"I Don't Have Any Choice": Forced Prostitution in Sicily

3 May 2014

My job for today was to drive to Mineo – the notorious refugee camp I wrote about yesterday. After having breakfast and writing the article on Greece, I left Catania at around 11.30 for the 50km trip. The road was quite busy, and it wasn’t long before I saw the first African prostitutes by the side of the road. I called Alex and wanted to ask her whether what I had in mind was a good idea. Part of me probably thought that I may be putting myself in a dangerous situation. The other part of me wanted his fiancée’s approval to allow a prostitute into his car. Alex told me that I had nothing to lose. So, after a few kilometres I saw another woman approaching and decided to pull over. I asked her whether she speaks English, and whether she would be willing to speak with me about her life here in Italy. She was happy to do so, and got into my car.

Residenca degli Aranci in the middle of fruit farms

The 21-year old girl was from Nigeria and had come to Italy nine months ago, arriving by boat. She vividly described to me how the waves had crashed over her boat six times, and that she is lucky to be alive. She kept saying how powerful God is. She left Nigeria because she had known a “girlfriend” in Sicily who promised her a job in an old woman’s house – but when she arrived, she was forced into prostitution by that same girlfriend. “I don’t have any choice,” she said and I can still hear those words ring very clearly in my head. After spending three months in Sicily, she also moved to Genoa in the north of Italy. It was far more difficult to do “streetwork” there, so after three months in Genoa, she came back to Sicily. She has no documents and no money. All the money she earns on the side of the road she submits to the woman who ‘employs’ her. When I heard this story I felt totally helpless. I simply didn’t know what to do or say. Before she left I prayed for her and handed her a little bit of money, which she said she would keep as a gift from me, rather than give it to her pimp. I really don’t know whether I did the right thing.

I drove on, even though I was still completely in thoughts about what I had just heard. I had no idea where the Residence degli Aranci was located, so I drove up a hill, helping me to spot the place immediately. Being situated in the middle of endless lemon and orange fields the former US army base stood out like a false penny. I drove towards it through seemingly infinite rows of fruit trees, noticing immediately a crowd of Africans standing outside the gates as I approached the camp. About 30 cars were parked by the side of the road for reasons unknown to me. The entire facility is high militarised. There was a Humvee patrolling the barbed wire fences, and dozens of soldier equipped with machine guns stood at all corners of the camp. Remember that Mineo is not a detention centre, but a “Housing”-facility, as the roadsigns on the way had politely reminded me of. From a distance, I have to admit, the Residence looked very pleasant. The houses actually appeared American rather than Italian, and they did not seem older than 10 years. However, a closer look revealed the reality behind this façade: many of the houses did not have functioning windows, and often they were boarded up. I tried to enter the camp, but was referred to the authorities in Catania which may or may not provide me with an authorisation to enter.

Seemingly idyllic

At around 15.15 I decided that I needed to speak with people. The first guy I spoke with had just returned from Catania with two dozens of lemonade bottles and some fruits. He wasn’t very approachable though, and his English was limited. Then I got into a conversation with three guys who spoke Arabic between themselves, and they told me a few things about the camp which were very interesting. The first thing they all complained about was the food. Apparently a daily meal consists of nothing other than pasta with oil. The camp’s clinic is primitive, which one of the guys evidenced by showing me badly scarred wound on his ankle. Rooms are usually shared with seven other people, meaning that up to 24 people live in the same building. Everyone who lives at the camp has ID card that allow him or her to enter the premises. The ID card of one of the guys I spoke to said that he had arrived about a year ago. The ID card number, which is specific to the Mineo camp, ran into the 8400s. However, apparently some people had been there for over three years. If you leave the camp for more than three days, you are “dismissed,” meaning that you cannot come back. Although you are an asylum seeker, you will then have to live in the streets. Life inside must be horrible. The high population density, lots of young men with nothing to do, and the melange of sometimes hostile nationalities is fertile ground was constant clashes and confrontations. Only last week, I was told, a guy hung himself. Drugs evidently form one way out of this situation. Two out of four guys I spoke with were clearly under the effects of drugs. As the residents have little or no money, cigarettes form the currency of Mineo. They can be used to be something different to eat.

As we were chatting, a group of around twenty young men approached the camp and eventually walked past us towards the gates of the camp. “They are coming back from work,” I was told. Apparently the vast majority of people who live at Mineo work in the lemon and orange farms that are surrounding the camp from all directions. Although the people work all day, three different people confirmed that the salaries amount to only €15 per day. I had noticed on the way that one of the farms advertised its organic production methods. I became acutely aware that while there is a European organic label, there is no way of knowing whether a fruit or a vegetable was produced with the help of irregular workers. We seem to worry more about the mistreatment of animals than about the exploitation of human beings.

One of the first things one of the guys told me he was actually born in Barcelona. “I am not African, I am European. I am European Union!” While I am a proponent of open borders, I would also want Africans thinking about migrating to Europe to know that the ‘European dream’ has in many cases turned into the nightmare of forced prostitution and inhumane refugee camps. So far, I have never seen this exemplified more vividly than in Mineo.

The Greek Deal

Greece likes to see itself as an exceptional case. Think of the naming dispute with its neighbour in the north, or the paranoia about Turkish invasion causing an outrageously high military budget. In turns out that in matters of immigration, Greece too, forms an exceptional case. In the early 2010s, Greece has formed the hotspot of irregular immigration into the European Union. Hundreds of thousands of Africans, Afghans and Pakistanis live on Hellenic streets. It is impossible to find regular employment, and until recently, first-instance acceptance rates of asylum seekers had been less than 0.1%. Something was clearly very wrong in Greece.

Until last year, the Greek asylum system was managed and operated by the police. The police was responsible for the screening of all irregular immigrants, which means that regular police officers needed to ascertain the identity of all persons who crossed the border without passing through a border checkpoint. As was reported all over the press, Greece employed an extensive and relentless detention policy for so-called ‘illegal immigrants’. Hundreds of police stations all over the country served as temporary prisons for people who had committed no crime other than having crossed a border without valid documents. NGOs, the UNHCR and a countless number of institutions had condemned Greece for its inhumane policies. The vast majority of EU member states had furthermore suspended all so-called Dublin-transferrals, but the effects had been limited. Seeking asylum in Greece was either pointless or impossible. The police personnel that was responsible for asylum was both incompetent and hopelessly understaffed. The statements on first instance decisions were usually no longer than a page, and it was not seldom the case that people were queuing at police stations for days or weeks before they had a chance to ask for asylum.

