Austrian government postures against immigrants and refugees. Again.

The Austrian government of Chancellor Sebastian "Babyface" Kurz (ÖVP, "türkis"/turquoise) and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ, blau/blue) have specialized in posturing against immigrants with gratuitous symbolic stances and mean-spirited measures to make life more difficult for immigrants. What they have not done is seek real, substantive, and practical solutions to the larger immigration problem facing Austria and the rest of the EU, which also means no serious measures to prepare for a situation like that faced in 2015 with a large surge in refugee inflows.

KurzStrache took another anti-immigrant mo ve on Tuesday, which is symbolically and therefore diplomatically significant, but has no direct practical effect. They announced Austria's rejection of UN's New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, a broad statement on the rights of migrants with no binding effect. (Gianluca Wallische, Österreichs Ausstieg aus dem Uno-Migrationspakt: Entscheidung mit Anlauf Standard 31.10.2018; Austria says will not sign global migration pact Reuters 10/31/2018)

One can reasonably question whether such non-binding agreements amount to anything more than pious aspirational documents. But substantive agreements have to start somewhere. Austria joins the dubious company of Trump's America and Viktor Orbán's Hungary in rejecting the agreement. (Clark Mindock, US withdraws from United Nations agreement to establish international rights for migrants Independent 12/03/2017)

Reuters also notes that the authoritarian government of "Poland, which has also clashed with Brussels by resisting national quotas for asylum seekers, is considering the same step."

What's also notable about KurzStrache's action is that through the end of 2018, Austria's holds the rotating presidency of the European Council. So this is a deliberate gesture of contempt toward the EU on their part. And a reminder that they are not at all serious about a European solution of the refugee issue.

Here are the terrifying provisions of the agreement that so frighten the bold leaders of the Nationalist International (from UNHCR New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants n.d., accessed 10/31/2018):

In adopting the New York Declaration, Member States:

• expressed profound solidarity with those who are forced to flee;
• reaffirmed their obligations to fully respect the human rights of refugees and migrants;
• agreed that protecting refugees and supporting the countries that shelter them are shared international responsibilities and must be borne more equitably and predictably;
• pledged robust support to those countries affected by large movements of refugees and migrants;
• agreed upon the core elements of a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework; and
• agreed to work towards the adoption of a global compact on refugees and a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.