From London to Brussels to Berlin, our governments want us to think they’re finally cracking down on mass migration. Growing public frustration has made confronting border control, especially where illegal immigration is concerned, an unavoidable reality for most European states.
Even the European Union, one of the pioneers of the open-borders delusion, appears to be rolling back its enthusiasm for the unrestricted movement of anyone, from anywhere. This morning, Politico reported that a leaked document showed the EU plans to tie foreign aid for African countries to their ability to curb migrant departures. Poor nations that are able to meaningfully reduce the flow of irregular migrants will continue to receive EU aid, while those who continue to contribute to the crisis will see their funding slashed. “Increased coherence between migration, asylum and external policies is needed to ensure that the Union’s external assistance supports partner countries to manage migration more effectively,” the document reads.
In other words, the EU is panicking. Its grand open-borders project has backfired in dramatic fashion. It isn’t so much that Brussels’s leading bureaucrats have had some kind of Damascene conversion. They have not, one assumes, realised that telling the entire world they have a human right to settle on your continent for little to nothing in return was a terrible idea in the first place. Rather, as Politico points out, this is more a response to the rise of right-wing parties both domestically and in the European Parliament. The EU has effectively gone into damage-control mode.
In doing so, the EU follows in the footsteps of many governments on the continent. One by one, nations that were once enthusiastically signed up for the freedom of movement promised by Schengen have reintroduced border checks. Most recently, Poland imposed land checkpoints on its borders with Lithuania and Germany—the latter being particularly crucial, as German authorities have repeatedly been caught illegally dumping migrants on Polish land.
Ironically, the reason Germany is turning around newcomers in the first place is part of its own supposed border crackdown. Germany’s new centre-right government, under Christian Democrat chancellor Friedrich Merz, has promised to put an end to the uncontrolled influx of asylum seekers, terrified into action by the rising popularity of the right-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The AfD is now the second-largest party in the Bundestag and at one point topped the polls, reflecting growing concerns among Germans that not enough is being done to police the borders. No wonder, given that practically every day we are confronted with new stories about foreign criminals assaulting women and girls, committing violent crime, and generally being a drain on the economy.
Germany isn’t alone in its performative border politics. Austria’s centre-right coalition government proudly announced last week that it had finally managed to deport a Syrian criminal—the first of any EU nation to do so in almost 15 years. The 32-year-old man arrived in Austria as an asylum seeker in 2013 but lost his refugee status when he was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018. Miraculously, because of the Syrian civil war, he was unable to be deported back to his country of origin—until now. While Austria’s government might frame this as a huge win, it speaks to just how nonsensical and toothless the border policy is. Celebrating the removal of a single foreign criminal seems redundant when foreigners are still assaulting girls in swimming pools, carrying out stabbing sprees, and when the majority of welfare recipients in the country are foreign-born.
Once again, this is all posturing on the part of the Austrian government in an attempt to keep the populist right at bay. Despite receiving the most votes in last September’s legislative elections, the right-wing, anti-immigration Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) was locked out of a governing coalition by the mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties.
Meanwhile, across the Channel and outside the EU, it has been almost two months since UK prime minister Keir Starmer made his now-infamous ‘island of strangers’ speech, in which he pledged to stop the flood of small boats arriving from France. Can anyone in the UK seriously say they have felt the effects of Starmer’s hardline rhetoric? Since then, we’ve been burdened with weekly record-high arrivals, each boat carrying on average more people than ever before. In fact, this year is set to be the worst for illegal migrant numbers on record. Starmer has even admitted he regrets giving the ‘island of strangers’ speech in the first place—a telling sign that he never intended to bring real change to Britain’s border policy in the first place. Now, as he and French president Emmanuel Macron meet to discuss a new ‘one in, one out’ migration policy, we can only hope for the best and expect the worst. The plan will likely be largely ineffectual, if not actively destructive. It has also raised concerns that it will increase the flow of migrants back to southern states, like Spain, Italy, and Greece.
As with Austria and Germany, Starmer’s Labour government is only making a show of doing something about immigration because it is horrified by the rise of the populist Right. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has shot up in the polls since last July’s general election and, as of right now, is predicted to win the most seats in Parliament. Concerns about the state being unable to deport illegal migrants and foreign criminals—even when they commit some truly heinous and extraordinarily violent acts—have bubbled to the surface, and the Starmer government no doubt fears a repeat of the Southport riots last summer. Or, indeed, the spread of protests that broke out in Ballymena and the surrounding area in Northern Ireland last month, sparked by migrant crime.
What none of these governments seem to realise is that their hollow posturing on migration won’t win them back the votes they’ve been haemorrhaging. People aren’t stupid. They can tell they are blatantly being managed, rather than represented. And they can see and feel the continued effects of mass migration firsthand. That’s why, in the Netherlands and Poland, despite both states promising that they’ll put a stop to illegal arrivals, ordinary citizens have had to take it upon themselves to start policing border crossings. Politicians can trot out the same old slogans or bring in new schemes all they like. Locals will always be able to tell that nothing is changing, as the streets become less safe, house prices continue to rise, and public services are stretched to breaking point. They will see it in the dwindling number of hospital appointments, in the changing demographics of their children’s classrooms, and in the once quiet neighbourhoods now plagued with crime.
Now people want results, not more promises. It’s not enough for the same stale establishment actors to make and re-make the same pledges on border controls. The latest spate of victories from the Right has clearly given many in the political mainstream a much-needed scare—but not enough for them to actually get their act together. Until they do, voters will only keep turning to the parties that promise more than just tough talk.
