Stop Calling the EU Anti-Racist!
The so-called ‘migrant crisis’ more aptly described as a ‘European Racism Crisis’ reared its head again at the weekend with violent clashes at the Greek-Turkish border between refugees and quasi-militaristic Greek police. The sheer contrast between the human desperation of the migrants and the brutal repression doled out by the Greek police was stark. This piece is not going to go heavily into the Greek government’s actions or what Turkey’s role in this crisis is. What I am more concerned with is the frankly abhorrent response of the European Union and its member states to the events on the Greek border but issues of migration more generally.
President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen described Greece as Europe’s ‘shield’.after Turkey opened its border. One must ask who is this enemy that is at the gates; as it wasn’t the Turkish Army that marched over the border but families of refugees, unarmed men, women, and children that have been displaced by war and turmoil at home. If the threat is not military what is it that Greece is protecting? The answer is Europe’s racialized image of itself.
To understand the creation of the European Union one must understand the context in which it arose. At the end of World War 2, the European colonial powers could not maintain their previous colonial hegemony. They had also witnessed their power and influence on the global stage by the United States and the Soviet Union. The coming collapse of the colonial system brought questions for the colonizers but most importantly for this discussion; What would become of the citizens of former colonies who while being denied self-determination and self-government had enjoyed the ability to migrate quite easily to the ‘mother country’. The creation of the EU enhanced rights and freedoms of European citizens while the privileges of formerly colonized peoples were decimated. The European project was fundamental to the transition away from the grandeur of the colonial period but it also facilitated the erasure of the consequences of 300 years of European colonialism.
This history is what has created the current absurd spectacle of Europhiles on the one hand rightly defending Freedom of Movement of European citizens but also cheering on in this instance the Greek Police but at other times the Italian navy in repelling unnamed ‘hordes’ of migrants. An example close to home for me is the government of the Free State fighting to prevent the creation of a hard border in Ireland while also perpetuating the callous Direct Provision system.
Now one might ask why would someone in Australia see fit to criticize the immigration system of the European Union as it is not as bad as Australia’s own system. The reason for this is twofold, I am still a European citizen and to some extent, this violence is done in my name and secondly, while only hopeless racists admire the Australian immigration system, many well-meaning liberal-minded people hold the European Union to be a shining city on a hill when it is really a liberal cloak hiding a fascist dagger underneath.
