Extract
[...] Brought to the heart of the political debate, the migration issue divides governments The rise of populism and policies of firmness It appears important, finally, to note not only that the color of European governments significantly influences the measures of immigration regulation that they will prioritize, but that the migration issue has itself significantly modified the European political landscape. Populist parties, especially but not exclusively from the far right, have convinced their electorates by the use of anxiogenic discourses, even requiring that less radical political parties harden their discourse on immigration. How did we get here? [...]
[...] controlled and reduced immigration, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to criteria set by the host country. In fact, this concept of regulation is particularly difficult to define insofar as it faces a great diversity of cases, from one country to another, but also between economic migrants, war refugees . If only at the European level, many points of view are in conflict; understanding their diversity and reasons seems particularly useful today, as Europe is experiencing a real migration crisis, resulting in the death of thousands of migrants each year, fleeing poverty or war in the hope of a better life for their families. [...]
[...] Regulations are thus linked to control, asylum application processing, and short-term support for housing and health for these migrants, which has a real cost. These countries strongly contest the fact that they have to bear these costs alone, even though they rarely represent the initial goal of migrants. The case of the Franco-British border, where France must prevent migrants from passing into England, is well known, and has gone through the years from the Sangatte center to the Calais jungle. But the situation is similar in the Alps, where Italian and French authorities prevent migrants from passing. [...]
[...] Two cases stand out: in some countries, such as Viktor Orban's Hungary or, until recently, Matteo Salvini's Italy, the populists have come to power and implemented part of their program to restrict migrant flows: increased border control, strengthened asylum criteria, and even stigmatization of foreigners present. Often discriminatory policies and little concerned with the causes of migration, they are therefore particularly criticized. The other case, as we will see, is that in which the populists have not taken power, but remain sufficiently threatening to influence the decisions of governments. For the so-called 'government parties, ' a precarious balance between humanity and realism At the early hours of the recent migration crisis, some European governments adopted a relatively humanist position. [...]
[...] In what way do the diversity of economic, geographical, and political contexts of European countries explain the heterogeneity of immigration regulation policies and the difficulty of implementing common policies? International Relations - Comparative Regulation of Immigration Introduction « France is an immigration country that is unaware of itself," declared sociologist Dominique Schnapper in 1996. In fact, France is the product of successive migratory flows, from neighboring countries to distant ones, which have built both its diversity and its unity. In the same way, by the way, as many other European countries." Today, in most European countries, immigration is a complex issue, sometimes considered taboo, sometimes put forward, in the latter case generally to stigmatize it and much less often to defend the principle. [...]
