people that had previously been a part of the emerging Europe. Today there are virtual concentration camps being set up again in Europe. They are meant to house refugees escaping for their lives, but those refugees are seen as leeches, as less than human, as a problem. And now their valuables are to be taken away, as well. To deter their arrival and to dehumanize them by taking away the possibility of making any financial choices for themselves. We hear now that these refugees are different from us, that they have different values at odds with our European values. Yes, some of their ideas of society are different from ours. But they believe in surviving, in loving their children and trying to find a safe haven for their families, which they cherish. In that, they are not different from us. But then, the last conflict in central Europe, in former Yugoslavia, didn't bring out the best in the rest of Europe, either. If we didn't care about Bosnians being shot while searching for clean water to take to their homes, it's not surprising we turn our backs on the Syrians.
Some days I am ashamed of living on a continent that cares only for itself and that has so forgotten its own history.
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