The solution to Europe’s tension over immigration does not lie in the violence of southern Italy in the past week, or in the government’s sharp and inflammatory response. The explosion of rioting in the Calabrian town of Rosarno has led to an ugly evacuation of immigrants, mainly African, that has been dubbed “ethnic cleansing”.
No one questions the pressures on Italy from the flood of immigrants, many illegal. Italy, with Spain, bears the brunt of illegal traffic into the European Union, for obvious reasons. Both countries have long coastlines, impossible to police, that face Africa, and in Italy’s case, the east as well. Immigrants from Albania, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Africa line up to try their luck at penetrating the EU’s borders.
Many succeed. That, at least, is the popular image of EU immigration, and it has strong roots in reality. If you fly over Europe at night, coming from Afghanistan, say, you pass hours looking down on darkness before finally being transfixed by the dense, orderly web of the lights of Europe’s cities, the image of a pinnacle of development and affluence. Europe will continue to be a powerful lure for those in the poorer countries to its south and east. The growth in their populations and the stagnation of Europe’s own will ensure that the pressure is not going to go away.
David Cameron’s declaration this week that he would like to cap immigration into Britain, aiming to put a ceiling on the ultimate size of the population, plays to a new public appetite for talking openly about the tension. But he pretends to more control over the numbers than any leader would have. Italy’s case shows that it isn’t simple.
