MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | Page 13

committed to social justice, solidarity, democracy and peace
need to inform about the social and ecological development
of tourism regions. The awarding of quality labels for sustain-
able development in tourism needs to be supported. Last but
not least, we advocate the drafting of an ‘Agenda 21 for Eu-
ropean Tourism’; this would raise the sustainability issue to
the European level and shift some of the responsibility away
from the business community and from individual consumer
initiatives. If translated into practice in Europe, this model of
sustainable tourism could also serve as a competitive strategy
and marketing advantage.
Migration – for an immigration policy
informed by human rights
OUR GOAL
The new Europe is aware of its position and responsibility as
an immigration region. The new Europe is particularly aware
of its role as a region that offers protection to people who are
persecuted or for various reasons displaced from their home
countries.
WE KNOW
In recent years, the international migration movements have
markedly increased both within regions, such as the EU, and
between continents. They have been characterised by intensive
interaction between global goods and capital markets, on the
one hand, and labour migration, on the other hand. Interna-
tional financial institutions, such as the IMF, exert direct influ-
ence on migration flows by pressuring the developing countries
to open their national economies to foreign enterprises or to
cut state subsidies.
This is paralleled in the rich countries by opposition to un-
desirable immigration combined with growing xenophobia (the
breeding ground for right-wing populist and extremist parties).
Immigration is being criminalised, and there is a lot of talk
about ‘illegal immigrants’, when referring to asylum seekers.
Borders are militarised; in the Strait of Gibraltar, for instance,
the ‘Sive’ radar surveillance system is supposed to stop Afri-
can migrants from crossing the Spanish border. Within the EU,
many countries have adopted the French system of deporta-
tion prisons. Currently there are plans to establish a safety belt
outside the Schengen borders and/or to grant trade conces-
sions to countries of origin so as to induce them to stem the
migratory tide at source.
The widening gap between poor and rich countries and
the sealing of borders against poverty and economic refugees
have caused a steep rise in illegal labour exports, in exports of
low-skilled, cheap labour in general, but also in sex workers.
According to UN findings, professional people smugglers, who
are by now globally organised, made 3.5 billion dollars annu-
ally, between 1990 and 2000. Women are particularly prone
to fall victim to illegal and semi-legal human trafficking. They
are channelled to the service sectors in the North as cheap
domestic helps, cleaners or private care givers or are sexually
exploited in the amusement industry.
As international development assistance is stagnating and
the developing countries continue to be caught in the debt
trap, racist attitudes adopted vis-à-vis refugees in the western
world escalate and the selection of immigrants by economic
criteria is tightened – see the idea of a European ‘Green Card’.
Poverty is no longer one of the grounds for granting asylum
in Europe. Not in all European countries are persecution and
discrimination on account of sex recognised as grounds for
asylum. This implies that human rights as well as the provi-
sions of the Geneva Refugee Convention, but most of all the
victims of organised crime, fall by the wayside. The situation
is exacerbated by the fact that rising protectionism goes hand
in hand with a lack of well-considered policies on how to inte-
grate the growing number of immigrants from the South (with
a view to improving their educational opportunities and their
qualifications for the labour market as well as their participa-
tion in cultural and political life).
WE DEMAND
Europe is an immigration region and the European nation states
are immigration countries. At the core of the migration policies
pursued by EU countries should be the significant part migrants
have to play in labour markets and in the cultural scene rather
than efforts to keep them out.
Economic deprivation is one of the principal causes of mi-
gration. Accordingly, the wish to leave one’s country dwindles
as soon as the economic situation improves. Consequently,
development assistance and economic cooperation targeted
at the eradication of poverty are the most potent remedies
against growing migrant flows. Top political priority must be
given to upgrading economic aid, lifting the trade restrictions
imposed on Third World countries and promoting disadvan-
taged regions in Europe.
Europe’s current prosperity is to a large extent underpinned
by the immigration of people willing to work, e.g. as ‘guest
workers’. History should have taught us not to perceive migra-
tion as a threat to but as an enrichment of economic as well as
social and cultural life. International solidarity implies that rich
countries need to assume social responsibility for the disadvan-
taged people in poor regions and to offer potential immigrants
opportunities for a better life instead of closing their borders to
them. On the one hand, foreign workers must not be seen as
‘pawns’ in the labour market that can be drawn or discarded
depending on cyclical fluctuations, on the other hand, economic
plight has to be recognised as a ground for asylum. Moreover,
asylum must be granted to women who are discriminated and
persecuted on gender-specific grounds.
In their new home countries, immigrants and especially their
children need purposeful support in improving their language
competence, school education and vocational qualifications.
Social integration is conditional on the opportunity for political
participation. In the field of culture the need is for promoting
the diverse forms of expression, which are part of a cosmo-
politan way of life.
Barbarous criminal practices, such as trafficking in women,
need to be effectively combated by way of concerted inter-
national action. What we are strictly opposed to is the crimi-
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