EU Immigration Crisis Megathread

[Tamas]

As much as I hate Orban in Hungary for appealing to the lowest of instincts by doing his despicable anti-immigrant propaganda drive, you have to admit that the move was genius: the writing is on the wall: refugees are flocking and will continue to flow toward the EU for the foreseeable future.
This way, he is positioning his party in a timely fashion over the side of xenophobia and isolationism, that is surely to be preferred by a vast majority of Hungarians, all the while forcing his opposition to take side against these.

Anyways, the problem is not Hungarian only, however. In fact, it is NOT a problem in Hungary yet, period. But take Italy, which is getting insane number of refugees and the EU answers by tightening French border controls. No wonder they are pissed:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/15/we-will-hurt-eu-if-migrant-crisis-is-not-fixed-says-italian-pm-matteo-renzi

The Dublin Agreement which forces entrance countries to deal with the migrants/refugees is highly unfair and a totally selfish take by the western countries of the EU.

I think this is going to be a huge issue in the years to come, and it will be an extreme strain on the EU as a whole, because it will be showing all too obviously how the EU is not a real community of nations.

[Valmy]

Why are people streaming to the EU? It is not like there are tons of jobs there.

[Tamas]

Why are people streaming to the EU? It is not like there are tons of jobs there.

They are coming from Libya (and from countries which used to migrate TO Libya), Syria, and Afghanistan mostly. More questions?

[Tamas]

I mean, France is showing Italy the finger, Austria is turning to the far right again on the danger of seeing a brown person, and Northern Italy wants nothing to do with handling the 200k+ refugees in Southern Italy.
It is sickening.


Also, check things like this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syyl0gfNDRE A Hungarian truck driver was arrested in the UK for having 51 migrants on board. with that large of a number, he is probably guilty, but what if they climb in to a poor guys truck like that?

Also apparently around Calais they sometimes build roadblocks for force-stop the trucks:
//indavideo.hu/video/Igy_tamadjak_a_kamionokat_a_menekultek_Calais-ban

I kind of get their desperation, but this needs to be handled on a EU level to disperse the pressure otherwise in due course it will endanger the EU itself (as far as the actual common union goes).

[Valmy]

Is it only directed against brown people? Europeans usually reserve their greatest horror for white people who live slightly further east and/or south than they do.

[Zanza]

In a rather surprising development - especially when you consider the stance of Germany about two decades ago - Germany is officially welcoming the refugees and now wants to change laws so that Asylum seekers are allowed to work almost immediately. We also currently give close to 100% of Syrians that come here asylum. For once, Germany is not xenophobic.

[Martinus]

It is a humanitarian disaster. I think we have a moral duty to help. We continental Europeans barely got out of our last batch of bad karma for turning a blind eye to an entire ethnic group being wiped out under our very noses - we should not do it again.

[Martinus]

In a rather surprising development - especially when you consider the stance of Germany about two decades ago - Germany is officially welcoming the refugees and now wants to change laws so that Asylum seekers are allowed to work almost immediately. We also currently give close to 100% of Syrians that come here asylum. For once, Germany is not xenophobic.

[Zanza]

I actually have to qualify that statement. Our asshole interior minister has kept the G7 border controls in Southern Germany in place to block asylum seekers from Italy for the time being. That said, we expect about 400.000-500.000 asylum seekers in Germany this year. That's a rather substantial number and strains the municipalities that have to provide shelter for all of them.

[Martinus]

Speaking of which, I was recently travelling to Warsaw from Athens through the Frankfurt airport and was surprised when we were asked to show our IDs to the police/airport guard when leaving the plane. It wasn't formal - I just flashed my ID to a guard and was not even stopped but it was a bit strange. Is Germany ignoring Schengen?

[Valmy]

Just out of curiosity when do immigration controls become xenophobic? Is there a line you shouldn't cross?

[Syt]

Austria's minster of the interior has basically put all asylum proceedings on hold to "clear out backlog". Lots of push back against taking on more people coming from the rural areas of Austria (i.e. everywhere except Vienna). Vienna is taking on more asylum seekers than they should per the national quote system, but in a city where 50% of the people have an immigration background, it's easier to push through.

[Josquius]

I was thinking about this just yesterday and I am increasingly behind the proposal to institute quotas and share migrants around the EU.
It could really solve several problems at once- stops a few countries taking all of the burden, helps the east get over their manpower troubles,  and helps the migrants.

Why are people streaming to the EU? It is not like there are tons of jobs there.

IMO this type of fundamental world view update takes a long time to sink in.
See- people still thinking Japan is some kind of high tech 1980s wonder land, it is still the 1990s in Russia/Eastern Europe, Africa is perpetually '85 Ethiopia.
Consider these are guys coming from remote villages where all they see of Europe is big budget movies and premier league football. And all those stories of that one guy who made it big and built a mansion in his home village (those who didn't? Meh, they must be so happy in Europe they didn't even bother to come home).
There is a pretty good BBC or channel 4 documentary (can't remember at all, anyone?) about Asian migrants in the UK that gives a good insight into why they came and the misconceptions they had.

[Zanza]

Speaking of which, I was recently travelling to Warsaw from Athens through the Frankfurt airport and was surprised when we were asked to show our IDs to the police/airport guard when leaving the plane. It wasn't formal - I just flashed my ID to a guard and was not even stopped but it was a bit strange. Is Germany ignoring Schengen?

No idea. I can't remember ever being checked when I arrived from another Schengen country. Was your trip during the G7 summit? They had lots of silly extra security measures in place for that.

[Syt]

Also, it's the closest liberal non-shithole available.

Still, there's plenty movements going on that don't even reach Europe. E.g. there's substantial amounts of Syrian refugees in countries bordering Syria.