The official Aus Verantwortung für Österreich.Regierungsprogramm 2020–2024 of the current government has a section on „Migration und Asyl“ ("Migration and Asylum"). The bulk of it is basically a description of routine government processes related to immigration and asylum puffed up to sound like innovative ideas.
But there are also parts that give an idea of the government’s usage of the immigration issue. (All quotes from the program are my translations from German.)
Protection must be primarily provided as close as possible to the region of origin. .That means: keep refugees so far away from Austria as possible.
This requires sustained contributions to the reduction of the causes of refugees and migration, such as support in countries of origin, in order to create life prospects on the ground.This is little more than a bad joke. Austria is not going to mount some massive new development aid project for the Middle East and North Africa. Or to push the EU to do so. Nor will Kurz’ government push for the EU to do it. This is not a topic that regularly appears in major publications or news broadcasts.
And since few people know anything about how development projects in Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Syria, or Iraq would work or what the actual need is, this proposal even in private discussions at the Stammtisch (The German and Austrian equivalent of what American Republicans call "Real Americans" or elsewhere can rarely go beyond the keep-the-foreigner-out version in the Government Program.
In my experience, when Austrians talk about other countries and the word “corruption” comes up, it means “I don’t know anything else about that country.” So without an active political effort by one or more of the political parties to build support for more foreign aid, that statement like that in the Regierungsprogramm also means: keep refugees so far away from Austria as possible.
In my experience, when Austrians talk about other countries and the word “corruption” comes up, it means “I don’t know anything else about that country.” So without an active political effort by one or more of the political parties to build support for more foreign aid, that statement like that in the Government Program also means: keep refugees so far away from Austria as possible.
Or, in other words, the conversation goes like this: “What’s needed is development aid in the home countries.” “Yes, that’s what really needs to happen. But you have to wonder why these countries are in such bad shape.” “Yeah, it’s because they’re so corrupt. The politicians take the money and stick it in their Swiss bank accounts.” “So more aid won’t help them anyway.”
In any case, meaningful development aid for Libya, Syria, and Iraq requires political stability and an end to military conflicts. Austria is also making little effort to promote peace efforts for the EU in that region.
And in Syria, for instance, the situation is grim (Synaps-Syrien-Team, “Überleben in Syrien” Le Monde diplomatique Deutsch Januar 2020):
Syria is in an economic struggle for survival, destroying all hopes of an early recovery. Yes, the government in Damascus has won militarily, but it faces enormous problems on the economic front. The hollowed-out state must increasingly finance itself through bribes and the plundering of its own citizens. It is not even able to provide people with the basic necessities. In this way, the system can stay afloat, but at the same time the basis for an economic new start is undermined. [my translation from German]From the Government Program:
In addition, an efficient and human rights-compliant EU external border protection must be ensured and smuggling must be effectively combated. In Austria, it is important to ensure fast and high-quality asylum procedures.The key phrase here is external border, Greece, and Spain with the chief responsibility for refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. That is, So without an active political effort by one or more of the political parties to build support for more foreign aid, that statement like that in the Government Program also means: keep refugees so far away from Austria as possible.
Because the "fast and high-quality asylum procedures" are pretty much meaningless as long as the government can keep refugees so far away from Austria as possible.
The Government Program also says:
In the future, Austria will cleanly separate the issues of flight and migration. This requires a migration strategy for safe, orderly, regular and qualified migration in the interests of Austria and those affected.Also basically propaganda. This and the further section “Qualified Immigration” make it sound like the only immigrants Austria might need are a few physicians and maybe a computer scientist or two. That’s not at all the case. And that refugees don’t include qualified people, is certainly not the case. The use of “migrants” instead of immigrants or refugees is typical "turquoise" (Christian Democratic ÖVP) and blue (far right FPÖ) vocabulary. The idea is that they are just wandering hordes and obscures the difference between voluntary immigrants and refugees.
