Fear of the foreign

Some people seem to think Europe is crashing around their ears. Other than the euro having been found out, the latest problem is the Schengen Agreement. This pact, signed in 1985 actually predates the EU, but is regarded as a central plank of the European Project. It provides for borderless crossings between the signature countries, so if you are an Albanian who has got into Greece (not too difficult I am told) you can travel to Germany to find work.

When looking at the EU and its various agreements, pacts and directives, you have to imagine a bureaucratic mindset where whatever is decreed will happen. If it looks as if it isn’t happening we don’t need to question the bureaucratic system, we need more directives, more regulation. It was obvious that the one size fits all interest rate of the euro would lead to strains on the system but instead of doing something positive a whole new system of bailouts, new loans and so on is created.

Equally it was obvious that mass migration would threaten the Schengen Agreement. They tried to put caps on migration from new EU countries but they are coming from all over. There are two specific threats to Schengen: firstly Denmark reinstated border controls and let it be known that it was saving billions by not allowing foreigners in. Other countries will consider doing the same. The second threat concerns the Arab Spring. As of last month, 26,000 refugees had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year. Of these, 23,000 are young Tunisians without hope of political asylum. Don’t forget that they are almost all men. If one establishes himself in a country he sends for his wife and family, so you have to count double for each immigrant.

Tunisians make their way to the island of Lampedusa because it is not far to go (it is nearer Tunisia than Italy), but it is quite obvious where they want to end up. Almost everyone in the north of Tunisia speaks French as a second language.

So the Italians processed the arrivals on Lampedusa and those whom they couldn’t send home they gave a visa and put them on the train to France. The French were outraged at this, perhaps forgetting it is exactly what they had done with Britain, and intercepted the train.

But it is clear, is it not, that immigration is a Europe-wide problem. Immigrants see France, Germany and Britain as a far better prospect than Italy so they will make their way up the peninsula, now planting tomatoes (backbreaking work which the Italians don’t want to do) then picking them, then grapes in September / October then olives in November / December. By winter you want to be somewhere where there is factory work and that means France or Germany.

If the European Union is to mean anything at all, countries must get together to solve a Europe-wide problem. But they only think of their own narrow self-interest, while complaining that it is their neighbours who lack the esprit communautaire.