Current affairs and political papers on refugees

Refugees refer to people who are homeless, displaced and need to leave their places of origin due to natural and man-made disasters. The following is my current political paper on refugees, I hope you can get some insights from it!

Papers on Current Affairs and Politics of Refugees Part I: EU Integration from the Perspective of Refugee Crisis

Since the refugee tide broke out in Europe, the attitudes of people in various countries, especially Germany, have changed greatly, which also reflects the difficulty of solving the refugee problem-whether the people who are too expensive and impatient will continue to support the government's open attitude on the refugee issue-and the different attitudes of European governments are the biggest obstacle to properly solving the refugee problem. In the face of major issues affecting the whole EU countries, the lack of decision-making by EU leading bodies on refugee issues reflects the dilemma of EU integration.

Keywords: European refugees, German EU integration

About the author: Liu Jing, Law School of Henan University.

China Library Classification Number: D8 15 Document Identification Number: ADAI:10.19387.

Since the Cold War, Europe has experienced two major refugee flows since the 1990s and the 20th century. It should be said that the first wave of refugees promoted the development and perfection of European refugee policy, and promoted the process of EU integration to some extent. The latest refugee tide is not only surging, but also because its refugees mainly come from Islamic countries, which is different from the first refugee tide from European countries, so cultural integration is easier. The gap between Islamic culture and _ _ _ _ culture has been difficult to solve. This wave of refugees even impacted the nerves of the EU people from the aspects of economy, culture, politics and religion, which brought different reactions from EU countries and constantly challenged the will of EU integration. ①

First of all, Germany's attitude towards European refugees has changed.

In the face of the largest refugee tide in Europe since World War II, the German government was initially welcoming, so more and more refugees crossed the border from within the EU and entered Germany. Sachsische Zeitung, a German newspaper in Dresden, quoted a record of the initial distribution information of asylum seekers. According to the data of Easy system, in 2065438+2005 * *, there were109.18.94 million refugees registered in Germany to apply for asylum. (2) The government will give each adult refugee a monthly subsidy of several hundred euros, all of which comes from financial allocation, so the economic pressure can be easily solved. What is really worrying is the deeper cultural integration. Most of these refugees hold Islamic religious beliefs different from the mainstream culture in Europe. The integration of Islamic nation and Christ has always existed in Europe, and a series of social problems caused by it have worried more and more Germans. If refugees with Islamic cultural background are allowed to enter the country, the trend of social division will be more serious. Under various pressures, Germany resumed border inspection in the Austrian border area, and refugees could no longer enter and leave at will. This violation of the Schengen agreement of the European Union is in stark contrast to the German government's initial attitude of welcoming refugees. In Germany's current ruling Coalition, Merkel's Coalition Party and Social Democratic Party (SPD) have also lost their previous pace of advance and retreat on the refugee issue. On October 2nd, 2065438+05438+065438/KLOC-0, German Congressman gabriel vetoed the proposal of setting up a transit zone on the German border to filter out immigrants who are unlikely to get asylum. ③

In addition to the change of the government's wind direction, with more and more refugees entering Germany, the attitude of the German people has changed from welcoming refugees at first to welcoming refugees, but this enthusiasm has also become vacillating. Merkel once declared that refugees would be "fresh blood of Germany" and bring "new national integration" to Germany, but the eyes of Germans were always attracted by some negative news-terrorists disguised as refugees exposed from time to time, the threat of terrorist attacks in Hanover Stadium, large-scale sexual assault in Cologne on New Year's Eve and people's protests all over Germany. Merkel, who is deeply supported and loved by the people, has a tough attitude on the refugee issue and ignores the demands of the German people. People responded in their own way: A poll conducted by the German Radio and Television Federation (ARD) in May 2016 showed that the right-wing populist party, the German Alternative Party (AfD), opposed to receiving refugees on a large scale, was very popular with the people, and its support rate soared from 3% at the beginning of the refugee crisis in August 20 15 to a record15. ④ It is also worthy of attention whether the Coalition Party will exert more pressure on Merkel because of the 20 17 German election.

Second, the EU's attitude debate on the refugee issue.

Not only Germany, but also other countries are facing similar problems. The Financial Times reported in May 10 that Feynman, who had worked in Austria for more than seven years, announced his resignation after losing the support of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SP) because of the soaring support rate of the Austrian far-right Liberal Party. A similar situation exists in France's far-right party, the National Front (FN). Although the preliminary vote count results announced by the French Ministry of the Interior in June 5438+February 65438+March showed that the National Front, which won the first round of elections, lost in the second round of voting, this nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Schengen agreement party has remained in French politics since then and has the right to speak politically since then.

Since the Cold War, the attitudes of EU countries towards immigrants have been obviously divided, with the "assimilation principle" of France and the "multiculturalism" of Britain and the Netherlands as the most representative. However, since the beginning of this century, with the intensification of disputes in the Islamic world and the increase of terrorist attacks related to Islam around the world, the Islamic policies of various countries have begun to converge since this century. The economic downturn and high unemployment rate coincided with the tide of Islamic refugees. European far-right political forces took the opportunity to develop, and some far-right political parties openly advocated rejecting refugees and opposing the "Islamization" of Europe. Although many voters voted for these far-right parties only to express their dissatisfaction with the ruling party, it is undeniable that in the past two or three decades, the far-right forces have successfully stood on the stage of political propaganda, turning immigration, cultural conflicts, immigration and other issues into election topics that all political parties can hardly ignore. Far-right parties are far inferior to traditional parties in political influence and ruling experience, but there is no doubt that they have successfully diverted voters' attention to this refugee tide. In order to compete for voters, political parties in EU countries have been "conservative" and "right-leaning" to varying degrees. In particular, some southern European countries have suffered greater refugee pressure due to geographical factors, which is more likely to lead to the right-wing parties coming to power.