The main offices of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens

In 2013 much of this changed. Greece set up a so-called First Reception Service which is took over the police’s role of screening irregular immigrants. They are still detained, but only for a couple of days until they are designated one of three labels: asylum seeker, humanitarian protection or illegal immigrant, with the vast majority being placed in the third category. Greece is a transit country. Hardly anyone really wants to apply for asylum. Furthermore, the Asylum Service was set up, staffed not by police officers but by civilians. Having been trained by the European Asylum Support Office, the Greek Asylum Service is far more competent than the police. Acceptance rates for first-instance decisions currently lie at 18% and are approaching the European average. Five regional asylum offices and one mobile unit have so far been set up in Athens, Thessaloniki, Orestiada, Rhodes and Lesbos. Clearly, this is progress, but much remains to be done. I have seen the queue outside the Asylum Service’s headquarters myself, and given that the number of regional offices is limited, access to the asylum procedure has, if anything, become even more difficult. One needs to consider that Greece is a country composed of thousands of islands, over 200 of which are inhabited. Furthermore, the Asylum Service is hopelessly understaffed. Forty case workers currently assess asylum applications while eighty are required. Funding is insecure. The NGO Metadrassi provides interpretation services for the Asylum Service, but it is funded by European funds which are regularly and rigorously reviewed. The fact of the matter is that even though the Greek asylum system has undergone a radical reform, Dublin-transferrals to Greece have not been resumed.

So what happened in Greece? Why has the Greek government decided to overhaul its asylum policy? The first trigger for change was a decision of the European Court of Justice which condemned the abhorrent human rights situation in Greece. An asylum seeker who entered the EU through Greece yet sought asylum in the UK challenged the provision of the Dublin-Regulation which demands his transferral to Greece, claiming that his human rights would be infringed due to the inability of the Greek asylum system to handle asylum applications properly. Mr Saeedi won the case, but the Dublin-Regulation is the cornerstone of the European asylum system – preventing the large-scale arrival of African refugees in core Europe depends on the functioning of the Dublin-system which essentially creates an asylum buffer zone in the EU periphery. Several member states, and first and foremost the European Commissionincreased pressure on Greece to reform the asylum system. The responsible Commissioner Malmström travelled to Greece several times – the political pressure was immense, and it was finally the cause of the deal between the EU and the Greek government.

This deal foresaw that the EU would support the fortification and patrolling of the Greek borders, while the Greek government would reform its asylum system, partially with European money. Frontex is omnipresent – both at the Greek maritime border and on the small land border. I witnessed the presence of Frontex in Orestiada, and I have heard of their activities by a member of the Hellenic Coastguard. The Greek First Reception Service is 75%-funded by EU money, and the Asylum Service relies on the assistance of the European Asylum Support Office to achieve the kind of quality that is needed.

Now we come to the heart of the matter: the Dublin-Regulation, which determines that the member state of first entry is responsible for an asylum application, creates a disincentive for Greece to set up a proper, functioning asylum system. The Greek government has created an asylum service, but it remains incapable of granting everyone immediate access to the asylum procedure. This is because the government has in interest is preventing the re-launch of Dublin-transferrals to Greece. The Greek government can therefore use the Dublin-Regulation as a pawn to squeeze more money out of European funds. “Yes, as you can see, we have tried to set up an asylum system, but we just don’t have the money to do it properly! You want to have Dublin-transferrals to Greece? Sure! Just give us the money, and we will build the type of asylum system you want.” Greece has no problem with taking care of asylum seekers per se. It merely has a problem with paying for them. At the same time, the rest of the EU, and particularly the core member states, have an interest in reinstating Dublin-transferrals to Greece. The Dublin-Regulation guarantees that African and Middle Eastern refugees will not enter Germany, France or the UK in huge numbers.

The Greek strategy works – it is only a matter of time until more money will begin to flow into the Greek Asylum Service and the First Reception Service. I am convinced that the people who actually work there have only the best of intentions, but their agencies are used as pieces on the political chessboard that is the European asylum system.

You have now read a lot about European and Greek interests, but have you noticed something? At no point are the interests of the refugees themselves taken into consideration. At no point is the question raised, “How does what we’re doing affect them?” Let us hope that this mentality will eventually change.

The Mafia Connection

I said yesterday that today would probably give me lots to write about. In fact, I want to say so much that I am not sure where to start. I had three appointments today – one with the Italian Refugee Council, one with the Centro Astalli of the Jesuits, and a phone interview with a representative of the Greek asylum service. All three were very successful from the point of view of Harald the PhD student, and very troubling from the point of view of Harald the human being. Let me tell you what happened.

This morning I drove back into Catania at 9am, having no trouble at all with finding the IRC’s offices. In fact they share offices with the intercultural centre of the city of Catania, and I certainly felt like the attraction of the day when I entered the building. I don’t know why, but everyone stared at me and two girls were giggling in the corner when I sat down to wait for my appointment. The interview was very useful. I will not summarise every single detail, but essentially the situation is as follows: the agriculture of Southern Italy is entirely dependent on migrant workers. Both my interview partners confirmed that agriculture in Sicily would be “dead” without the cheap labour that immigrants provide. Agriculture in turn is managed by the mafia. It is therefore in the interests of the mafia to get immigrants to come to Sicily. One way this is apparently done is vividly demonstrated by an incident that occurred two years ago at the Italian maritime border. When a migrant boat from Egypt (!!) arrived at that border, the people on it were transferred into a different boat – the latter process was organised by people linked to the mafia. One of my interview partners said that he would not be surprised if the mafia manages the smuggling operations on the other side of the Mediterranean. But this is not were business ends.

