The free movement of people from poor to rich countries has always been the most contentious feature of regional integration schemes. I know this is the primary reason why, despite it being a categorical imperative in this age of globalization, all attempts to integrate the economies in my native region of the Caribbean have failed.
But just imagine what the United States would be like today if NAFTA had included a provision guaranteeing such freedom of movement. Well, in addition to the illegal emigration of people from poor countries in Africa and the Middle East, the rich countries in Europe are actually confronting this nightmare scenario with the legal emigration of people from poor countries within the Union.
Of course, in a perverse way, France should probably be flattered that it is the destination of choice for most of these (legal and illegal) immigrants. But there’s no denying that the quality of life for native Frenchmen has been adversely affected.
This is most evident in the number of Roma (gypsies from Romanian and Bulgaria) who have set up unsightly and unhealthy shanty towns all over the country. But even tourists can attest to the untenable fact that walking about the beautiful streets of Paris these days, in one respect, is rather like walking the streets of Dickensian London.
After all, gangs of Roma “artful dodgers” now pickpocket unsuspecting visitors with precision and success that Fagin could not have imagined even in his most fanciful dreams. Then there’s the burden these unemployable immigrants place on the country’s welfare system.
This is why French President Nicolas Sarkozy took it upon himself to rid France of them – EU rules on the freedom of movement be damned. To do so, he ordered the dismantling of their shanty towns as well as their “humanitarian” repatriation – presumably to places where their nomadic, gypsy lifestyle does not represent such a cultural eyesore.
Officially, he cited the contagions of crime and prostitution as justification for his draconian order. But bear in mind that it was Sarkozy who – as Interior Minister – referred to native Frenchmen born of African parents as “rabble [and] scum” when they rioted in the streets five years ago to vent their frustrations over being alienated from the French way of life.
The problem in this case, however, is that such deportation is illegal under EU law. Not to mention the historical precedents, most notably from Nazi Germany, this solution conjures up.
Nevertheless, Sarkozy has responded with a Gallic “non” to all calls from the European Commission, the guardian of the EU’s governing treaty, to cease and desist this not-so-subtle form of ethnic cleansing. In fact, he has so infuriated members of the Commission with his imperious and patently specious attempts to distinguish his expulsion of the Roma from France from late President Slobodan Milosevic’s expulsion of Muslims from Serbia that the EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, was moved to make the following statement:
I personally have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a Member State of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority. This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War. I make it very clear my patience is wearing thin: enough is enough.
(Europa Press Release RAPID, Brussels, September 14, 2010)
That she felt this way is understandable of course; that she expressed her feelings with such contempt and disgust at a press briefing was, well, not very diplomatic. She later apologized for unwittingly comparing Nicolas Sarkozy to Adolf Hitler.
But I share her outrage … as much as any non-European can. For having signed on to the EU treaty, France cannot now pick and choose which Europeans will be allowed to live or even squat within its “open boarders”.
Frankly, if Sarkozy harbored no discriminatory intent he could easily have applied to the Roma the French law that requires all cities and towns of 5,000 or more to provide vacant lots with basic necessities like water and electricity for gens du voyage (i.e., travelers or France’s own nomadic people).
But allowing him to deport the Roma with impunity would make a mockery of the organizing principle of the European Union. No doubt this is why the Commission threatened France yesterday with disciplinary action unless it complies with the EU directive in this respect by October 15. Unfortunately, the EU threatening to take action against France over the deportation of Roma migrants is rather like the UN threatening to take action against Iran over the development of its nuclear program.
Therefore, I fully expect Sarkozy to continue ridding France of them with impunity. Not least because he can reasonably argue that if the Roma were as much a menace to society in Germany and England, their leaders would probably be looking for ways to get rid of them too.
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