The lives of undocumented others

As a substitute of European solidarity, current occasions in Lampedusa triggered all too acquainted discord, between Italy, Germany and France particularly. With the 2024 European elections looming, it’s secure to say that migration will likely be a key problem for a lot of voters. Under I spotlight 5 standout articles coping with varied responses to the problem in Sweden, France and Belgium.  

Whereas Sweden’s three-party coalition was narrowly elected on a platform of decreasing immigration, one explicit proposal is inflicting appreciable pushback from Swedish unions and public sector employees. The regulation, a part of the Tidö Settlement which established the coalition, would oblige public staff to report all undocumented migrants they encounter – sufferers, shoppers, college students, colleagues – to immigration authorities.

Arbetet, a Swedish paper targeted on employees’ rights and the labour market, talked to lawyer and labour regulation knowledgeable Tommy Iseskog concerning the implications of the proposed regulation (Lawyer on whistleblower regulation: “We might find yourself in the identical membership as East Germany”, by Anton Andersson, SV). Apart from violating “fundamental democratic rules” and inserting Sweden within the “identical membership as East Germany”,  Iseskog argues that the regulation is incoherent and incompatible with Sweden’s present labour legal guidelines.     

Rebecca Selberg in The Dialog (Professionals in Sweden are pushing again laborious towards a rightwing plan to make them snitch on undocumented migrants, by Rebecca Selberg, EN) describes the forces – together with lecturers, nurses and social employees, in addition to their unions – rising in opposition to the so-called “snitch regulation”. Selberg concludes that any climbdown from the coverage may trigger the hardline Sweden Democrats to drag the plug on the Tidö settlement and even the coalition itself. 

In France, there was a extra non secular battle on the subject of migration. Two articles in Le Grand Continent present the historic and spiritual context behind the mass led by Pope Francis in Marseille on 23 September. 

To the predictable dismay of French conservatives, Pope Francis took the chance to sentence “alarmist propaganda” and plead for a humane response to folks fleeing hardship. Marseille, the second largest Mediterranean port, made a becoming location, as Jean-Benoît Poulle explains (Pope Francis’s Mass in Marseille: 10 issues to know concerning the go to “to the Mediterranean” however “to not France”, Jean-Benoît Poulle, FR ES). Previously a “crossroads of civilisation”, the Mediterranean has, based on the Pope, change into an “underwater graveyard” lately.

In the meantime, Gilles Gressani (The church and migration: the prophetic selection of a multiethnic Europe, Gilles Gressani, FR IT ES) traces the Pope’s phrases again to these spoken by former archbishop of Milan Carlo Maria Martini in 1990. When Francis means that the Mediterranean “cries out for justice, with its shores that on the one hand exude affluence, consumerism and waste, whereas on the opposite there may be poverty and instability”, he echoes Martini’s declaration that migration is “an invite to reverse the decadent course in direction of consumerism and facile satisfaction with our possessions”.

Of maybe little shock, migration seems to be one of many lasting elements behind far-right electoral success in Flanders, writes Knack (Far-left and far-right strongholds in Flanders: not at all times the identical as within the Thirties, Jeroen de Preter, NL, paywall). 

4 years in the past, historian Davide Cantoni concluded that Germany’s Alternativ für Deutschland is extra profitable in the identical areas wherein Adolf Hitler’s Nationwide Socialists have been extra profitable in 1933. Impressed by this analysis, Leuven-based political scientists Marc Hooghe and Dieter Stiers needed to see if comparable “geographical continuities” might be recognized in Flanders. As a substitute of 1933, they examine the elections of 1936 and 2019, when each the far-left (the Communist Occasion of Belgium, and the Employees’ Occasion of Belgium) and far-right (the Flemish Nationwide Union, and Vlaams Belang) carried out remarkably nicely.

Curiously, Hooghe and Stiers discover that this continuity solely exists for the far-left, and never for the far-right. They do, nonetheless, discover some continuity between areas the place the far-right have been much less profitable, particularly giant cities with a extra numerous and extra educated populace (“the far-right and better training, as a rule, will not be a superb match”). The researchers level out that anti-immigration events do higher in areas with much less migration. Even in 1936, the cities have been comparatively numerous, with employees from Japanese Europe, and Jewish folks fleeing anti-semitism.   

Extra picks

Nando Sigona | The Dialog | 18 September 2023 | EN

Brexit pressured painful selections on many Europeans dwelling within the UK. Nando Sigona experiences on the experiences of EU households within the UK going through the influence of Britain’s nationwide divorce, particularly these {couples} who don’t share a house nation. Households pursued two fundamental methods: selecting a vacation spot appropriate for many members or discovering a short lived resolution the place some relations would to migrate first. The story of Maria, who divorced her British husband because of Brexit, highlights the emotional toll and complexities concerned. 

Mehdi Laïdouni | Reporterre | 29 September 2023 | FR

Primarily identified for its beers, Belgium is rising as a notable participant within the wine trade, with 259 wine producers in 2022 and a rising popularity for high quality. Native wine manufacturing advantages from experience and beneficial circumstances, together with local weather change, which permits for vine cultivation in areas that have been as soon as unsuitable. Belgian winemakers are additionally exploring modern approaches, resembling interspecific grape varieties, to adapt to altering local weather circumstances and scale back pesticide use.

Alan Rusbridger | Prospect | 24 September 2023 | EN

Alan Rusbridger, who served as editor of the Guardian for 20 years, discusses the advanced legacy of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Whereas acknowledging his contributions to journalism, Rusbridger highlights important moral {and professional} failings inside Murdoch’s media empire, not least the telephone hacking scandal. Murdoch’s highly effective affect on politics and the media in a number of international locations can be scrutinised, elevating questions concerning the focus of media energy within the fingers of 1 particular person.

Romain Métairie | Libération | 29 September 2023 | FR

French social media is all of the sudden abuzz with discuss of mattress bugs, with many involved that they may trigger embarrassment throughout subsequent yr’s Olympic Video games. Romain Métairie discusses the resurgence of Cimex lectularius in France and the challenges they pose. Mattress bugs are small, blood-feeding bugs that primarily goal people at evening, attracted by physique warmth and CO2 emissions. Globalised and nomadic life, inspired by home-sharing platforms like Airbnb, contribute to the unfold of mattress bugs. The financial and well being prices of mattress bug infestations are important, prompting requires extra complete prevention and help measures.

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