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Throughout the year 2015 immigration and refugee issues has become heated topic in the European Union. Certainly, it poses challenges to the European community from humanitarian, security and moral perspective. Looking at the political development of Europe in recent years, there is a steady increase of euro sceptical, “anti-establishment” and anti-immigration parties that have even become the second political force in certain countries. The traditional forces (either conservative, leftist or liberal) had no other chance than to follow the popular sentiment and to push their policies to the right. The classic liberal parties in Europe used to be pro-immigration minded favouring the policy of open borders and advocating the humanitarian perspective on immigration. This short essay by Zsofia Agardy aims at summarizing the policies on immigration of some European liberal parties chosen by the author, which are members of The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament.
Please find the article below:
Looking at the political development of Europe in recent years, there is a steady increase of euroscpetical, “anti-establishment” and anti-immigration parties that have even become the second political force in certain countries. The traditional forces (either conservative, leftist or liberal) had no other chance than to follow the popular sentiment and to push their policies to the right. The classic liberal parties in Europe used to be pro-immigration minded favouring the policy of open borders and advocating the humanitarian perspective on immigration. I was interested whether their policies have changed recently. Therefore this short essay aims at summarizing the policies on immigration of some European liberal parties, which are members of The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament.
Sweden
In Sweden, the Liberal People’s Party (Folkpartiet, FP) describes itself as the country`s most "Europe-friendly party", a slogan underlined by its support to join the Euro and its federal wishes for closer cooperation between the 28 EU member states in areas such as trade, law enforcement and migration. Cecilia Wikström, the Party’s Member of the European Parliament, would like to reform the EU's policy on asylum, making it easier for asylum-seekers to enter Europe by legal and safe means. FP has historically been Sweden’s most pro-immigration party but was recently accused for taking a more populist position due to the advocacy of language tests for migrants and other integrationist views. The Swedish Liberals admit that the Dublin Regulation is failing as it gives a distorted distribution and that it is time for a European quota system that distributes asylum seekers between member states, based on population, GNP and other relevant factors. Their aim is to bring European solidarity to a new level. Recently they are promoting that the number of quota refugees for Sweden selected by the United Nations refugee organisation UNHCR should be increased from 1900 to 5000..
The other Swedish party, which is part of the ALDE group, the Centre Party (Centerpartiet, C) Centerpartiet is a pro-immigration party as well. In their campaign for the Swedish general elections in 2006, they proposed to double the number of immigrants entering Sweden to 90,000 or 1%t of the Swedish population. This was to be facilitated by issuing green cards. In late 2012 the party stated it wanted to open the borders completely to immigration, including removing requirements for some degree of job skills and a clean criminal record. In order to improve things for refugees, the Centre party wants to review the carrier liability, which means that airlines and boat companies are fined if they let people without visa and/or valid travel documents onboard to enter the Schengen area (most of the EU) to establish safe and legal routes to Europe.
Currently none of Sweden's centre-right or centre-left parties are against the country's liberal immigration laws, which have resulted in Sweden taking in more refugees per capita than any other nation in the EU. However, the immigration debate intensifies as the anti-EU and anti-immigration populist party, the Sweden Democrats, scored almost 13 percent of the vote in the 2014 general elections and have become the third largest faction in parliament. As the 2013 Malmö and Swedish non-white-immigrant riots showed Sweden struggles as well with the problem of jobless youth, widening income inequality and tensions between native and immigrant populations.
Netherlands
The VVD Party (The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) is primarily centre-right and economically liberal. However, the it combines both conservative and liberal political ideas, and as such the party is often referred to as ‘conservative-liberal’. The party takes a conservative stance on law and order, immigration and integration issues and its ideology is increasingly conservative in recent years. Like other major Dutch parties, the VVD has been arguably drifting from pro-European to soft Euroscepticism. According to VVD, the EU migration system cannot be sustained as it brings security risks and in the current system it is difficult to differentiate between real refugees, economic migrants and terrorists.
After the 2015 Dutch provincial elections, the VVD Party formed a coalition government with the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA). Recently, the liberals has proposed a far-reaching plan for migration to Europe, based largely on ideas of former VVD party leader Frits Bolkestein published 20 years ago. European borders should be shut and asylum granted only to refugees of European origin. The plan has been severely criticized; however, it is clear that the governing accord with the Labour Party does not give room for such changes. As in other European countries, the rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment over the past decade, embodied in the “Party for Freedom” of Geert Wilders, has pulled all parties' immigration policies to the right.
