Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via Remix News,
Fifty years in the past, in 1973, the French creator Jean Raspail launched a then seemingly far-fetched novel titled “The Camp of the Saints,” which portrayed a large inflow of immigrants to France and Europe. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the e-book’s publication, the narrative feels eerily prescient as international locations like Italy and Poland grapple with actual immigration pressures.
The powerhouse international locations of Germany and France are likely to set the agenda on the immigration difficulty, whereas international locations like Poland and Italy discover themselves responding to occasions reasonably than shaping them.
Latest weeks have seen this matter warmth up, particularly in Italy, the place the island of Lampedusa has turn out to be a flashpoint. The island is inundated with migrants arriving in giant numbers on boats from the African mainland.
In the meantime, a movie titled “Green Border” has stirred controversy in Poland, by portraying its border guards as ruthless enforcers for a quasi-fascistic authorities.
I’d advocate all viewers so enamored with Agnieszka Holland’s “work” to a minimum of go to Naples. Get off the practice arriving at Napoli Centrale and stroll a bit in direction of the Forcella district, among the many stalls, streets, and alleys stuffed with African and Center Jap migrants. I’d additionally recommend touring to an Italian metropolis, city, or district with a major immigrant inhabitants and letting your daughter take a canine for a stroll within the night. In spite of everything, it’s regular for a kid to have the ability to exit within the night with a canine for a stroll within the metropolis park, proper?
The identical in Rome. I like to recommend selecting a lodge close to Stazione Termini and strolling again within the night across the station or, say, close to Piazza Porta Maggiore. Simply as a vacationer. And solely then, touch upon the subject of immigration.
Italy’s struggles with immigration have been compounded by exterior challenges and worldwide politics. The pictures from Lampedusa, similar to crowded boats or migrants scaling fences, have alarmed many throughout Europe. A survey reported by the Italian La Stampa discovered that six out of ten Italians imagine their authorities’s response is insufficient and 75 % are involved in regards to the landings on Lampedusa.
Internally, the Italian authorities faces divisions. Supporters of former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Inside Matteo Salvini have criticized Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for the present state of affairs, noting that in Salvini’s tenure, migrant landings had been curtailed. Latest investigations have revealed the involvement of sure NGOs in human trafficking, a cost that Salvini had made earlier, resulting in authorized repercussions for him.
Throughout Salvini’s time, the newspaper Corriere della Sera revealed the reality about immigrants. An undercover police officer spent a while on one of many ships owned by German NGOs and noticed for himself that there was important human trafficking going down, and the criminals concerned in paid smuggling collaborated with the “serving to” activists. Rafts approached the ships, and activists took folks from the traffickers
The broader European immigration coverage, significantly Germany’s open-door method, has solely amplified the inflow of African migrants to Europe.
Jean Raspail’s “The Camp of the Saints” is chilling not just for its predictive narrative but additionally as a result of it suggests a sure inevitability to the unfolding occasions.
The story facilities on France’s paralysis within the face of an impending disaster, a story that, for a lot of, appears to be taking part in out in real-time throughout Europe. Regardless of fixed warnings via the media, the French stay passive and ill-prepared. When motion is lastly taken, it’s too late. The military, influenced by leftist beliefs, is depicted as weak and indecisive.
The French authorities’s response is delayed, leaving residents defenseless. As an alternative of making ready, they naively hope for pleasant immigrants looking for a “higher life.” Nevertheless, the truth turns into horror when the ships arrive.
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