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Hola Babak y Tod@s,<br>
<br>
Yes, I agree with you, the sense of class-structure (middle-class
social mirroring) does allow for <br>
integration is a less conscious manner the "standard" E.U. citizen.
<br>
<br>
I am not sure about the anchoring this standard mirroring response
to class-difference <br>
as a product of "human nature" though. This creates a type of border
that cannot be crossed.<br>
This allows the "racist" or xenophobic cultures of fear and the
politics of fear to be understood<br>
as "natural" responses to manufactured "crisis" over the last few
decades or even more<br>
specifically since World War II. Often as not produced by European
polices and actions over the<br>
long haul of the 20th century. <br>
<br>
Yet, as you point out, the crisis becomes even more layered in its
in ability to control <br>
calls of E.U. austerity policies and immigration response
systems-the Greek question.<br>
<br>
What happens to us and flowing communities as globalization becomes
borderization?<br>
<br>
Borders are internalized and externalized, detention camp cultures
continue to be the standard (Ana note points out),<br>
and profits are maximized. <br>
<br>
And as always for us in the 21st century virtual fences become a
fetish strategy. <br>
<br>
Here in the U.S. we have similar border extension policies under the
Obama Administration:<br>
<br>
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"Plan Frontera Sur, as the Mexican government’s campaign is called,
serves as a first line of defense for the United States.
Deportations have soared in the last year, while the arrests of
Central American migrants in this country have more than doubled to
more than 170,000 last year from about 78,000 in 2013."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/world/americas/mexico-migrants-central-america.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/world/americas/mexico-migrants-central-america.html</a><br>
<br>
These extension of U.S. borders then forces migrants, asylum
seekers, and refugee into a very long and deadly Devil's Highway.<br>
<br>
Very best,<br>
Ricardo<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/7/16 6:21 PM, Babak Fakhamzadeh
wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:CAFNrOOqj6n+6cNmy9GiMbAzLZGfF4b_a2FU9OBWy=GgH+mXKZA@mail.gmail.com"
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<pre wrap="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Hey Ricardo, all,</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
It's true that the numbers related to the current refugee crisis
surrounding Syria are not as excessive as during the second world war.
In relative terms, with Europe at about 550 million inhabitants around
1940 compared to 730 million now, the scope was even bigger, then.
Yet, there are also significant differences such that just looking at
the numbers is not fair to either event. During the second world war,
Europe itself was in turmoil, whereas surrounding the Syrian refugee
crisis, the turmoil is wholly happening outside of Europe's borders.
Second, the differences between Syrian refugees and, say, the average
Dutchman (which of course doesn't really exist), now, is probably
bigger, and occurring on a wider scope, than the differences between,
say, the Czech and, say, Polish middle class during or close to the
second world war. It's simply easier to reconcile oneself with others
who are more similar than with those who are more different. That's
not a matter of being racist, it's human nature. To go beyond that, to
step over that prejudice, if you will, takes effort and has to be done
consciously.
As you suggest, Ricardo, there might be a greater neo-liberalist plan
to profit from all this, but that also doesn't automatically mean that
the crisis is fabricated in order to make a profit. It seems to me
there's a lot of opportunism and incompetence at work. As well as
convenient negligence by the media, but all these are other stories.
But, none of this says anything about what the not-so-distant future
might bring. Will western Europe's xenophobic flames be fanned by the
relatively large influx of non-Europeans?
Babak
--
Babak Fakhamzadeh | <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:babak.fakhamzadeh@gmail.com">babak.fakhamzadeh@gmail.com</a> | <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://BabakFakhamzadeh.com">http://BabakFakhamzadeh.com</a>
Ask me for my PGP public key to send me encrypted email.
On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 1:22 PM, Ricardo Dominguez <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rrdominguez@ucsd.edu"><rrdominguez@ucsd.edu></a> wrote:
</pre>
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Hola Tod@s and Babak,
I look forward to our dialogue about how the history of "kinopolitics" (the
politics of movement)
will re-produce segmentation and segregation or integration and citizenship
(Echoes of Rome)?
Or perhaps some other unexpected social formations will happen beyond these
histories
(my anti-anti-utopain tendencies speaking here).
Of course the processes of integration vs. segregation does seem to depend
on where the
movement and flows starts and to lesser degree where it ends.
If you look at numbers of recent flows of communities into the E.U. starting
from World War II to the
present moment the numbers flowing are worth considering.
The movement of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees was over 15 million
between
1939 to 1945, while right now Syrians leaving the wars zones number around
4.1 million
since 2010. One can add a few million more flowing away from other conflict
zones north
to the E.U. and these current numbers are not even close to reaching the
numbers of migrants,
asylum seekers, or refugee that occurred during WWII:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://newint.org/features/2016/01/01/global-refugee-crisis-the-facts/">https://newint.org/features/2016/01/01/global-refugee-crisis-the-facts/</a>
(The link to an infographic that might be useful to consider.)
So the "crisis" is not about the "numbers"-but about the social imaginary
anchored on to
the bodies that moving that are activating violent atavistic response
(racist politics) that
neo-liberalism(ism) can profits from via private detention centers and
prisons and
corporate controlled border gates.
So it is not about the numbers or the facts of crossing-but the where they
coming
from that is the "crisis."
Ricardo
On 2/7/16 2:29 AM, Babak Fakhamzadeh wrote:
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Hi all,
We've got quite a big topic on our hands, making it harder to single
out a particular angle or narrative. Perhaps not an unreasonable
starting point is the current refugee crisis in Europe. As Renate in
the opening email hints at, Rome was at its peak when it actively
incorporated the peoples, barbarians perhaps, on their frontiers,
Caesar himself extending Roman citizenship to the Gauls and others.
Europe has been a continent of immigrants, virtually all 'native'
Europeans originally descending from immigrants coming in from the
Eurasian plains(, with perhaps only the Basques being the exception).
So, in many ways, the recent new arrivals coming in from the direction
of the Middle East are just the latest in a long line of immigrants.
Yet, the negative European backlash is strong. Perhaps driven by the
recent and, also strong, undercurrent of xenophobia in many European
countries, the 'otherness' of the Syrian arrivals is emphasised and
their presence actively resisted.
Now, I wonder, my question to us on the list, what are the
consequences of the arrival of this sizeable group of immigrants going
to be, for Europe, over the next 5 to, say, 10 years? Will the whole
issue simply fizzle out and the immigrants simply be integrated? Will
the EU fall apart? Will some countries secede from the Union? Will
some countries turn into virtual police states?
And, why?
And, related, how are those countries that do take in larger number of
immigrants going to deal with making sure their integration is not
going to be botched in the same way that Germany, Holland and France
botched the integration of specifically Turkish and Moroccan
immigrants in the 1960s and onwards?
Looking forward to the responses :)
Babak
--
Babak Fakhamzadeh | <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:babak.fakhamzadeh@gmail.com">babak.fakhamzadeh@gmail.com</a> |
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://BabakFakhamzadeh.com">http://BabakFakhamzadeh.com</a>
Ask me for my PGP public key to send me encrypted email.
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