Post-War Dead Weight

Standardization

The Bertelsmann Foundation founded this, pompously entitled "Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration," political project to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. The Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC is the cooperation partner. The objective is to council the EU and its member states, as well as the USA and Canada on migration policy and to achieve a standardization of immigration regulations in the major western industrial nations. The "Task Force" members are well known members of the US Congress, former foreign ministers of Spain, Greece and Bulgaria, Aleksandr Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland, Antonio Vitorino, the former EU Commissioner of Justice and Home Affairs, and Rita Suessmuth, former president of the German Parliament. "We need a coherent strategy to address the challenge of integration," declared Werner Weidenfeld, Task Force member of the Executive Board of the German Bertelsmann Foundation, at the migration project's first meeting in Berlin on March 23, 2007.[1]

The Age of Mobility

A strategy paper of the "Transatlantic Task Force," disseminated by the Bertelsmann Foundation, divulged the background of their operation. It was explained that "many of today's immigration regimes, particularly those in northwestern Europe, are grounded in the conceptual and ideological frameworks that grew out of the post-World War II legacies of protecting refugees and respecting human rights." These, along with "the international instruments they gave birth to - the Universal and European Conventions on Human Rights and the Convention on Refugees -" are still "important guides to action." But in today's "age of mobility" it is essential to organize "flow management." The paper reminds that, due to the aging population, enterprises of western industrial nations are expecting a future rise in the demand for manpower. In reference to the exploitation of official asylum protection for the sake of private corporate profits, "political and economic gains through migration's dynamism and potential for contributing to the host country's growth and prosperity" [2] have to be considered.

Human Capital Base

A meeting in Athens over the weekend of June 9th focused on the discussion of the execution of these plans. Antonio Vitorino, former EU Justice Commissioner, and member of the organization demanded: "the European immigration policy has to and will be radically transformed."[3] "Effective instruments for the management of immigration" - not asylum laws - but " programs steered by employers, that orient immigration toward the demands of the national job market" and a "point systems that broaden the base of human capital of a particular country" were on the agenda. Representatives of Brussels' EU bureaucracies were in attendance in Athens and asked for counseling. As the Bertelsmann Foundation boasts, its "Task Force" had "accompanied" the German EU Council Presidency, "and is in contact with the ensuing Portuguese EU Council Presidency."

Basis

Under German leadership, the EU is well underway toward what the new Bertelsmann policy project describes in brutal clarity. The sealing off of the EU external borders, that Berlin has been systematically pursuing since the 1990s, has reached a new high point with decisions taken at the EU Interior and Justice Ministers Conference, which ended Tuesday, June 12. According to these decisions, in the future, national security officials can have access to a common "visa information system" and reference data concerning those seeking entry. At the end of the meeting, the creation of "Rapid Border Intervention Teams" was also approved for the EU's refugee blocking administration, FRONTEX. These reconnaissance and apprehension units will be positioned along the EU's external borders, are armed and have authority to use their weapons. Germany is participating in the Rapid Border Intervention Teams, furnishing a variety of hardware including helicopters and night vision equipment.[4]

Circulating

The sealing of the borders is the prerequisite for permitting an exclusive, strictly temporary immigration ("circular migration").[5] Three years ago, Antonio Vitorino, while EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, was already supporting the German Interior Minister at the time, Otto Schily's plans to establish refugee camps in North Africa and filter out, in these camps, the candidates suitable for working in EU countries.[6] In February, an EU financed recruitment office was opened in Bamako (Mali), to recruit cheap labor from impoverished African nations to meet the demands of European enterprises.[7] But, as Bertelsmann's "Task Force" warns, the aspired "circular migration" has to "be different from the traditional ‘migrant labor programs'."[8] Numerous migrant laborers of the 60s and 70s are still living with their families in Europe, even though the local production of wealth no longer finds them profitable.

Complicity

It is the comprehensive reorientation of the EU's system of migration, to accommodate the demands of European industry, that explains why the German government is obviously oblivious to complaints about its immigration policies received from human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch has been warning for years against reaching a Readmission Agreement with the Ukraine, obligating that country to accept EU deportees who had entered the EU illegally. Last October the human rights organization reported that the "Ukraine falls substantially short of its international obligations toward migrants and refugees" reinforcing earlier reports on the disastrous conditions reigning in Ukrainian refugee camps.[9] The "Ukraine runs the risk of becoming a warehouse where asylum seekers and migrants are detained in conditions that flout international law" writes Human Rights Watch.[10] If the EU deports immigrants to that country, they become guilty of "complicity."

Efficient, Dependable

In preparation for the EU's Interior and Justice Ministers Conference, which drew to a close Wednesday, June 13, the German EU Council Presidency, on Monday June 11, pushed ahead with negotiations with Kiev on the so-called Readmission Agreement. It is to take effect before the end of the year. A working agreement was signed on June 11 between the EU refugee blocking agency, FRONTEX, and the Ukrainian Border Police. The German government announced that the agreement laid "the foundation" for the "efficiency of border controls" and "dependable exchange of information" with Ukrainian security officials.[11] Step by step the German interior minister's declared objective for the immigration policy is coming within reach. Before the EU Council Presidency began, Wolfgang Schaeuble had declared that "illegal entries across our common external borders must become the exception."[12] On the high seas between the West Coast of Africa and the Canary Islands alone, up to 7,000 people died last year, because legal entry into the European paradise of prosperity was refused.

Please read also Festung Europa.

[1] Prominent Global Leaders to Tackle Immigration and Integration Challenges in the E.U. and U.S.; Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration 23.03.2007. About Bertelsmann please read also Netzwerk der Macht.
[2] The Age of Mobility; The Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration, March 2007
[3] Abschied von der "Festung Europa"? Transatlantic Task Force diskutiert effektive Instrumente für die Steuerung von Einwanderung; www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de 11.06.2007
[4] see also Auf Leben und Tod
[5] see also Nicht verwertbar, Nicht verwertbar (II) and Rekrutierungsbüro
[6] see also Avantgarde der Lager, Schilys Schleuser and Import-Export
[7] see also Rekrutierungsbüro
[8] Abschied von der "Festung Europa"? Transatlantic Task Force diskutiert effektive Instrumente für die Steuerung von Einwanderung; www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de 11.06.2007
[9] see also Um jeden Preis, Three fronts and Interview mit Christopher Nsoh
[10] Human Rights Watch: European Union Managing Migration Means Potential EU Complicity in Neighboring States' Abuse of Migrants and Refugees, Oktober 2006
[11] EU Troikatreffen Justiz- und Innen mit der Ukraine in Luxemburg; Pressemitteilung des Bundesministeriums der Justiz 11.06.2007
[12] see also Zur Ausnahme werden