For a long time, VVD and PvdA were unable to find an agreement on what services should be provided to immigrants that stay in the country illegally. The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) had criticized the Netherlands for not providing basic services. Applications for asylum in the Netherlands jumped from 13,000 in 2012 to 24,000 in 2014, leaving a fair number of such rejected applicants hanging; many of them refuse or are unable to leave or return to their home country. Dutch municipalities offered them food and shelter in city facilities, despite the fact that they have no right to be in the country. This situation is unacceptable to the liberals, who were elected on low-immigration platform and are afraid of losing voters to Mr. Wilders's party. The centre-left Labour party, the Liberals' coalition partner, opposed this, but after long negotiations, the governing parties agreed that a few selected centers should be provided and all current shelters shut down.
In response to the massive flow of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan the VVD and PvdA government is willing in principle to accept a share of the flood of asylum seekers arriving in Europe, and the quota system, but only as a temporary solution. In the long term, what was needed was to set up better shelters and safe havens for refugees near conflict zones, and wants Europe to develop a long-term policy in which only refugees who have first registered in areas close to war zones would be considered for settlement in an EU country. The decision of the Dutch government reflects the public opinion, as a poll released that 54 percent of voters were opposed to accepting more refugees than the country had already agreed to take.
However the other Dutch ALDE member, the social-liberal D66 (Democrats 66) was able to successfully re-orientate itself as the party most supportive of multiculturalism and immigration. D66 is probably ideologically most similar to Britain’s Liberal Democrats. Like the Lib Dems, the party has recently moved somewhat to the right and embraced more pro-market positions. D66 has come to be the party of young urban university educated voters who are relatively well-off. They are supporting one European policy on asylum seekers.
The Liberal Democrats are proud that Britain is an open, welcoming country. They believe that highly-skilled migrants have brought many economic and social benefits over the years. Hence, they are supporting "high-skill immigration to support key sectors of the economy, and ensure work, tourist and family visit visas are processed quickly and efficiently”. Rather than characterizing immigration itself as a problem, they would like to improve the deficiencies of the current system. The party proposes inspections, efficiency improvements and reviews aimed at restoring faith in the system. Among key measures, the Lib Dems acknowledge that international students contribute nearly £13 billion to Britain’s economy. Thus, the UK should aim to increase their numbers. In the recent refugee crisis, the Lib Dems believe the UK should be doing more to help thousands of refugees arriving in Europe every week, support the French to process asylum applications and provide decent standards of welfare and accommodation for refugees.
Immigration was a heated topic during the 2015 General Elections as well. Reflecting the public opinion, almost all British parties opted for tougher immigration policies and the reform of the current system. The Conservatives aimed to win the race for voters against the anti-EU and immigration UKİP party. Hence, under their plans benefits and entitlements would be reduced furthermore and the EU migrants’ rights of “free movement” would be re-negotiated with Brussels.
Germany
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) has historically been Germany’s third party. With Germany’s proportional electoral system and with no other potential coalition partner,s, the FDP historically acted as a potential coalition partner for both the conservative CDU and the social-democratic SPD. The FDP has historically tended to be a pro-European party, but the Eurozone crisis saw the party’s minoritarian soft Eurosceptic and ‘national liberal’ faction become increasingly vocal. In the last German federal elections in 2013, the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel won their best result since 1990., However, their coalition partner, the Free Democrats, failed to cross the 5% vote threshold in what was their worst showing ever in a federal election, thus denying them seats in the Bundestag for the first time in the party’s history. The anti-immigration factor seems to have had a significant role in reducing the party’s overall support, as the FDP lost support from those who are in favour of more restrictive immigration policies. The Free Democrats are supporting moderate immigration and also campaigned in the 2015 elections to allow immigrants to naturalize sooner and for new German citizens to keep their citizenship of birth as well.
Germany's presently governing coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD is aware of the need to modernize the country's approach to high-skilled immigration. But divisions among the parties are apparent. In 2015, the Social Democrats were calling for an immigration law that would control the influx of workers from non-EU countries with the help of a point system, similar to that in Canada. Selection would be oriented according to age and education, as well as the demand for skilled workers. The Canadian model had already been proposed by the Liberals once they were still in government. Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, cut the debate short, saying the refugee issue is more urgent. Germany by far the most popular destination for asylum seekers in the EU, drawing 203,000 claimants last year and expecting 800,000 this year and Merkel is pushing for binding quotas for the distribution of refugees across Europe.
