I recently went to see the Mocada‘s recent exhibit, They won’t budge: Africans in Europe. The exhibit was made up of mix media pieces : photography, cartography, video and music. The exhibition space is small and cozy which is particularly comforting given the disturbing nature of some of the subjects. There was this one photo by Juan Medina, a photojournalist based in the Canary Islands. In the foreground, one can see a man crawling on the beach, exhausted by the journey he has made across the the Atlantic, most probably, from the Moroccan coast, on a smugglers boat. In the background, three tourists appear to be soaking up the sun in what can only be described as complete and utter indifference !
This photo pretty much sums up for me the way most people in Europe deal with immigration. Most turn a blind eye and ignore the fundamentally racist and xenophobic practices of our governments. France boasts that it has managed to deport 29 000 immigrants from the country in the last year. We are subject to the creation of a ministry of immigration and national identity, whatever the hell that even means! All the while thousands of immigrants are detained in prison-like conditions for absolutely no reason what so ever and shipped off to “their” countries on chartered planes, special agreements are signed with countries like Mali allowing France to deport all West African, or presumed West African citizens, regardless of whether or not they have any ties to Mali what so ever ! Directives are voted at the European level allowing minors to be deported without their parents or legal guardians ! Forbidding entrance and visas to illegal immigrants for a period of five years after their deportation regardless of the fact that their family and loved ones may still be living in Europe !
On the subject of administrative detention, I recently watched a film The Visitor that sheds some light on how difficult it can be for those detained but also those on the outside who are often given hardly any information as to the whereabouts of their loved ones. It takes place in New York City but I believe it is very relevant to what is going on in Europe too.
The song at the top of this post was shown during the exhibit and I find the critique of the present French government that it voices is particularly accurate and the determination of the title “We Won’t Budge !” is great. The words sung by Salif Keita remind me of something Raj Patel said about debt and the Third World during his talk in Boston. He said that it’s funny how the West calculates debt because if you consider all the plundering of natural resources that took place during the period of colonization, the destruction of local political systems and social organizations, the millions of lives that were taken by arbitrary conquest, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the havoc that contemporary neo-liberal and modernity policies create in most if not all of the above mentioned countries and that is routinely shoved down the throats of “developing” nations through institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and sometimes even the United Nations…it appears pretty clear that what our governments and our ruthless international institutions owe is far greater ! Most of it unfortunately is hard to put a price on and, therefore, too easily dismissed !
Maybe we could start by granting papers to all immigrants, regardless of their backgrounds and reasons for wanting to immigrate and by abolishing Third World debt ? Seems like a good start. Though obviously that would only be the beginning !