Seemingly idyllic Sicilian scenery

About 50 kilometres from Catania there is a small town called Mineo. Although the town is in the middle of nowhere and hardly worth mentioning, it had gained a reputation among the Sicilians since it housed an American army base of about 400 soldiers. The US army had built a whole village for itself, including an entire infrastructure, villas and lots of pretty houses. A couple of years ago, the Americans abandoned the base and left behind a ghost town. The owner of the land the base was built on, an extremely rich man named Pizzarotti, was now in trouble. For years the Americans had paid insane amounts of rent, and now he was left with a worthless piece of land nobody would ever be interested in renting. That’s when he had the idea of converting the place into a camp for immigrants. Mineo now houses 4,500 people. As could be expected, Pizzarotti is notorious for being a Mafiosi himself. Every year the Italian government pays him hundreds of thousands of euros in rent for his property. Most shockingly of all, the Italian government pays with money from the European refugee fund – €37 per day per person. Spend ten seconds calculating in your head and you will begin to see what dimensions we are talking about. Initially the people who lived around Mineo were very upset about the relocation of the refugee camp to their doorstep. Now, they have begun to base their livelihoods on it. Hundreds of people are either employed in the camp itself, or they live off it indirectly by selling food to the residents. Officially the place is called Residenze dei Aranci – Residence of Oranges.

After this meeting I went to the Centro Astalli. It is an amazing institution that provides help for immigrants of all kinds. Many immigrants avoid submitting their fingerprints to the Eurodac-database, because it will ruin their chances of applying for asylum in another EU member state according to the Dublin-Regulation (in most cases anyway). However, this also means not having access to many basic services such as receiving medication. In Sicily, everyone has to right to essential care at public hospitals, but medication costs money. That’s why the Centro Astalli provides all kinds of meds for free, including anti-retrovirals antibiotics. Assistance is also provided for people suffering from alcoholism, which is increasingly wide-spread because people are sleeping outdoors in the cold. Although the centre is run by Jesuits and there were crosses on the walls, I also saw posters with the Islamic prayer times on the walls.

One of the most shocking things the lady who showed me around told me also concerns Mineo. Some criminals have made it a business to drive the residents to Catania and back, expecting money in return. Money is obviously something immigrants lack, which is why the drivers often ask for alternative means of payment. There have been numerous incidents involving prostitution. Furthermore, the drivers will ask the Mineo residents to smuggle drugs back into the camp. This is another way that immigration has benefitted the Sicilian mafia.

After I left, I walked for a bit around town. At the train station there were immigrants sitting on every single bench, many of them no older than 15. At the IRC I was told that 300 unaccompanied minors had recently escaped from a nearby ‘reception’ centre. Of course, 300 people do not just escape – it is obvious that the authorities who were theoretically responsible for protecting them let them leave, knowing very well that this would result in their homelessness.

The amount of human suffering here is difficult to grasp. I remember being in the European Commission a year ago, being told by someone working in the asylum unit that the Italians exaggerate about their problems with immigration. She pointed to the statistics, which show that the number of asylum applications on Italy is totally normal for a country of that size. It is obvious that the people in the Commission have no idea what they are talking about. Spend fifteen minutes in the city centre of Catania or Palermo and you will know that this problem is real.

I’ll stop for today. The phone interview I had with the Greek asylum service was so insightful that it merits a post of its own, which I will write later.

"You Don't Actually Pay for Parking..."

1 May 2014

Okay, whatever I had planned for today, it didn’t work out. I left my hostel for Palermo quite early in the morning, making sure I’d be on time. When I arrived at the accommodation centre, no one was there. But let me tell you what else I experienced. It turns out that after all, this day wasn’t totally worthless.

Driving in Sicily is a nightmare. If there is a traffic jam, the two lanes on a dual carriageway will quickly turn into four – cars will even block the emergency lane. I nevertheless drove successfully into the city centre of Palermo, which turned out to be quite different from what I had expected. Forget what I wrote yesterday about Greece and Sicily being not very different from one another – they are. One of these differences concerns the mafia. Apparently

it is everywhere. A number of shops in Palermo have stickers in their windows though, saying “Pizzo Free,” which means that they do not pay the mafia. I had my own experience with…irregular authorities this morning when I parked my rental car. As soon as I turned off the engine, a black man started walking towards me. I asked him, “Is parking okay here?”

“Yes, of course,” he replied. “But how much do you want to give us?”

“How much is it per hour.”

“Well, you don’t actually pay for parking.”

“Okay, so what do I owe you then?”

“It depends on how much you want to give.”

Islamo-Christian architecture in Palermo

I was slightly confused, and handed the man two euros, hoping that this would be enough to avoid any damage to my car, for which I don’t really have insurance by the way. When I got out of my car, the guy was very happy to speak to me though, and I found out his name and that he had come to Italy from Ghana seven years ago. He usually lives in Milan, but had recently moved to Palermo because he found it easier to find “days jobs” there. He told me that the north of Italy is very industrial, while the south is more rural, and thus better suited for people like him. When I enquired what kinds of ‘day jobs’ he meant, he talked about “helping with parking” and agricultural jobs. Now I was onto something – this is what I had come for.

The guy told me that Africans work in Sicilian agriculture because it relies on the use of manual tools rather than tractors. Africans have experience with sickles and gathering fruit. I was very curious about how much people are paid, and after some hesitation, I was told that a day’s work earns one between €20-30. According to the man I spoke to, Italians have a strange attitude towards black people, and that they are not like Germans. An Italian would easily get €50 for the same amount of work.

The more we spoke, the angrier another guy near the parking space seemed to become. He started walking towards us, and turned out to be the Ghanaean’s boss. That’s when our conversation ended. The guy I spoke to was very warm to me and kissed me goodbye.

I started walking towards the accommodation centre, and I am not exaggerating when I say that about a quarter of the people on the street were either black or Indian. I quickly noticed that Palermo has an Islamic past. Many of the road signs are written in Italian (both with Latin and Hebrew letters) as well as in Arabic. I walked through a street market whose smells and sounds reminded me very much of the Middle East. Huge fly-infested chunks of meat hung from butcher’s hooks, and people were selling chunks of swordfish by the kilogram. I bought a few bananas and walked on. I reached the Piazza de Quaranta Martiri after asking a few people for directions. This is where the Jesuit accommodation centre was supposed to be, yet I saw no signs that would indicate this to be the case. I called the centre, and heard a telephone ring somewhere. I was at the right place, but no one picked up the phone. Eventually I found a doorbell that said Centro Astalli on it. I rang, and a minute later a black man stepped on a balcony and asked me who I want to speak with. I asked for Emmanuel, only to be told that no one is working today because it’s a public holiday. Great.

