Migration

South Africa has never been a place where ethnicity and violence did not tie itself into politics and protests. A third explosive dimension to the local ethnic tensions has developed in South Africa in the last 12 days, where immigrants from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Somalia and other African nations were attacked by local South Africans east of Johannesburg. Now spreading towards Cape Town and other South African cities, more than 10,000 migrants who came to Africa’s most prosperous nation for employment are being targeted for taking away local jobs and preventing local South Africans from obtaining work in their own country.

Much of the tensions arose from area of South Africa where lower income residents and those areas that were neglected during the apartheid are located outside of South Africa’s largest cities. Many of those communities have had a difficult time reintegrating into the South African economy and are often linked to specific ethnic groups residing in the country. Many of the migrants were found due to their accent and their intermediate knowledge of the Zulu language, according to IHT.com’s article Mob Violence Achieves its Aim in South Africa. While more than 10,000 migrants plan to escape the mob violence in the country, to date 42 migrants have been killed and more than 6,000 have been displaced in Johannesburg alone, with a further 25,000 leaving their homes.

Suspicions of the cause of the tensions have placed accusations on local political leaders and organizations, but the response from South Africa’s government has been to send in the police and anti-riot forces to quell the violence. The reputation of South Africa is at stake and as the Foreign Minister commented, it gives the country a “Very Bad Image”, to say the least. As violence continues, many will think twice before taking residence in Africa’s most prosperous nation.

The Mezze plate, if unknown to readers is a mix of different appetizers of various Middle Eastern foods, often combined together in a mix of powerful flavours and textures. Food in the region is often like its people, a combination of tastes that while creating a wonderful mix of culture and language also can create indigestion in some cases. The following is a mix of issues that have charged the region and its people abroad in the last week, often celebrating victory in conflict and enraging further problems.

-Israel at 60: Last week was the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence as a sovereign nation. At the same time, for many Palestinians it was the remembrance of the Naquba, or ”Catastrophe” of the migration of many from their original homes and towns upon the creation of the new state of Israel. Festivities took place in Israel and among Israelis and Jewish communities all around the world. In 1948, the State of Israel was created as a home for the Jewish people after the mass genocide of the European Jewish community and pogroms of Eastern Jews bringing many into the newly formed nation. While 1.5 million Israeli-Arabs live inside Israel and are a part of Israel society with full legal rights, legal challenges for increased rights for Israel’s Arab minority, Palestinians and even some Jewish people with Eastern roots push the system to promote a better equality among the multicultural Jewish State. Separate from the systemic stresses faced in the Israeli context, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are embroiled in a Hot Peace between Fatah and Hamas who periodically debate and often fight for power and control of a future state of Palestine. While some movements for peace between Israel and Fatah in the West Bank have started to produce results, rocket attacks coming in from Gaza leaves little chance for change despite the best and very last minute efforts of Carter or Bush. Unknown to most outside Israel, the conflict in 2006 did not produce the release of Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped by Hamas at the time. The continued attacks and retaliations, blockades, increased poverty and the maintained hostage taking of Shalit will not help produce any peace in Israel anytime soon and will give more support for creating more walls between the various people in the region.

-Muslim Immigrants to Europe: In a Foreign Policy Association Religion and Politics blog post by one of our charming and intelligent bloggers, Karin Esposito, the integration of Muslims into European society is discussed on her posting: Integrating Immigrant Communities. Karin points out in refer to author Olivier Roy, that after 9/11, the French immigrant riots and the killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh there is a feeling that assimilation and multiculturalism was a failure in the European context. In reference to a HRW report in Immigration in the Netherlands, she points out that tests sent to the home countries of many immigrants may act as indirect discrimination, targeting specific immigrant groups even before they come into the country as detailed in the report. The challenge is far from being resolved, as a new way to view integration will likely have to be created to promote any dialogue between communities, preferably without the use of Cartoons.

-Beirut the next Baghdad?: In a May 18th New York Times article and among media worldwide, the issue of sectarian violence taking charge over the fragile democracy that exists in Lebanon is becoming a great concern to the region. After Hizbollah attacks against Sunni citizens, media and political parties put the Lebanese government and the often targeted and assassinated Hariri family into the spotlight again, Lebanon may be approaching a large conflict between its Shi’a and Sunni communities. Like in Iraq, indiscriminant violence by one community over the other has lead to the declaration of blood feuds among Lebanon’s communities. In the Middle East the extremity of violence often intentionally created humiliation and dishonour to many proud groups and cultures which can only be met by delicate diplomacy or outright revenge and conflict. While the international community often focused its attention on the Israel-Lebanon conflict in 2006, attention and understanding of the divisions now taking place needs to have the attention it deserves to avoid an all out civil war in Lebanon.

<>The New York Times is reporting that Greek Islands are being overwhelmed by migrant arrivals - and most recently, a large part of these are unaccompanied minors. The tiny island of Leros is waiting for the declaration of a state of emergency, after 200 migrants were picked up by the coast guard over the last few days.

While a number of these launched political asylum claims and others were sent back under existing procedures, the new wave of child migrants is raising new questions for local officials: “The problem now is who takes care of the minors,” said Chrysoula Sifouniou, deputy prefect of the Dodecanese, a group of islands dotting the Aegean’s southeast flank near the Turkish coast. “We don’t have the infrastructure to cope with them, not even a single reception center for them. There’s no state plan or strategy in place to deal with these cases.” 

“This is a new trend we’ve noticed in recent months,” Ms. Sifouniou said. “It has left us baffled and confused, because we neither have the expertise nor the infrastructure to deal with this problem on a local level.”

Concerned islanders and church officials have offered to aid the children, and some hotel owners have offered to house them.

<>The United Nations has already criticized Greece’s policy of dealing with new arrivals and now state officials are calling for additional help from the European Union.  We will follow this story as it develops further.

France assumes the rotating Presidency of the European Union on July 1 of this year. Immigration policy is set to be one of the main issues to which President Nicolas Sarkozy, long-time defender of a hard-line stance, wants to find a tenable solution across 27 member states. Borrowing from the successful negotiation tool-kit established by Angela Merkel on environmental policy, Mr. Sarkozy has sent his controversial immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, on a whistle-stop tour of the European capitals in an effort to forge compromise before key issues come to the table at the October 15 European Council meeting. Hortefeux’s intinerary has already seen him hit 18 capitals by mid-April and he hopes to bring his insights back to Paris ahead of July 1, in an effort to design an immigration compromise that could actually see it through negotiations, in which the unanimity of the Council is still required on a number of issues, thus making actual progress especially elusive. More on Mr. Hortefeux’s travels can be found here and we here at the blog will keep a watchful eye out for what might be in the works.

Across Germany thousands of young immigrants are facing one of the most difficult decisions of their young lives. Beyond the typical teenage musings on their place in their own social sphere among family and friends, almost 4,000 of the country’s teens turning 18 this year will have to make a choice on their nationality.

In 1999, the Social-Democrat/Green coalition government signed into law a compromise on dual citizenship. It was no more than that - a compromise, but it in part reversed a principle of German citizenship law, which was traditionally based on jus sanguinis, blood right. Until then German citizenship was only open to those who could prove German roots through genetic linkage. As a result newly arrived Soviet migrants with German ancestors but without language skills were granted German nationality quasi automatically, while third generation Turks, for example, who were born and raised in the country and often spoke only German or a local dialect were excluded from the right to vote and exercise German citizenship rights. Hoping to further the integration of these long-resident migrants, lawmakers decided to change existing provisions to allow a limited dual citizenship for certain cases. Thousands of young Turks born in Germany thus gained the right to carry both passports.

Over the next few years, 300,000 young dual nationals will have to give up one of their passports. As German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, reports many are conflicted. “Until now, I haven’t had to decide more than what T-shirt looks cooler or whether to take the bus or the bike to visit my friends. But this is big,” says 17-year-old Cem Sezek. “For many teenagers the decision between the Turkish and German passport is like deciding between your mother and your wife,” explains Sevim Dagdelen, herself a turkish-born member of the German the federal parliament. “Instead of forcing them into this decision and creating stumbling blocks, we should be focusing on how to improve their career options,” argues Green Party member, Volker Beck.

Some, like 18-year-old Tuerkiz Tamalta, have vowed to take their case to the highest German court. And a number of legal experts could see the Constitutional Court deciding in her favor: Ruediger Wolfrum, Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Rights Law argues that a constitutional right is at stake. The right to the freedom of free development of ones personality is in question when teenagers are forced to make this type of decision he argues. Astrid Wallrabenstein, a Constitutional Court expert believes that dual nationals are subjected to unequal treatment: “Germans don’t have to reaffirm their citizenship when they turn 18,” she says.

Dual citizenship provisions exist across the globe - some combinations are allowed, others aren’t. This is even the case in Germany - I am living proof. As the daughter of an American and a German, born in Germany, but on American soil (I was born in an American military hospital), I carry both a blue and a burgundy passport. I am slightly circumscribed in my citizenship rights, but this hardly has any bearing on my daily life. The two passports have been my ticket to a mobile life - one, I would argue that has benefitted both my countries of origin. Through both my education and my professional life, I have contributed to both societies: I file taxes on both sides of the Atlantic, I vote in the country of my residence, I take an active interest in the politics of both. The opportunity to be educated in both systems, to live and work in the US and across Europe has allowed me to be a better journalist, has allowed me to become an effective communicator across cultures. Most importantly it has increased, not decreased my allegiance to both countries and made me the kind of mobile citizen the global economy is constantly calling for.

So, why should I get to have both and young Turks shouldn’t? The fact that I have mixed parentage? In many cases we attended the same schools, speak German just as fluently and feel allegiances to both sides. Once Turkey becomes a European Member State mobility for those that chose a Turkish passport will once again be possible. But until then, their opportunities will be limited. There is an inequality at work here that will continue to separate, not integrate people.