Those who are stopped at the EU's external border when they enter illegally will be cared for and returned to their country of origin or transit (or safe third country) in compliance with international law and the Geneva Convention on Refugees.Austria is not on the external border of the EU, so this is ideological posturing. The part about “in compliance with international law and the Geneva Convention on Refugees“ is fluff. This is already regulated by the international laws cited.
And distributing refugees among EU countries for processing in either routine times or crisis periods like 2015-16? They are against it:
Mechanisms for the distribution of migrants/asylum seekers within the EU have failed. Austria therefore does not take any initiatives towards distribution rules.The new Interior Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) emphasized the point (Österreich nimmt seine Teilnahme am EU-Umsiedelungsprogramm ("Resettlement") nicht wieder auf. Oberösterreichische Nachrichten 23.01.2020):
"We will report to the EU Commission that we are not taking any people," a spokeswoman for Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (VP) said. As of 2015, Austria had taken in a total of 1900 refugees, all from Syria, through three humanitarian reception programmes. The former turquoise-blue federal government suspended the resettlement program in early 2017. ...Austria’s new EU Minister Karoline Edtstadler reinforces that position (Edtstadler in Migrationsfrage gegen "Drüberfahren" über EU-Staaten Oberösterreichische Nachrichten 14.01.2020):
"Resettlement" means that refugees in crisis areas are selected for resettlement by international organisations such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Brussels wants to bring a total of more than 30,000 refugees from crisis countries to the EU via resettlement. [my transation from German]
It is not about "going through countries," Edtstadler said Monday night in [the ORF television program] ZiB2. Instead, each EU Member State should make a contribution, for example by strengthening external border protection.Der Foreign Minister takes a hard line, as well (Außenminister Schallenberg: Kein Beitritt Österreichs zu UN-Migrationspakt Standard 12.01.2020):
When asked by moderator Armin Wolf what the difference was between the previous and the present coalition government on this issue, the EU minister did not respond directly. She pointed out that Austria has a very high burden in having a high proportion of asylum procedures. Edtstadler confirmed that foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) did not want to participate in the resettlement programme
Austria will not join the UN migration pact, even under turquoise-green. "Austria's line on this issue will remain completely unchanged," Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) said in an interview with APA. ...Chancellor Kurz himself used a meeting of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic) to reinforce his anti-immigrant position (Kurz und die Visegrad-Staaten: Nur beim Migrationskurs im Gleichschritt Oberösterreichische Nachricten 17.01.2020):
"I think this is the completely wrong way to go, which only promotes the business of smugglers," Schallenberg said of the EU Commission's demand to take in refugees rescued in the Mediterranean. Schallenberg also does not think much of a resumption of the United Nations resettlement programme. ...
"I am not happy with these statements," Green MEP [Member of Parliament] Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic told STANDARD. Schallenberg's stipulations do not correspond to her party's positions. However, the government's programme includes "commitments to human rights and multilateralism," which distinguishes it from the former turquoise-blue coalition pact.
At least on migration [immigration] policy, there is still agreement between Austria and its eastern neighbours. Kurz, like the Visegrad Group, remains close to the credo of "tight borders" and its "no" to EU-wide distribution quotas for refugees, although on this point his new partners, the Greens, think differently. To which Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban paid a final compliment: "Austria is the natural partner of the Visegrad states."But at Davos this year, Kurz concentrated on trashing the idea of a green economy.
Kurz warned about how green ideas would bring on a “failed” collectivism – presumably referring to Communist-style state-socialism - "suffering, hunger, and unbelievable misery." (Kurz warnt in Davos vor Comeback des Kollektivismus Standard 24.01.2020; my translation from German)
But he notably avoided emphasizing immigration issues. And he certainly didn’t advocate a fair revision of the Dublin System!
Part 1: https://brucemillerca.blogspot.com/2020/01/eu-long-term-challenges-on-immigration.html
Part 2: https://brucemillerca.blogspot.com/2020/02/eu-long-term-challenges-on-immigration.html
Part 3: https://brucemillerca.blogspot.com/2020/02/eu-long-term-challenges-on-immigration_5.html
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