Because driving off to Catania, I decided to make the most of it and walk around the city. Sicily was an Islamic emirate for two centuries after the year 1000. Around 1200 the island was invaded by the Normans, who turned out to be surprisingly tolerant towards the Muslims. A unique blend of Moorish and Norman architecture was the result of this intercultural period of history, the traces of which can still be found in Palermo today. I visited a church that was designed according to Islamic architectural principles, with domes and all. It turns out that the Southern Balkans and Sicily do have similarities after all. Both regions share an Islamic cultural heritage. I am sure that Muslim immigrants appreciate this heritage, finding it somewhat easier for them to feel at home than in the cold European north.

After my walk I started driving to Catania. At many traffic lights dozens of Indian-looking men waited to clean people’s windshields – I guess this is another one of these ‘day jobs’. Sicily is a very green and mountainous island. Right now I am at the base of Mount Etna, the famous volcano. I had never seen a volcano before. Tomorrow I have lots to do, and probably lots to write about again…

Arrival in Sicily

30 April 2014

I have arrived in Sicily. This is my final research trip, and it will hopefully conclude the impressions I had been gathering from the Southern border of the European Union. I have a lot of plans here, although the thing that currently preoccupies my mind are the unpleasant effects of some kind of gastrointestinal problem, the details of which I will spare you. I am going to visit two Jesuit accommodation facilities for asylum seekers in Palermo and Catania, and I will interview someone from the Italian Refugee Council. The people who work at refugee councils are often extremely well-informed, being able to give you inside information on the problems of asylum seekers that are impossible to find anywhere else. On Friday I am also going to have a phone interview with an employee of the Greek asylum service. My plan of speaking with fruit farmers and their migrant workers may turn out to be difficult to implement. I have noticed already that there may be unsurmountable language barriers. Nevertheless, I will try to do my best by driving around the Sicilian countryside.

I had been to Italy many times before, although never to the South. My knowledge of Sicily was limited to the TV-series Montalbano, to the few scenes in the Godfather, and to a documentary I remember about the ‘Moorish’ traces found in Sicilian architecture. So when I arrived here, I was very surprised. The terrain is extremely mountainous, and there is far more vegetation than I thought. Another thing: the contrast between here and Northern Italy could hardly be any starker. Sometimes the resemblance to Greece is stunning. You see unfinished construction everywhere, and pavements that are apparently not meant for people to walk on. There appears to be a garbage problem, as evidenced by vast amounts of black garbage bags you often find piling up next to trash cans. Driving is more stressful than in Greece. There are ports and harbours everywhere, and lots of people are selling fruits, vegetables and fish by the side of the road. The houses are very cute, colourful and they usually have lots of little balconies attached. There is far less tourism than I had expected. I have had pizza from two different places, and was rather disappointed both times.

I will keep you posted. Tomorrow’s visit to an accommodation centre in Palermo should be interesting. Hopefully I will be able to speak with refugees as well.

Greece

4 April 2014

My stay in Athens represents the second part of my field research. The reasons for my stay here are twofold: first of all, I have family here. Secondly, during my attempt to acquire authorisation for visiting the detention centre in Orestiada, I came across a high-level employee of the newly established Greek first-reception service, which is of course located in Athens. The person concerned was kind enough to offer me an interview, which I gladly accepted.

Greece is not just any European country. With a population of just 10 million, it is far smaller than the average member state, representation merely 2% of the EU-population. Nevertheless, the country has dominated international headlines because of its sovereign debt crisis that was caused by skyrocketing interest rates following the financial crisis of 2008. Severe austerity measures, arbitrary tax increases, ineffective governance and a corrupt political elite have brought the country into a situation, where unemployment has soared to 25%, where a highly militant, radical neo-Nazi party has enjoyed great popularity (up to 15% in the polls), and where the economy has been in severe recession for nearly half a decade. On top of all that, Greece has also been the hotspot of irregular migration into the EU. No country has been in the press more the Greece when it comes to the undignified treatment of migrants. My research agenda here was very open. I wanted to know about the relationship of the Greek asylum system with the EU, and about the experience of asylum seekers of European integration.

I have been here for two days now, and some of the insights I have gained have indeed been very interesting. When I arrived on Wednesday, I had an interview at night with the employee of the first-reception service I spoke about earlier. I found out that since last year, the structure of the Greek migration management system has undergone a radical transformation. Until last year, the police was responsible for the first reception of all ‘illegal immigrants’ as well as for asylum applications. Now, two new services have been set up.

Firstly, there is the first-reception service, which screens irregular migrants. Screening means determining whether an irregular migrants is an asylum seekers, a vulnerable person, or a non-asylum seeker. About 80% of irregular migrants are part of the third group. All members of this group should in theory be brought to so-called ‘pre-removal centres’ where they wait to be deported. These centres are the most notorious aspects of Greek migration management, and there are numerous reports about human rights abuses in these facilities. Most non-asylum seekers arrive without papers, which is why nationality determination is an essential aspect of screening. Nationality is determined by asking questions about a migrants’ supposed hometown, and by listening to her accent. Recently a large number of Syrians has arrived in Greece, most of whom similarly do not apply for asylum. Nevertheless, as a war wages in Syria, they cannot be sent back home, which is why they are released, often leaving Greece for applying for asylum in another EU member state. I was somewhat confused by this, as the Dublin-procedure would foresee for these migrants would have to be sent back to Greece. However, when I asked my interviewees about that, they simply said that this does not fall within their responsibility. Another aspect of screening is a medical check-up. The vast majority of migrants is vaccinated to prevent a public health threat to the EU. Refusal to be vaccinated would result in quarantine, although this apparently has not occurred. Furthermore, Greece is overwhelmingly regarded as a transit country. This is not an official statistic, but up to 90% of Greek irregular migrants have no intention whatsoever of staying in Greece. This sheds some light on why the number of asylum applications in Greece is very low. The first-reception service is 80%-funded from the EU, which may imply that it was the EU that pushed for Greece to change its migration management.

