The game changers

By the time the body of a second child, this time a young girl, washed up on the shores of Turkey, reactions had become muted, and attitudes stoic. In the meantime, headlines had changed from stories of drowned migrants to how the crisis was dividing Europe. In any case, migrant deaths off the coast of Turkey, as overcrowded dinghies and ferries collided, had become commonplace. And the image of a toddler in a red shirt, that had gone viral and created outrage and demands for the European Union to put together a plan to deal with the migrant crisis, had moved off the front pages. These incidents are neither isolated nor confined to the Turkish shores. On the same day, at the end of August this year, twin migrant tragedies were reported — one where 71 refugees, including a baby girl, were found dead in an abandoned freezer truck in Austria and another where Libya recovered the bodies of 82 migrants who had been washed ashore after their over-crowed boat had sunk on its way to Europe. Migrant tragedies, while crossing the Mediterranean, has been increasingly in the news and like the victims of the freezer truck tragedy in Austria, those washed ashore were also probably from Syria and Iraq. As large parts of what is defined as the greater Middle East gets embroiled in conflicts (resulting in human tragedies and movements across borders) and European states like Hungary respond with measures to confront what it terms threats to European ‘security, prosperity and identity’ and refuse the right to both resettlement and movement, there is  need to re-engage both with the issue of forced migration as also the reactions of the receiver states in Europe.

Hungary, situated in Central Europe and a Schengen passport free zone, has in recent times been seen as a gateway by migrants bound for other parts of Europe. Unfortunately for the migrants, Hungary’s negative reaction has been matched by comments made by its Conservative Prime Minister Victor Orban who has clearly indicated that Hungary identifies the Muslim migrants as a threat to Europe’s Christian heritage. Orban has accused Germany of encouraging the influx and rejected the European Commission’s proposal for mandatory quotas to distribute the migrants throughout the EU. This is probably reflective of the fact that there has always been a ‘civilizational’ image to the European Union that requires recognition of a system of values shared by all members. It was this, for instance, more than any other administrative requirement that prevented Turkey’s entry into the European Union since there is widespread opinion that Turkey as a ‘Muslim’ country has a different set of traditions and values and a different mentality. It is this lack of ‘civilizational’ commonality that has made the largely Muslim migrants unwelcome, not just by the Hungarian state but also large numbers of its people.

There is an ongoing debate within the European Union about how to deal with the crisis with states divided between those who would seek a solution to the conflicts to end migrant movements and others who are looking for a more equitable way to distribute them across Europe. The Pope himself called on every European parish and religious community to take in one migrant family each as a gesture of solidarity and declared that he would start it in the Vatican. However, this as well as debates in Canada and Australia would then revolve around whether this resettlement would be without discrimination based on religion. The European Union today is deeply divided over how to cope with the influx of people from West Asia which is testing the principal of solidarity and making the Union look heartless and ineffective, pitting member states against each other and fuelling populism and anti-Islamic sentiments. The extent of this divide became evident when Germany’s Labour and Social Affairs Minister pointed that the migrant crisis could impact the ‘idea of Europe’. On the other hand, Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain have refused to accept refugees citing possibilities of terrorist threats to their safety. They have instead opted to donate aid. The UAE has funded a refugee camp in Jordan giving shelter to Syrians and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have donated funds, food, shelter and clothing to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Other states like Lebanon and Jordan have also recently shut down their borders preventing the entry of Syrians. The continuing migrant issue, which has gripped public imagination, is today a game changer not just for the states in the region but also for large parts of Europe as well as Canada. It has also become the winning card for securing electoral capital. Strategically capitalising on this discourse are a number of leaders who have been on the receiving end of electoral ire, like the Turkish President Recap Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s migration identity, in the meantime, has shifted from being a country of emigration and transit to becoming a destination for immigrants and people fleeing conflict and therefore requiring an entirely new regime of legislation to deal with people who are identified as ‘guests’. Refugees, however, are increasingly becoming a political liability in the run up to a closely fought election due on 1 November, especially near border towns where Syrians can outnumber locals. A bomb blast in the frontier town of Suruc in July, for which the Islamic State was identified as responsible has increased concern that Turkey’s open door policy for the Syrian migrants has made it easier for militants to enter Turkey. Along with a collapse of the Kurdish ceasefire this has increased security concerns. But more than security concerns there remains the problems of integrating a significantly large population, with issues like work permit for the migrants remaining unresolved. While taking note of the fact that the recent increase in the volume of forced migration worldwide would lead to increasing irrelevance of institutions, norms, and laws and probably also redefine the cultural identity of their destination, ie, Europe, one is tempted to question why the migrant remains an ‘abnormal subject’ caught between borders that seem ubiquitous and therefore vulnerable by definition. 

The author is Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata