Immigration

Let's keep exploring the draft Preamble:

We the People of the European Union,

Whether in Europe from times immemorial or recent immigration,

Aware of the fact that our continent is geographically open, wishing to keep it free from artificial boundaries, understanding that openness is of the essence of European identity…

The big anxiety of the European people is immigration, this at times of economic hardship. This anxiety largely feeds on the fear of the other. What is it that generates fear? Psychology knows the answer: we fear the unknown! If you keep people in ignorance and heat that ignorance with fear, you generate hate! People are largely ignorant of the dynamics of immigration throughout world and European history. They are told that others are coming in big numbers, taking their jobs and feasting on their limited resources. They are told that it is the State responsibility to protect them from invasion. People fear invasion and are consequently led to hate the invader.

We know the formula, it worked formidably well in Europe in the 1930s, and fueled the development of populist and fascist movements. This caused World War II, but history is quickly forgotten. The fact that the two nations that carried the banner of freedom and fought so hard to free the West from nazism (sorry, language check, but that one does not deserve a cap) and fascism (thank you for not imposing the cap on fascism) show signs of amnesia should be seen as matter of great concern. Britain with Brexit and the U.S. with the success of the Trump campaign show highly troubling signs of leaning towards fear, ignorance, and hate. Fear of immigration is central to these campaigns.

What is it that we must know or remember about immigration? Immigration is consubstantial with life, be it vegetal, animal, or human. We need it to prosper, and fight it once we prosper. We feel the urge to expand, expansion defining success, and try to resist the expansion and invasion of others. Mankind prospered by expanding out of Africa, where it is coming from. Remember, our ancestors were black! Europe was scarcely populated during the time of the Roman Empire. Significant migrations from the East populated Europe, causing the Roman Empire to collapse and reshaping the European people. These great invasions were at times hostile, at times peaceful, but never short of tensions. Examples of wars and successful mix abound. Vikings came from the North, Moslems from the South-East… A place like Sicily was shaped by all of the above. Europe is the product of a big mix. At all times it was shaped by immigration, assimilating outside influences and feeding from them. Much of our legal or culinary traditions, the languages we speak, were fed by the outside. We cannot undermine the part of violence and devastation in all this, but should not undermine the riches received from other peoples of the world.

Until the Treaty of Westphalia which, in 1648, started shaping what would become the modern nation states, people moved rather freely in Europe, to study, trade, worship, or fight in whatever army would pay best. Courts of law judged the ‘foreigner’ using wise restraint: on personal matters especially, they did not apply the law of the place, but the law and custom of the person. States did not claim to be sovereign.

National sovereignty is a recent phenomenon in human history. It is linked to ownership: the moment you claim ownership, you can exclude the others and decide who you allow in. The moment a state claims sovereignty, it makes a claim as to who can come in and who cannot. Either you accept, reject, deport, or kill. This raises a big question: do states own the territory? A ‘yes’ answer goes against natural law. Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right. Our modern states are committed to the protection of human rights. Under what law can we reject the immigrant, if the immigrant comes in peace and is willing to abide by our rules, pay taxes, contribute to prosperity, and sometimes serve in the police or army?

If resources get scarce, people should naturally come and go, and avoid overpopulating: watch the animals, they often know better than we humans.

Over-regulating immigration infringes with the fundamental freedom of movement. People do not own the village or the city they live in, their region, or their country. They have no right to decide who can come and go. Tough immigration policies are illegitimate as they infringe human rights and dignity.

People who come in peace and integrate are to be accepted and integrated. When they stay, they become members of our communities. European countries have a long history of open borders.

Do immigrants take jobs away? They primarily create additional economic activity. They school their children, and typically assimilate after a generation or two, also contributing diversity. People get more creative and efficient when leaving their comfort zone: I could speak volumes of experience on this. The more the host is welcoming, the lesser the tensions.

Problems arise when people are forced to migrate, or are invited in in large numbers. Europeans have drawn large numbers at times of economic expansion, often from former colonies, triggering tensions particularly in less affluent areas. Presently, Europe faces unsolicited immigration, of people fleeing war, threat of extermination, extreme poverty, or climate change. Natural law and the respect of fundamental rights do not allow us to protect behind walls or kill peaceful immigrants. This would deny centuries of European culture and tradition of open borders. Newcomers, when they decide to stay, join the European people, whether we like it or not.

Think practical: these people are mostly young, often educated, and help solve the formidable demographic problem that many European countries are facing. German leaders understood this, welcoming one million immigrants in 2015.

Nobody wishes massive immigration. Can we prevent it? It is our self-interest to mitigate its causes: limiting the effects of climate change and promoting sustainable development; cooperating with foreign people in hardship, particularly in Africa, rather than plundering their resources; working peacefully at conflict resolution rather than waging war or launching hazardous military intervention. If we do not act by pure generosity (some will, but generosity to people we do not know is not in the human DNA), we should be guided by self-interest. Borders cannot be closed, Europe is an open continent, in its geographic, historical, and cultural makeup.