The high-level employee of the first-reception service told me that another service had been set up to deal with asylum applications: the asylum service. This was my next clue. I have tried without success to arrange an interview with that service, but I and Alex did a little excursion to the service’s headquarters which is located right next to Greece’s national police headquarters in Athens. I was told that in the morning there is a long queue of asylum seekers outside the asylum service’s offices. When we arrived we saw an Iranian couple who were rejected at the entrance to the building, even though they arrived well within the opening hours. We immediately called the attention of the service’s security employees, because I took a photo through the fence. However, I calmed them down, and told them that I had already spoken with someone inside over the phone to arrange an interview (which was indeed the case). An employee who I had unsuccessfully tried to call earlier that day came out of the building, and we were lucky enough to be able to chat with her for a good fifteen minutes. It is much easier to remember a conversation when two people try to do so, and with Alex’s help I was able to reconstruct most of what was said. It turns out that since the asylum service had been set up in early 2013, it became the only route in Greece to apply for asylum. The police was no longer responsible, and the asylum service has only a few officers. The person we spoke to acknowledged that this makes it more difficult for people to apply for asylum, although the service is currently in the process of setting up more offices. When you beat the queue to get into the office in Athens, it does not mean that you will have the chance to apply for asylum. All it means is that you will be able to receive information about how the process works. An asylum application requires the presence of an interpreter, which is difficult to arrange, especially in more remote locations. An NGO called Metadrassi is used to provide interpretation, and teleconferencing can sometimes help to overcome logistical problems. All in all, I had the impression that the employee from the Greek asylum service was sincerely interesting in protection – this is a good thing. However, I also began to understand where the complaints that not every irregular immigrant in Greece has the chance to apply for asylum may come from. I now had a further clue – Metadrassi. What kind of organisation is this? Why pays them, who set them up, and did they also support the police?

I was to get the answers to all these questions the following morning on the phone. Metadrassi is an NGO that was set up to give asylum seekers the possibility of applying for asylum through providing interpretation services. The person on the phone acknowledged that Greece had been condemned for human rights abuses for not allowing people to apply for asylum. Metadrassi intended to change this situation. The NGO also worked with the police, but apparently there were some problems and this cooperation seized. Cooperation with the new asylum service is apparently much smoother, as the asylum service apparently does ‘real work’. Metadrassi receives its funds mostly from the EU, employing 200 active interpreters who can translate from thirty different languages.

I have to say that I am left with more questions than I had when I arrived:

·       The Greek asylum system is taken out of the hands of the police – why? This question I could answer by speaking to the police. I have made arrangements for an interview to take place.

·       Is it really true that the police is no longer responsible? The person I spoke to at the first-reception service used to work in the prison system, and had a police email address. Perhaps the police mentality persists. Again, the police may be able to help here. I could also speak to the first-reception service once more.

·       In the last couple of years the migratory routes have changed, and Greece receives far less irregular migration. This has to do mostly with the smugglers. But why have the smugglers changed their routes? If the Greek police or even Frontex had attempted to cause the smugglers to change their routes, this would be a major international scandal. Speaking to the police/Frontex would probably not tell me anything, and I would have to speak with the smugglers themselves. I don’t have the first clue for how to do that though.

·       Why does the Greek government attempt to screen every irregular migrant? Is Frontex here to make sure of that? Who requested Frontex’s presence? It is not in the Greek interest to screen migrants, as this means that Greece is responsible for their potential asylum applications. Clearly, the EU has put pressure on Greece to screen migrants, and perhaps Frontex is here to supervise this process. Interviewing Frontex officers might answer these questions.

Tomorrow I have an interview with someone from a Greek immigrants’ organisation, with the former head of the Greek coast guard in the Aegean, and I am also planning on visiting an accommodation centre for asylum seekers.

The Cynics Win: European Asylum Policy 130 Deaths Later

Hundreds of dead refugees on Europe’s shores on a single day should give us cause to reflect on the basic principles of the European asylum policy, but cynics would not be disappointed if they heard the responses of our policy-makers today. “Can we do more? Sure, but that’s the member states’ responsibility,” says a spokesman of Home Affairs Commissioner Malmström. “Be under no illusion,” he continues, “it is not realistic to think that every tragedy, every death in the Mediterranean can be avoided. We are neither naïve nor too idealistic.” Between 1993 and October 2012 there have been 17,306 documented refugee deaths along the borders of Europe. This week this is already the second incident. Is it idealistic to think of a different Europe that does everything in its power to save those lives? The mass grave that the Mediterranean has become is the price that the European Union and its member states are willing to pay to prevent refugees from ever crossing our borders.

Bulgaria's border with Turkey

I have to say I did not mean to start this post like this. The issue that I want to talk about is another, even though it is closely related. Alex, me and our dog Napoleon have recently driven all the way to Greece, crossing Romania and Bulgaria on the way. Although both countries have been members of the EU for some time, we have had to show our ID-cards at the border, as they have not been permitted to enter the Schengen Area. Last week it has been France that has voiced its opposition the loudest, although Germany has been equally vocal. Ever wondered why? Well, it seems that some journalists have come to some very insightful conclusions on the matter. Reuters links it to a supposed “new influx of immigrants if Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are allowed to travel freely without passports in the Schengen zone.” France24 thinks immediately of a potential Roma-issue, ignoring that the border between Romania and Hungary poses no frontier to EU-citizens, which the Roma in question clearly are. In reality the reason for the Franco-German veto is to be found elsewhere, and it becomes quite apparent when one looks at the map of Europe. At the moment, the Schengen Area has only one border with Turkey, via which a large part of Europe’s irregular immigrations currently enter the EU, and that border is with Greece. From Greece, one has to either take a ferry to Italy, which is next to impossible for a refugee without being spotted, or one needs to attempt crossing another border illegally. If Romania and Bulgaria were to join Schengen, one could easily travel to the EU-core without the need for any further hassle. Keeping Romania and Bulgaria out of Schengen avoids such a scenario.

