In her first main interview since changing into the Democratic Social gathering’s nominee for president, U.S. VP Kamala Harris vowed to resume a push for complete laws that will tighten migration alongside the U.S. border with Mexico. (Reuters)
Our Take
Harris’ feedback on migration shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody who has been following the politics of immigration within the West lately. Within the U.S., President Joe Biden has within the second half of his time period adopted more and more restrictive immigration measures, adopting a centrist strategy that echoes the insurance policies of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Nonetheless, Harris’ feedback do stand in stark distinction to the sort of rhetoric that was on show final election cycle, together with by Harris herself when she was working within the Democratic presidential major in 2019. After Trump turned immigration right into a polarizing, hot-button difficulty within the mid-2010s and pushed the Republican Social gathering to undertake far-right stances on the problem, the left appeared poised to undertake the opposite finish of the spectrum. Whereas the proper known as for pushbacks and restriction on asylum seekers, the left was calling for openness to migrants and respect for human rights.
Now, 5 years later, Harris will not be solely defending Biden’s latest migration insurance policies—simply essentially the most restrictive of any trendy Democratic president—however can also be vowing a good harder strategy. To make sure, she will not be advocating for the draconian measures that Trump is, however her rhetoric and Biden’s insurance policies sign that each events within the U.S. have shifted rightward on migration—Democrats to the middle, Republicans to the far proper.
This pattern isn’t particular to the U.S., after all. Simply up to now week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a center-left politician, has vowed to crack down on unlawful migration after a Syrian asylum seeker was allegedly liable for a lethal knife assault final week. And French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to an immigration reform invoice that included some coverage preferences of the far proper.
What’s outstanding isn’t that centrist and leftist policymakers are shifting rightward on migration—we coated as a lot in our 2023 year-in-review—however slightly that the shift doesn’t appear to be dividing the left on the extent that it was anticipated to. To make sure, some within the progressive wing of the Democratic Social gathering are nonetheless calling for a much less restrictive, humanitarian strategy to migration. However broadly talking, neither Biden nor Harris has obtained a lot criticism from inside their social gathering for the shift to the middle, and an analogous phenomenon might be seen in Europe.
Partially, it is because the left within the U.S. and Europe is so motivated by maintaining the far proper from energy that they’re extra prepared to miss a shift in coverage on a problem like migration, which has develop into so vital electorally within the West. However polls additionally present a real shift on the left on the problem of immigration throughout Western international locations. Put merely, it isn’t simply politicians who’ve shifted proper on migration, it’s the politics normally.
Whereas there was a rise of migrants and asylum-seekers arriving on the U.S. southern border lately, due largely to political and social elements in Central America, the “border disaster” is much less a problem of too many individuals arriving and extra a problem of the arduous, cumbersome and inefficient procedures for processing them, as Paul Poast wrote final yr. Making an attempt to curb migration utilizing solely obstructive regulation enforcement measures whereas failing to deal with its root causes, in the meantime, not solely undermines human rights—and worldwide regulation—however can also be unlikely to be sustainable long run.
In a 100-day dash to the U.S. presidential election, although, long-term sustainability isn’t Harris’ important concern. It doesn’t look like voters’, both.
Learn all our protection of migration right here.
Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan joined a gathering of EU ministers for the primary time in 5 years yesterday. The assembly will embrace dialogue of modernizing the EU-Turkey Customs Union, which Ankara has been requesting for months.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s formidable overseas coverage, albeit considerably conciliatory since his reelection final yr, has typically raised alarm amongst many Western leaders and commentators. However as Howard Eissenstat wrote this month, Turkey’s aim is to not break with the West, however slightly to retain these ties whereas advancing its personal strategic autonomy and pursuits.
An al-Qaida-linked group mentioned it focused militia fighters, not civilians, in a devastating assault in Burkina Faso that killed practically 300 individuals this previous Saturday. The assault was one of many deadliest within the nation in practically a decade of violence between safety forces and jihadist insurgencies.
Underneath the ruling army junta, which took energy in 2022, the safety scenario has solely worsened on account of an absence of technique coupled with misguided heavy-handed techniques. As Daniel Eizinga wrote in July, amid the worsening disaster, the junta has more and more turned to violent repression and continued abuse of pressure to keep up its grip on energy.
Nicaragua’s authorities banned 169 NGOs yesterday, lower than two weeks after it banned 1,500 related teams. The mass bannings are simply the most recent in a longstanding crackdown on civil society within the nation, as Nicaragua has slowly descended right into a dictatorship below President Daniel Ortega. Learn extra on this column by Frida Ghitis from final yr.
Indonesia will conduct an audit to reform tourism on the island of Bali, a preferred vacation spot the place tourism has exploded post-pandemic, elevating considerations concerning the preservation of native tradition and different issues like crime, over-development and job instability. Learn extra concerning the rising backlash to overtourism on this Each day Overview from final month.