Denmark
One of the oldest parties in Denmark, the Liberal Party of Denmark (Venstre) is rooted in the liberal tradition emphasizing individual freedom, free markets and liberalization of business, but is more centre-right, embracing both conservative and liberal ideologies. After the 2015 general elections, Denmark faces its weakest single party minorıty government in four decades after talks to form a rightwing coalition finally collapsed. The Liberals pledged to govern alone, even though they took less than 20% at the general elections. The main election winner was the populist and anti-immigrant DPP, which became Denmark’s second largest party with more than 21% of the vote. During the past 15 years DPP succeeded in shifting Danish politics markedly to the right. DPP leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl has opted to stay out from a Liberal-ruled coalition in order to be more influential and to remain untainted by unpopular decisions.
While the DPP is trying to push the reintroduction of strict border controls to prevent movement of migrants, the new liberal Prime Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen pledged to maintain Denmark’s status as a member of the Schengen group of nations, which has no internal borders. After forming the new government in July, the Liberals outlined a new policy platform that seeks to nurture economic recovery by tightening immigration laws and cutting benefits for refugees. The Liberals will also seek to deny permanent residence to those immigrants who do not speak Danish or have a job. The Danish government has placed advertisements in Lebanese newspapers aimed at deterring potential migrants and trying to decrease the number of refugees entering the country: Denmark has already opted out of the EU's resettlement programme for asylum seekers.
The other Danish ALDE member organization, the Social liberal Party’s (Det Radikale Venstre, Radical Left) ideology is social liberalism and their political position is centrist to centre-left, though they have been a prime motivator behind austerity measures during the recent crises. The party mixes Denmark’s most liberal views on immigration, multiculturalism and social attitudes with broadly centrist economic policies. It is heavily in favour of globalisation. Being a member of the former coalition government, RV is now in opposition.
Austria
The NEOS (The New Austria and Liberal Forum) is a newly founded movement which gained 9 seats in the Austrian Parliamentary Elections of September, 2013. The party is the most pro-European in Austria. In the European elections this May, NEOS campaigned on the slogan “We love Europe”. It is pro-immigration and supports same-sex marriage. It is also an advocate of moderately low taxes and free market policies.
Extreme, anti-immigrant sentiments are, however, on the rise in Austria as well. This can easily be seen by the increasing vote for the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). In June 2015, the right-wing and populist FPÖ made significant gains in the elections in the states of Styria and Burgenland. In Burgenland, the governing Social Democrats (SPÖ) decided to enter a coalition with the far-right party. The FPÖ once again ran an anti-immigrant campaign, combined with anti-European Union (EU) demagogy. The party promoted slogans such as “new homes instead of new mosques” and “jobs for our folks”. FPÖ leader Hans-Christian Strache stated that his first priority once becoming chancellor would be to renegotiate EU treaties. The governing coalition parties, the social-democratic SPÖ and the conservative ÖVP, had nothing to combat the extreme right-wing campaign. On the contrary, they have largely adopted the FPÖ’s policies. The NEOS failed to make it into the two regional parliaments, which is partly viewed as the beginning of the end for the young party.
Czech Republic
ANO 2011 (Yes, Action of Dissatisfied Citizens) is a relatively new political movement, formed in a reaction to the unsatisfactory state of politics in the Czech Republic. It declares that it is focused on finding the solutions rather than promoting ideologies. As such, it is difficult to identify ANO’s place in the classic political spectrum. That applies also to its position to the European integration. The program for the EP elections had rather a pro-European tone. The party points to the common values and interests, which European countries share from the global point of view. According to ANO, membership of the Czech Republic in a stable and economically successful EU is one of the most important Czech national interests. ANO takes a positive stance towards the current setting of the EU immigration policy. The immigrants should be integrated to the society. In case of their successful integration, the immigration could represent a way to deal with the phenomena of a demographically shrinking population. It is, however, necessary to cooperate with the countries of origin to coordinate the legal immigration and prevent the illegal one. In the 2013 elections, the party gained the second largest support (18%) after the Czech Social Democratic Party.
The Czech Republic is not a direct target of a large movement of migrants from Syria and other political unstable countries. There is no domestic debate on radical Islamism, but still the far-right party “Usvit” (Dawn of Direct Democracy) is using anti-immigrant rhetoric. By winning 7% of the votes in the 2013 elections, it managed to enter the Parliament. In 2014, a major polling agency unveiled a survey showing that the majority of Czechs thinks there are “too many” foreigners in the country. This is despite the fact that the Czech Republic is one of the most ethnically homogenous states in Europe with fewer than 4% of the population being non-Czechs. On its website, Usvit calls for “a stricter immigration policy” that closes the EU’s door to “unadaptable immigrants and religious fanatics”.
In relation to the current refugee crisis in Europe, Finance Minister and Vice President, millionaire businessman and founder of the ANO party, Andrej Babis is demanding a NATO deployment to keep refugees out of the EU. All Visegrad Four (V4) countries, or the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, are opposed to the EC-proposed quotas for spreading refugees among EU states.