In 1996 Sarah Collinson wrote about the construction of a European asylum buffer zone. In 2013, this buffer zone has, for the most part, been realised. In this case, a buffer zone is created by the unfounded and systematic exclusion of Romania and Bulgaria from the Schengen Area. Greece is thus deliberately cut off from the mainland EU, preventing irregular migrants from reaching the European core. The only way for irregular migrants into legality is an asylum application, as regular immigration requires either a rich country’s passport or a job in the EU with an income of over €60,000. If an asylum application is finally submitted, the Dublin-Regulation establishes that in many cases an asylum application needs to be handled by the member state of first entry into the EU. To verify which member state that is, the fingerprints of every irregular migrant are taken upon first contact with public officials. The idea behind these rules is that if an immigrant is able to illegally enter a member state’s territory, it is that same member state’s responsibility to deal with them, and to finance and lodge them while their application is processed. If you have an external border, you thus want to do everything in your power to prevent asylum seekers from entering your territory. I have had this confirmed by an official from within the Commission during my PhD research, whose name I cannot give here. The European Commission says that it can do nothing, that it is up to the member states to create a more humane asylum system. This is a fallacy. The Dublin-Regulation, which the Commission itself has proposed, is in part responsible for the ever-increasing fortification of the EU. The Dublin-system has to end, and it is the role of the Commission to propose an alternative.

Next weekend, at the party congress of the Saxon SPD, I will have five minutes to speak on a substantial reform of the European asylum system along the lines of a previous blogpost. I had drafted a proposal on this, which has now been submitted the party in the name of the working group “Migration and Diversity” of the Saxon SPD. If the proposal is accepted, it will be forwarded to the national party congress, where it will again have to be presented. Wish me good luck that things are going to work out. If this all works out as planned, it could really make a difference.

Harald Köpping

Collinson, S. (1996). Visa Requirements, Carrier Sanctions, 'Safe Third Countries' and 'Readmission': The Development of an Asylum Buffer Zone in Europe. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21 (1). 76-90.

Should Europe Grant Snowden Asylum?

Edward Snowden’s revelations about the United States‘ extensive espionage programme have caused shock and irritation throughout Europe. Not only were billions of European text messages, phone calls and emails tapped systematically by the American secret service, but bugs were installed in the European diplomatic representations in Washington and New York. The question of whether or not the role of the EU in foreign policy ought to be taken seriously or not, has been answered.

Edward Snowden

Snowden’s whistleblowing has caused an eruption of arguments about granting him asylum in the European Union. Supposedly, one must not allow the Russians to instrumentalise the scandal for their own benefit, missing an opportunity to award someone who has done a great service to Europe. Offering Snowden asylum would furthermore cause a problematic situation for Russia, which would find it difficult to justify keeping him in Russia much longer. Nevertheless, I think granting Snowden ‘asylum’ would be a fundamentally misled move for Europe, and here’s why:

First of all, Europe would clearly employ double-standards if it was to grant Snowden shelter. Would we care about the case at all, if Snowden revealed that the NSA is spying on China? We might actually be grateful about the additional intelligence. The only reason why the case is of concern to us is because it affects Europe. If principles rather than double-standards where employed, all persons wanted by the Americans for treason are potential asylum applicants in Europe.

Secondly, I am somewhat annoyed by the media’s use of the word ‘asylum’. The Geneva Convention on Asylum defines a refugee in the following manner:

“A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”

The United States is a democratic country, with one of the longest democratic traditions and one of the best constitutions in the world. No group is systematically persecuted, and the US is certainly no totalitarian state. Edward Snowdon voluntarily worked for an agency whose job it is to keep secrets. He knew that if he accepts this job, breaching the terms of his contract may be considered treason. This is not unique to the US, but it is the case in pretty much all states. Snowdon does not suffer from persecution, and granting him asylum would not only go against the Geneva Convention on the matter, but it would be an insult to all those refugees who come to Europe in a serious need for protection.

Nevertheless, the relationship between the EU and the US needs to be reconsidered. While the cultural, economic and geostrategic ties between the two regions are undeniable, there are limits to the strains that can be put on the alliance. The European Commission is currently in the process of negotiating the transatlantic free-trade agreement, which would create the largest FTA in the world. While this FTA clearly serves the purpose of entrenching the hegemonic position of Europe and America in the global political economy, both Europe and America may nevertheless benefit from it immensely. Pressure ought to be put on the US by putting these negotiations on halt until Obama has issued a public statement clarifying the accusations. The US needs to apologise to its closest ally, and an agreement between Europe and America preventing hidden mutual surveillance is needed.

I personally don’t like Snowden very much. He betrays his country, publishes secret information in the name of transparency, goes to semi-authoritarian Russia, and then allows the Russian government to instrumentalise the scandal for its own benefit (anyone else think of Depardieu?). Granting him asylum in Europe ought to be out of the question.

Harald Köpping

Pitfalls of Austerity Part I: A Misdiagnosed Crisis

Yesterday the European Commission gave its annual recommendations for the member states’ economic policies. Barroso said, that “Europe must move beyond the crisis.” Policy proposals focus on growth, rather than austerity, allowing several member states to take more time to cut their deficits. The EU’s executive celebrated the reduction of countries suffering from severe deficits from 24 to 16 since 2011, calling on Germany to consider wage increases to boost domestic demand. Wow, it seems like the crisis is about to pass! Of course, at the same time the OECD reduced the eurozone’s growth forecase to -0.6% this year, down from -0.1% six months earlier.

Barroso seems lost

The Commission is panicking, and it has got every reason to. The EU’s strategy to combat the crisis is failing, and calling the Commission’s proposals “a shift from austerity,” as EurActiv does, seems almost cynical. Giving the member states a few extra years to cut their deficits cannot seriously be called a policy shift, particularly as the proposal is met with resistance from the EU’s largest member state. Austerity should not be weakened a bit, as this would mean a mere extension of the policy – it has to be abandoned altogether. It is 2013, and austerity has been in place for four years without success. It seems necessary to spell out once more why austerity is a misguided, dangerous and hopeless policy that will lead Europe into an abyss that it might not recover from.

This post is the first of a series of blog posts discussing the fallacies of austerity. It draws heavily on an article by Robert Boyer on the subject. One of the major reasons for why austerity cannot work is because it is based on a false diagnosis of the roots of the crisis – Europe’s policy-makers are administering antibiotics against a virus. The underlying assumption behind austerity is that the crisis is caused by irresponsible public spending, when it has really the result of a private credit boom in the US.