Brussels’ Tough Talk on Borders Is Fooling No One
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP
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From London to Brussels to Berlin, our governments want us to think they’re finally cracking down on mass migration. Growing public frustration has made confronting border control, especially where illegal immigration is concerned, an unavoidable reality for most European states.
Even the European Union, one of the pioneers of the open-borders delusion, appears to be rolling back its enthusiasm for the unrestricted movement of anyone, from anywhere. This morning, Politico reported that a leaked document showed the EU plans to tie foreign aid for African countries to their ability to curb migrant departures. Poor nations that are able to meaningfully reduce the flow of irregular migrants will continue to receive EU aid, while those who continue to contribute to the crisis will see their funding slashed. “Increased coherence between migration, asylum and external policies is needed to ensure that the Union’s external assistance supports partner countries to manage migration more effectively,” the document reads.
In other words, the EU is panicking. Its grand open-borders project has backfired in dramatic fashion. It isn’t so much that Brussels’s leading bureaucrats have had some kind of Damascene conversion. They have not, one assumes, realised that telling the entire world they have a human right to settle on your continent for little to nothing in return was a terrible idea in the first place. Rather, as Politico points out, this is more a response to the rise of right-wing parties both domestically and in the European Parliament. The EU has effectively gone into damage-control mode.
In doing so, the EU follows in the footsteps of many governments on the continent. One by one, nations that were once enthusiastically signed up for the freedom of movement promised by Schengen have reintroduced border checks. Most recently, Poland imposed land checkpoints on its borders with Lithuania and Germany—the latter being particularly crucial, as German authorities have repeatedly been caught illegally dumping migrants on Polish land.
Ironically, the reason Germany is turning around newcomers in the first place is part of its own supposed border crackdown. Germany’s new centre-right government, under Christian Democrat chancellor Friedrich Merz, has promised to put an end to the uncontrolled influx of asylum seekers, terrified into action by the rising popularity of the right-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The AfD is now the second-largest party in the Bundestag and at one point topped the polls, reflecting growing concerns among Germans that not enough is being done to police the borders. No wonder, given that practically every day we are confronted with new stories about foreign criminals assaulting women and girls, committing violent crime, and generally being a drain on the economy.
Germany isn’t alone in its performative border politics. Austria’s centre-right coalition government proudly announced last week that it had finally managed to deport a Syrian criminal—the first of any EU nation to do so in almost 15 years. The 32-year-old man arrived in Austria as an asylum seeker in 2013 but lost his refugee status when he was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018. Miraculously, because of the Syrian civil war, he was unable to be deported back to his country of origin—until now. While Austria’s government might frame this as a huge win, it speaks to just how nonsensical and toothless the border policy is. Celebrating the removal of a single foreign criminal seems redundant when foreigners are still assaulting girls in swimming pools, carrying out stabbing sprees, and when the majority of welfare recipients in the country are foreign-born.
Once again, this is all posturing on the part of the Austrian government in an attempt to keep the populist right at bay. Despite receiving the most votes in last September’s legislative elections, the right-wing, anti-immigration Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) was locked out of a governing coalition by the mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties.
Meanwhile, across the Channel and outside the EU, it has been almost two months since UK prime minister Keir Starmer made his now-infamous ‘island of strangers’ speech, in which he pledged to stop the flood of small boats arriving from France. Can anyone in the UK seriously say they have felt the effects of Starmer’s hardline rhetoric? Since then, we’ve been burdened with weekly record-high arrivals, each boat carrying on average more people than ever before. In fact, this year is set to be the worst for illegal migrant numbers on record. Starmer has even admitted he regrets giving the ‘island of strangers’ speech in the first place—a telling sign that he never intended to bring real change to Britain’s border policy in the first place. Now, as he and French president Emmanuel Macron meet to discuss a new ‘one in, one out’ migration policy, we can only hope for the best and expect the worst. The plan will likely be largely ineffectual, if not actively destructive. It has also raised concerns that it will increase the flow of migrants back to southern states, like Spain, Italy, and Greece.
As with Austria and Germany, Starmer’s Labour government is only making a show of doing something about immigration because it is horrified by the rise of the populist Right. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has shot up in the polls since last July’s general election and, as of right now, is predicted to win the most seats in Parliament. Concerns about the state being unable to deport illegal migrants and foreign criminals—even when they commit some truly heinous and extraordinarily violent acts—have bubbled to the surface, and the Starmer government no doubt fears a repeat of the Southport riots last summer. Or, indeed, the spread of protests that broke out in Ballymena and the surrounding area in Northern Ireland last month, sparked by migrant crime.
What none of these governments seem to realise is that their hollow posturing on migration won’t win them back the votes they’ve been haemorrhaging. People aren’t stupid. They can tell they are blatantly being managed, rather than represented. And they can see and feel the continued effects of mass migration firsthand. That’s why, in the Netherlands and Poland, despite both states promising that they’ll put a stop to illegal arrivals, ordinary citizens have had to take it upon themselves to start policing border crossings. Politicians can trot out the same old slogans or bring in new schemes all they like. Locals will always be able to tell that nothing is changing, as the streets become less safe, house prices continue to rise, and public services are stretched to breaking point. They will see it in the dwindling number of hospital appointments, in the changing demographics of their children’s classrooms, and in the once quiet neighbourhoods now plagued with crime.
Now people want results, not more promises. It’s not enough for the same stale establishment actors to make and re-make the same pledges on border controls. The latest spate of victories from the Right has clearly given many in the political mainstream a much-needed scare—but not enough for them to actually get their act together. Until they do, voters will only keep turning to the parties that promise more than just tough talk.
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