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“Yet another unsavoury EPP chunk of red meat, meant to attract the far-right vote:" EU group backed by von der Leyen plans Rwanda-style migration reforms (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The European People’s party (EPP), an umbrella group of centre-right and conservative parties, has said in the final draft of its manifesto ahead of elections to the European parliament in May that it wants a series of deal with non-EU countries with a view to deporting irregular migrants for asylum processing in “safe” third countries.

“Yet another unsavoury EPP chunk of red meat, meant to attract the far-right vote. It will not work. All the EPP strategy has achieved over the past years, is making the far right bigger. So if they know it doesn’t work, why do they stubbornly repeat the same tactics each time?” said Sophie in ‘t Veld, a Dutch MEP, and the lead representative for the liberal Renew group on the parliament committee for civil liberties, justice and home affairs.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is there such a thing as appeasing the far right? The tories in the UK lurched to the right out of fear of ukip, and that hasn't really worked. Why would a UK "patriot" vote for the racist-light tories when they can vote ukip?

Same in Sweden with M and SD. M turned more right wing in immigration matters to combat SD, which didn't help. SD is bigger than ever.

I honestly don't think most people mind migration, what they do mind is the crime associated with it, unfairly or not, and the unwillingness to call it out.

That and the rampant homophobia, misogyny and antisemitism that comes with some migrants. Not that we don't have our own idiots here already.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It is not migration that is associated with crime, it is racist people who associate migrants with crime IF they have darker skin.

Nobody complains about the millions of migrants coming from southern or eastern Europe. Unless, of course, they are Roma.

And this is obviously unfair and untrue and a media effect, because every crime committed by a darker-skinned migrant has been reported literally around the world. While local crimes stay where migrant crimes belong, on the local news site. So it's nonsense to claim that it's not being talked about; in fact, it's constantly being exaggerated and used by the media and politicians to incite hatred against dark-skinned people.

Speaking of homophobia: Until 1994, people in Germany could go to prison for homosexuality and after that it took another 23 years until 2017 to rehabilitate those convicted under this law. And racist Germans still didn't like it. And of course they want to deny any help to homosexual immigrants from predominantly dark-skinned countries. In fact, they want to make homosexuality (not to mention trans people) illegal again, like Putin is doing.

Our culture is deeply misogynistic and those who suffer the most from this are women from countries with Islamic cultures who choose to follow their culture's dress codes. And every time some racist Europeans come up with a new idea about how to "fight" migrants' misogyny, what they are really presenting is just another way to make these women's lives harder than they already are.

Every Palestinian has very good political reasons to hate Israel. The fact that we call this anti-Semitism, even though Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace in the Middle East for over a thousand years, is just a pathetic attempt to clear ourselves of the murder of millions of Jews. Equating rejection of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism while supporting every crime by the State of Israel with money, weapons and diplomacy is truly outrageous.

And it becomes really disgusting, really anti-Semitic when we actually go so far as to label Jewish people who oppose Israeli policies as anti-Semitic and exclude them from social discourse.

It is therefore impossible for a naive media consumer in Germany to ever see a Jew vehemently defending the Palestinians. This is how anti-Semitism is promoted.

And you’re celebrating your own racism here, while pretending to not being racist at all. Like whole of Europe does.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

It is not migration that is associated with crime, it is racist people who associate migrants with crime IF they have darker skin. Nobody complains about the millions of migrants coming from southern or eastern Europe. Unless, of course, they are Roma.

Migrant areas have a higher crime rate. If you're right wing you blame it on skin colour or culture. If you're left wing you blame it on socioeconomic factors. Take your pick. The fact remains.

And this is obviously unfair and untrue and a media effect, because every crime committed by a darker-skinned migrant has been reported literally around the world. While local crimes stay where migrant crimes belong, on the local news site. So it’s nonsense to claim that it’s not being talked about; in fact, it’s constantly being exaggerated and used by the media and politicians to incite hatred against dark-skinned people.

I'm sure right wing media love to sell the idea of "bad migrants". But again, there is a problem in areas with a high migrant population that hasn't been discussed until very recently. The very idea of pointing out that certain groups are over-represented when it comes to certain crimes was seen as racist not too long ago. How can you address a problem you won't even acknowledge exists?

Speaking of homophobia: Until 1994, people in Germany could go to prison for homosexuality and after that it took another 23 years until 2017 to rehabilitate those convicted under this law. And racist Germans still didn’t like it. And of course they want to deny any help to homosexual immigrants from predominantly dark-skinned countries. In fact, they want to make homosexuality (not to mention trans people) illegal again, like Putin is doing.

Obviously horrifying, but there's a reason why gay people leave the middle east and come to the west. We're far from perfect, but orders of magnitude better than others. Compare the number of people in Germany and Syria/Turkey/Palestine (or pretty much any country in ME) who want to make homosexuality/trans illegal and then tell me that it's Germany that's the problem.

Our culture is deeply misogynistic and those who suffer the most from this are women from countries with Islamic cultures who choose to follow their culture’s dress codes. And every time some racist Europeans come up with a new idea about how to “fight” migrants’ misogyny, what they are really presenting is just another way to make these women’s lives harder than they already are.

Do you really think women from Islamic cultures have it worse in the west? I don't agree with burka-bans or that sort of nonsense, except maybe for minors, but I have a hard time believing that the west is worse for women than Islamic countries in the middle east or northern africa are.

Every Palestinian has very good political reasons to hate Israel. The fact that we call this anti-Semitism, even though Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace in the Middle East for over a thousand years, is just a pathetic attempt to clear ourselves of the murder of millions of Jews. Equating rejection of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism while supporting every crime by the State of Israel with money, weapons and diplomacy is truly outrageous.

And it becomes really disgusting, really anti-Semitic when we actually go so far as to label Jewish people who oppose Israeli policies as anti-Semitic and exclude them from social discourse.

It is therefore impossible for a naive media consumer in Germany to ever see a Jew vehemently defending the Palestinians. This is how anti-Semitism is promoted.

Hating and or disagreeing with the Israeli government(s) isn't antisemitism, and I can think of several people with a justified hate for it. That's not the same as hating jews. There was a study done recently that pointed out that the biggest risk factor for antisemitism is ethnicity.

I do agree that the Israeli government would like to label any criticism against them as antisemitism, which is just silly.

And you’re celebrating your own racism here, while pretending to not being racist at all. Like whole of Europe does.

Ad hominem. How charming.