The deregulation of the banking sector in the 1980s allowed for toxic subprime loans to be securitized by mixing them with high quality loans. It was thought that this would spread out the fallout risk of these loans to a minimum, allowing for a surge of private lending to the poorest fraction of Americans. Banks felt relieved of the responsibility related to the need for the careful selection of their debtors, and the real estate bubble was allowed to grow. The untaxed free global trade with financial products enabled these loans to be spread out to Europe in particular, and when the bubble burst, several EU member states became afflicted with excessive debt burdens as a result of having to bail out their ruined banks. The crisis is not the result of irresponsible public spending, but of a deregulated financial market. Spain even ran a budget surplus before the shock of 2008 as a result of its own booming real estate market.

Underlying Causes of Financial Deregulation

Growing inequality in the US in the late 20th century

The story of the crisis begins after WWII. Keynesian policies were adopted, allowing for a steady and sustainable growth pattern in the capitalist world over the post-War decades. Productivity and the mean incomes per household were rising. In the US of the late 1970s, the increase in productivity began to slow down, causing the wages for low-skilled labour to stagnate. Wages for in the services sector and in the high-tech industries on the other hand continued to increase, initiating the growth of the income gap. Initially governments were able to compensate for this trend by the establishment of extensive welfare systems, which were based on the solidarity of those with high salaries. In the 1980s, this assumed solidarity was quickly met with resistance, and governments began to finance their welfare system with cheap credit from their central banks. This caused public debt to grow radically. Public debt may thus be seen as the attempt to states to balance out the rising inequality in their societies.

The increasing importance of the financial sectors was due to the rising dependence of governments on debt, as well as to the use of the financial industries to compensate for the slowing growth figures of the manufacturing sector. Economic growth and high public spending could only be sustained by innovation in the financial sector – the deregulation of the financial ‘industry’ was seen as the most effective method to ensure its continuing growth. It is that deregulation that ultimately allowed for the emergence of the financial crisis of 2008 which triggered the implementation of austerity policies.

Structural Problems within the Eurozone

Polarization of trade surpluses/deficits in Europe

The finance-based growth of the post-1970s was exacerbated in Europe by the introduction of the euro. The introduction of a common currency under strict anti-inflationary regulations disallowed the member states from devaluing their currencies. When the euro was designed, policy-makers did not think of a compensating mechanism for this problem, and it was assumed that the price transparency linked to the common currency would drive the participating economies to convergence. Reality was quite different. Even before the introduction of the euro banknotes in 2002, the eurozone had begun to divide. Still faced with the effort to compensate for the rising inequality within their societies, the member states adopted different strategies to finance their welfare systems without increasing exports by devaluing their currencies. Germany adopted a deflationary low-wage policy, which has the same effect as a currency devaluation. This drove up Germany’s exports. Having no strong manufacturing sectors of their own, other member states focused on an imaginary credit-led growth, leading to the vast growth of their financial industries. When the real-estate bubble burst in 2008, these countries were particularly vulnerable.

Austerity is Fighting the Wrong Malady

The myth of irresponsible public spending is extremely superficial, and falls apart upon a minimum of close examination. As long as the European Commission does not fundamentally change its discourse and its policy recommendations on the crisis, Europe cannot recover. The re-regulation of the financial markets, and the establishment of a permanent European solidarity mechanism is of paramount importance to economic recovery and to the success of European integration. Austerity is not only destroying the economy, but it is translating the economic divisions of Europe into the hearts and minds of Europe’s citizens.

Harald Köpping

Also read: Boyer, R. (2012). The four fallacies of contemporary austerity policies: the lost Keynesian legacy. Cambridge Journal of Economics. 36. 283-312.

Marx vs Jesus? Why Christianity and Socialism Should Go Hand-in-Hand

I am a Christian, and I am a Socialist.

You may read those two statements with some bewilderment, and you may wonder – wasn’t it Marx who said that religion was the ‘opium of the people’? Doesn’t the ‘C’ in ‘CDU’ stand for Christian, and don’t most Christians vote conservative? While all these things may be true, I believe that Christianity and Socialism are, in fact, not mutually exclusive. I will argue that a coalition of Christianity and Socialism is not only possible, but desirable. I will now proceed to argue this claim from two perspectives – one philosophical, and one moral. It is then up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Capitalism and the Worship of Greed

Capitalism is more than a way to organise the political economy, it is, in fact, an ideology. The ideology of Capitalism presumes that we live in a world ruled by self-interest. The dynamic of the economy develops as the result of the greed and selfishness of every human being. Every decision is based on self-interest, and everyone is attempting to gain as much as possible for themselves. As a result, models can be developed, which attempt to predict human decisions. If we assume that every actor in a situation will always attempt to maximise their profit, human decisions become foreseeable. The natural world is bound to laws, and the behaviour of human beings too, is determined by laws. Capitalism thus views us like automatons in a machine – our behaviour is in essence no different from that of a computer, dictated by the algorithm of self-interest.

You may read this, and you may think that this is not too far from reality. The truth is though, that it removes the ability of human beings to make their own decisions. Free will becomes an illusion, implying that we can no longer be held accountable for our choices. Capitalism is the ultimate apology for greed, selfishness and pride, which Christians see as the worst of human vices.

Historically, Christians have debated intensely about the idea of predetermination. In fact, I have recently read the Epistle of the Ephesians, which seems to suggest that salvation is indeed predetermined (Ephesians 1, 5). However, why would God send prophets to Israel to warn them what would happen, if the Israelites did not change their ways? Why would Jesus call on us to have faith, and to show our faith through our actions, if we have no choice about it? Free will seems to be at the very heart of Christianity.

A machine-world that is pre-determined is alien to Christian theology, for it would portray God as unjust, having created the world knowing full-well that he would plunge us into misery. I can only believe in a just God, if he allows us to make our own choices. I therefore feel that Christianity is philosophically it odds with the logic of Capitalism, allowing me to embrace an idea that allows humanity to choose its own destiny.

Socialism and Christianity

There is something that has always struck me when I read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, where Luke often portrays a utopian society of believers. Private property does not seem to exist, for everything is shared out among the entire community:

“All the believers were together and had everything is common. They sold property to give to anyone who had need.” (Acts 2, 44-45).*

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claims that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. […] And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all, that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” (Acts 4, 32-35).

