A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #24-26 - Migration, repression, and the election race: The lesson of Ceuta (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Last week, the Meloni government extended the suspension of the Schengen 
agreement with Spain for another 15 days, receiving-as an inevitable 
quid pro quo-the same treatment in return. The publicly proclaimed 
reasons are the usual ones: combating illegal immigration, fighting 
"terrorism," and so on. The underlying motives-for those willing to see 
them-point to a resurgence of identity-based sovereignism and an attempt 
to dismantle any immigration policy that does not smack of violence and 
intensive exploitation.

The Ceuta incident was an opportunity too big and too tempting to pass 
up; thus, fueled by an already heated pre-election atmosphere, Meloni 
and her allies decided to make some noise, seeking alliances across the 
political spectrum (one gets the willing allies one deserves) and 
putting Prime Minister Sánchez and his socialist government in the hot 
seat. Among the first to answer their call were the Danish Social 
Democrats-naturally hailed by Angelucci's "newspapers"-and the crudest 
nationalist factions.

But what happened in Ceuta, that small territorial remnant (along with 
Melilla) of the Spanish colonial empire in Africa? On July 30, an 
unspecified number of people-certainly exceeding 60,000-managed to enter 
the city, primarily by sea. They believed that, based on a Spanish 
Supreme Court ruling, being in Ceuta was tantamount to being in 
Spain-and thus in the European Union-thereby allowing them to apply for 
asylum and have their cases heard by the courts. However, Ceuta operates 
under a special status that does not include participation in the 
Schengen agreement, as it is not part of the Spanish metropolitan 
territory-even though it is subject to Spanish law and hosts numerous 
military barracks, just as Melilla does. To this day, there is a blame 
game regarding who facilitated-in a matter of hours-this massive influx 
into a town that usually has around 80,000 residents, creating (as one 
can easily imagine) considerable difficulties.

Initially, suspicion fell on the government of Morocco-a signatory to 
the Abraham Accords and a loyal US ally-allegedly acting at the behest 
of the US and Israel to undermine Sánchez. The aim was reportedly to 
punish him both for refusing to make bases available for an attack on 
Iran and for recognizing Palestine as an independent state. Today, 
however, Sánchez absolves the monarch in Rabat, along with his border 
guards and intelligence services, of any responsibility. Instead, he 
accuses Russia, Israel, and the fascist right of instigating the 
situation by flooding the airwaves with fake news. This, he claims, 
fostered false hopes and expectations among Moroccan and sub-Saharan 
youth-young people desperate to escape the repression, oppression, and 
underdevelopment forced upon them by autocratic, militaristic, and 
patriarchal regimes.

According to Sánchez, this operation aligns with the actors' shared goal 
of dismantling the European Union, turning back the clock, and weakening 
the bloc so it can once again fall prey to the appetites of imperialist 
powers.

What is certain is that this human wave-fraught with both hope and 
despair-provided the usual vultures, regime-aligned hacks, and 
"TeleMeloni" with fodder for the crudest propaganda. They exploited the 
situation to stoke fears of "ethnic replacement," "barbarians at the 
gates," and jihadist terrorists, among other alarmist tropes.

This narrative was promptly leveraged in the power struggles in 
Brussels, in an attempt to impose migration policies that serve the 
authoritarian, supremacist vision of the identitarian right. It is no 
coincidence that Sánchez and his government-quite apart from all the 
unsavory aspects characterizing them (such as the succession of scandals 
involving government members and his own family)-have come under fire 
precisely for the migration policies implemented in the country: 
policies aimed at regulating the labor market and residence permits, 
eliminating undeclared work, and integrating immigrant workers.

These are policies that make Spain the only EU country with a growth 
rate higher than all the others. While this figure may not be of 
particular interest to us, it nonetheless offers a different perspective 
compared to the solutions proposed by others-Meloni foremost among 
them-such as outsourcing migrants to camps scattered across Europe and 
Africa (in Albania, Uganda, Kosovo, etc.). Naturally, this is done 
without implementing any substantive measures that might lead to a 
solution-or at least a mitigation-of the most appalling effects of 
migration processes; processes that are becoming increasingly structural 
rather than exceptional, driven in part by global warming and war.

The meager results (all talk and no substance) of the conference 
convened by our brilliant Prime Minister also speak volumes about the 
value of what was said and done. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the 
Netherlands, and others have decided to send back to Italy-in accordance 
with the June agreements on migrant containment-individuals who had 
previously landed on Italian soil and who, under current laws, are 
required to remain there while their applications for the right to stay 
are processed. The much-vaunted solidarity among states regarding border 
management and migration-supposedly a cornerstone of the Union's 
principles-is proving to be essentially hollow. Rising military 
spending, the cost-of-living crisis, and diverging stances on military 
conflicts (particularly the Russia-Ukraine war) are eroding the Union's 
political structure at its very foundation; it remains to be seen how 
upcoming elections-even those manipulated or shaped by tailor-made 
laws-might impact this ongoing process of decline.

In the meantime, one thing should be clear. Regarding Italy's 
demographic outlook for 2050, an ISTAT report from last August 31st 
projects that the workforce aged 15 to 64 will shrink from 24.8 to 21.4 
million. Meanwhile, the total population is expected to drop by 4 
million, the median age will exceed 51, and those over 65 will account 
for 34.5% of the total. These figures worry those who view human beings 
merely as resources to fuel unstoppable growth. Yet, while the country's 
economic elite frets, the political class remains focused on retaining 
or rotating power. The strategy is to appeal to the public's gut 
instincts by stoking fear and sowing hatred; this leads to the paradox 
where the Meloni government quietly increases quotas for non-EU workers 
to meet business demands, while its local henchmen simultaneously deny 
the needs of an immigrant population that is by now firmly established. 
A recent example is the refusal to grant permits for a mosque in the 
Venice area-a request made by the thousands of Bangladeshis working in 
local shipyards. While this issue may not tug at everyone's 
heartstrings, it demonstrates a lack of respect for a community that is 
fully integrated into the country's economic fabric.

The reality is that, instead of striving for equal freedoms and 
opportunities for everyone living here-and dealing a decisive blow to 
illegal labor and falling wages-the preference is to scream "get the 
illegal immigrant," stoke fear of the "bogeyman," and hunt down the 
*maranza* (stereotyped young street toughs). This rhetoric brings with 
it a whole host of demands: defending "identity" (whose, exactly?), 
"remigration," border reinforcement, and, above all, the militarization 
of the territory through increasingly authoritarian special laws. This 
is how the Italian government and the European Right are exploiting the 
situations in Ceuta, Schengen, and the like. All this is happening while 
the social and humanitarian crisis in Ceuta grows increasingly 
severe-with migrants and residents pushed to the breaking point, waves 
of attacks against foreign nationals living on the streets, and woefully 
inadequate reception centers-and right-wing parties fan the flames of 
the ordeal from which Sánchez seems unable or unwilling to extricate 
himself.

This, too, is a piece of the war that is setting the entire world ablaze.

Massimo Varengo

https://umanitanova.org/migrazioni-repressione-e-corsa-elettorale-la-lezione-di-ceuta/
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