Italy
Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a center-left and anti-corruption political party, headed by former Mani pulite magistrate Antonio Di Pietro. The party is a supporter of legality, law and order, the police forces, federalism, corporate reform, lowering the costs of politics, improving the efficiency of public services and fighting corruption. The Italian Radicals are an Italian political party, which describes itself as a "liberale, liberista e libertario". They are vocal supporters of human and civil rights, which they consider to include abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, artificial insemination and legalisation of soft drugs. This puts the party at odds with the mainstream centre-right parties. On the other hand, their strong support of libertarian policies, the free market, liberalizations, privatizations, low taxes and privately funded health care put it at odds with the centre-left. In foreign policy, the Radicals are pro-American and pro-European. Both parties play only a marginal role in the extremely fragmented Italian political arena as they experienced decreasing electoral support through the 2000s .
Italy has seen an unprecedented surge of immigrants this year, with more than 170,000 rescued from rickety boats attempting to reach its southern shores from North Africa. More than one third of Italians now would vote for the anti-EU, anti-immigration “Northern League” led by Matteo Salvini. The shift in the public mood also might push mainstream parties to embrace more restrictive policies on integration, immigration and asylum. Mr. Salvini, who advocates Italy’s exit from the Eurozone, has become the nation’s loudest critic of Islamic “fundamentalists” He perceives an attempted military and cultural occupation being under way to occupy the West. In the 2013 elections, the Northern Legaue got 4,33% of the votes and entered the Parliament by becoming a part of Berlusconi’s centre-right oppositional coalition. According to data released by Istat, Italy's national statistics service, immigrants make up 8% of the country' s population. Although this is lower than the ratio in other European countries such as France (12%), Germany (9%), and the UK (15%), rising unemployment and a continuing economic crisis has been testing the tolerance of the population. Anti-immigration, anti-EU and anti-governmental demonstrations took place ın March 2015 fueled by the Northern league. Conservative politicians called for refugees to be sent back to Libya.
Spain
The UPyD (Union, Progress and Democracy) is a social liberal partythat rejects peripheral nationalism in all its forms including the separatist Basque and Catalan movements in Spain. The party also wants a federal system for Europe, where certain competencies should be transferred to the European level like immigration, energy polıcy or fiscal union. They state that the controlled immigration is good and necessary for Europe because of ıts demographıc structure. Moreover, a common EU migration policy is needed with strict respect for international law and human rights, applied under equal conditions across the EU territory in its entirety. The party's former leader Rosa Diez emphasized the importance of the integrating programs as language courses, Spanish cultural, constitutional and legal knowledge courses and the fight against the improper treatment of immigrants. On the other hand the party is in favour of higher immigration control arguing that border fences of Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish exclaves in Africa, have to be protected by treating illegal immigrants with sensitivity and humanity. The party believes that the Civil Guard should stop illegal immigrants and legally repatriate them to their countries of origin or return them to the country which they entered from without violating their human rights. In the last 2011 elections, UPyD reached 4,3% of the votes. Heading now for the 2015 elections, polls show a declining support for the party. The CDC (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia) is usually considered as a Catalan nationalist party. The Spanish media perceive it as a moderate nationalist force that takes more or less the position of a center social liberal party in Catalan politics. The party is in favour of Catalan independence. They are fighting for the support of immigrants with the promise of double citizenship, the acceptance of Islam and non-discrimination of other languages.
The immigration situation has been worsened in Spain as well, as the number of migrants caught trying to enter the country illegally rose by almost 70% in 2014 compared to the previous year.
According to figures recently announced by the Spanish interior ministry, the number of people detained while attempting to enter the country illegally in 2014 was 12,549, a large increase on the 2013 figure of 7,472. The centrist-conservative ruling People’s Party (Partido Popular) is fighting against immigration by passing a law which allows for “rejection at the border”.The country is to spend more than €2.3m in order to fortify the borders that divide its territories of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. The government backs the border controls and considers a modification of the Schengen treaty, because the existing mobility in the EU is facilitating the movements of jihadists to any country. To combat these waves of migration, Spain turned to summary deportation in violation of EU law and despite strong criticism by human rights activists. Spain's government originally resisted the Commission's quota system that Spain take a smaller number of refugees on the grounds that its 22 percent unemployment rate limited its absorption capacity, but made a U-turn in 2015 September because of public pressure. Mariano Rajoy, the president of the Spain, has confirmed that his government will accept the 15, 000 figure, the Commission asked to take. Spain’s autonomous Catalonia region said it is eager to take in more refugees from the war in Syria, while criticizing the central government in Madrid for being too restrictive and miserly over accepting refugees.
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