Other books of the New Testament also speak of a social responsibility of people who do well materially:

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written, ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little’.” (2 Corinthians 8, 13-15).

You may call me old-fashioned, but my definition of Socialism is very similar to the Biblical depictions of early Christian communities. Material success in a capitalist society depends on a number of factors. In our society, being male for example, and coming from a well-educated family, multiplies your chances of making lots of money.

Jesus as a Socialist?

Without the social protection provided by the state, far less people who take the risk of opening up a new business. The state provides social and material security, education and healthcare, and countless other benefits, and the material success of the rich is in part owed to the state, which is what justifies higher taxes for those who can afford to pay them. The Bible confirms Socialist morality with the verses mentioned above, and also with one of Jesus’ most famous statements: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” (Luke 6, 37).

For me as a Socialist, the long term aim of humanity should be to bring about the emancipation of every human being from all kinds of oppression. Humanity ought to escape the shackles imposed on it by capitalist determinism. Everyone should have to chance to live his life as he wants, and everyone should be able to use her gifts.

Even in the EU, which is the part of the world with the highest income-equality, this is not the case, and social mobility remains limited. On top of that, three billion human beings do not even have access to clean drinking water. I believe that the only way to provide for the fair distribution of resources is to authorise a central authority with that task – the state. By that I do not mean a Soviet-style undemocratic dictatorship, but a welfare state in which basic services are public property (such as energy, water, banking, traffic infrastructure, public transportation), and in which large private companies function as Mondragón style co-operatives. The implementation of this alternative way of organising society is what I believe the medium-term goal of Socialist parties in Europe should be. I believe that these goals are achievable and that they are in line with Biblical ideas. The establishment of the Socialist society can go hand in hand with following the guidance of Jesus.

Overcoming Old Misconceptions

Christianity and Socialism are two world-views that have remarkably similar political implications. Despite that, many Socialists have historically shown animosity towards Christianity, and vice versa. It often strikes me as hard to believe that Marx so radically misjudged the nature of Christianity by mistaking it for the nature of the Catholic Church. One of the major tasks of early Socialists was however indeed the emancipation from the bondage of organised religion. Socialists today have to beware not to equate the message of Jesus with that of the Church.

Christians, in turn, have to overcome their apathy towards politics. Charity is good, but it will not fundamentally alter the structural problems in human society that cause poverty and human suffering. It is only through political action that poverty can really be alleviated. It is heinous that Christian political engagement today is limited to debates about same-sex marriage, abortion and stem-cell research. The most important commandment of our Lord is to love our neighbour as we love ourselves – how can we follow that commandment without attempting to change the way our society is organised?

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (ESV – 1 John 3, 17)

I place great hope in political action that is inwardly fuelled by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and Christianity that is outwardly enriched by the political principles of Socialism. The antagonism that has long separated Christians and Socialists has got to be overcome.

Harald Köpping

*All quotes from Bible apart from one are taken from the New International Version.

EUtopia Lost? Thoughts on Austerity

I am truly worried about Europe. I am currently marking essays on the effects of austerity on the eurozone. Perhaps two out of 250 students wrote that deeper integration of the EU would be a way out of the crisis. As a Europeanist, I had always placed my hopes in my generation: a generation of travellers and exchange students, a generation that loves to learn new languages, a generation that experiences the achievements of European integration every day when they use the euro. I read today that particularly the youth of the European south is losing confidence in the European institutions. In France the majority believes that European integration has harmed the French economy. Austerity is devouring the backbone of this Union.

Europe's youth is becoming disillusioned

One would think that the idea of austerity as a means to resolve economic crises had been abandoned ages ago. John Maynard Keynes understood in the 1930s that times of crisis require programmes to boost the economy, and that do not suffocate it. Nevertheless, Europe has chosen the path of austerity. When Germany’s unemployment surpassed reached nearly 5 million in 2005 (11,4%), the Schröder-government introduced austerity measures to fight unemployment. Unemployment benefits were controversially cut quite radically, and the German welfare system received a serious blow. Nevertheless, the policy was afterwards justified by its success. Germany today has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, and it is among the few countries that have survived the crisis relatively unscathed. Following the German example of the 2000s, countries lacking an industrial base embraced austerity, thereby fulfilled conditions that allowed them to receive bail-outs from the IMF and the eurozone. Germany is competing with China over the title of being the world’s largest exporter. Its entire economy is built around exports. A policy that keeps wages low has the same effect as the devaluation of one’s currency. However, such policies only make sense if the economy is based on exports. The economies of the European south are based on domestic consumptions – austerity is bound to fail. The current German dominance in Europe is encouraging the application of a model that is not applicable to economies like those of Spain or Greece.

At the same time, unemployment skyrockets. Europe is largely a post-industrial region with the lowest fertility rate in the word. Never has there been a generation that is proportionally as tiny as mine. While 35% of the population were below 20 in 1950, today merely 20% are below 20. I am part of a small generation, but youth unemployment is higher than ever. Austerity has caused youth unemployment in Spain to skyrocket from 17% in 2007 to over 50% in 2013. Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland have experienced similar developments. The blame for this is inevitably and rightly directed at European leaders. Instead of regulating a banking industry that has caused the crisis in the first place, it was decided in the European Council to implement austerity measures that have crippled half the continent. The European Council is an intergovernmental institution that it dominated by the strongest member states, and most Europeans have no say about who leads those member states. There is a time for any emotion, and if you understand what is going on here, you have every right to feel frustration, helplessness, and also anger, against the incompetence, coldness and supposed hyper-rationality of the politicians of our time.

Youth unemployment in the EU

In the the Bible says that a people without vision are doomed. I had always thought that the unification of Europe could provide this vision - I see it not only as a vision for Europeans, but for all of humanity, because it proves that people can work together, and that national divisions are insignificant. This EU has no chance to survive unless its institutions are fundamentally reformed, allowing for a European government that is democratically elected by all Europeans. Austerity is not the choice of Europeans – democracy in the EU is also in crisis. Austerity turning the tides against European integration, and if you believe that the crisis is over, think again.

Harald Köpping