In addition to voters forcing them to be in the ruling party, accepting refugees will also increase the economic burden and crowd out social resources, making the already depressed economy worse. The difference of cultural background makes people worry that religious, ethnic and cultural conflicts will brew similar terrorist attacks. The terrorist attacks in Paris, the new year's sexual assault in Cologne and the explosion at the Brussels airport station have further confirmed the European people's doubts about the refugee policy. As early as before, some people worried that terrorists would use the tide of refugees to blend into the core areas of Europe.

Based on various considerations, it is not difficult to understand why EU countries treat the refugee problem differently and talk to themselves. In the face of the refugee tide that continues to ferment, the EU has also put forward a variety of solutions, and the attitude of member States is different, and finally no solution has been formed to win the support of all countries. For example, the plan made by the European Commission in September of 15 to allocate160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy to other EU countries was explicitly opposed by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the first six months of the implementation of the plan, only 937 refugees were successfully transferred. ⑥ From April 6th, 2006 to April 6th, 2065438, the European Commission began to revise the refugee asylum policy with Dublin Agreement as its core content, so as to relieve the pressure of the refugee tide in "frontline countries" such as Greece and Italy. And this is also not optimistic, and it is considered too far from the complex political reality. Third, look at EU integration from the perspective of refugee issues

The key point of the worsening refugee crisis lies in the failure of the EU to make effective and feasible decisions in time. As a refugee tide that affects the whole euro zone, the European Union * * * requires all member States to act together in the case of consistent interests, and countries have made completely different responses based on their own interests. France and Germany, which undertake most of the registration, examination and reception of refugees, hope to adopt the refugee distribution plan as soon as possible; Nordic countries have adopted the policy of repatriating refugees because of their small share of refugees. Italy and Greece in southern Europe, because they are not the destination countries of refugees, simply give up the obligations of the Dublin Convention, let the refugees stay, examine their applications for the first responsible country, and let the refugees transit.

The above problems are only the symptoms of the loopholes in the design of the EU political system itself. Decision-making within the EU has always followed the consensus mechanism and worked well. However, it should be noted that the superstructure of the EU is mainly used to operate market integration projects or negotiate trade agreements. Once political and social crises such as refugee flows are touched, the EU mechanism is actually in a state of paralysis. In the decision-making process of refugee policy, we still see the individual will of member States, not the will of the EU as a whole; Policy implementation is also achieved through the flexible coordination and support of governments, rather than the overall arrangement of the EU leadership, which will inevitably affect the formation and implementation of effective decision-making. The unity principle of the European Union has been destroyed and challenged as never before.

In addition, the British "Brexit" referendum held on June 23 will be the next focus of European attention. The German Berlin Journal published an article on May 9, saying that the British referendum will be a&; Lsquo Barometer for Britain's Exit from the EU&; rsquo。 If the referendum results in Britain's withdrawal from the EU, it will accelerate countries to follow Britain's example in the referendum on Britain's withdrawal from the EU; Even if the result is to stay in Europe, it is only a temporary idea to hold a referendum for all countries &; Lsquo threw cold water on ... . "As a big European country, Britain's every move will bring inestimable demonstration to European countries. The spread of Britain's withdrawal from the EU reflects that the EU is experiencing the most serious identity crisis in many years.

In the historical process of the European Union, there have always been ideas and political parties that oppose immigration and European integration, but they are always covered up by the achievements of European integration. 2 1 century, extreme right-wing parties opposed to immigration and Eurosceptic parties opposed to European integration began to merge, forming a powerful extreme right-wing force opposed to immigration and European integration. 20 14 Faced with the influx of refugees, the European Union failed to respond quickly and effectively, which led to the evolution of the refugee problem into a refugee crisis, which gave the extreme right-wing parties opposed to immigration and European integration an excellent opportunity to rise, and directly led to the extreme right-wing parties in various countries repeatedly setting new historical records in recent national elections. Although there are many factors contributing to the rise of the ultra-right forces, it is undeniable that the refugee crisis has intensified Britain's withdrawal from the EU to a certain extent and posed a severe challenge to the development of European integration.

The tide of refugees is surging, and it is hopeless to solve it in a short time. Through the reaction and attitude of EU institutions and countries in this refugee crisis, it is not difficult to see that in an emergency, faced with the behavior of member States ignoring the overall actions of the EU for self-protection, the upper institutions of the EU lack a proper and effective handling mechanism. As a supranational institution, without an effective political coordination mechanism and reliable implementation guarantee, it will be powerless in the face of major collective decisions. Whether it is the refugee problem or the debt crisis, it is only a reflection of the loopholes in the EU's upper-level decision-making mechanism. Under the complicated political situation in the new century, the process of EU integration will not only face the obstacles of economic integration in the euro zone, but also face the differences of interests between EU member States and supranational institutions. Whether the EU will move towards division or integration in the next step lies in the reconstruction of its decision-making coordination mechanism.

References:

[1] Song Quancheng. European refugee crisis: process, characteristics and recent development prospects. Shandong social sciences. 20 16(2).

[2] Wu Huiping. European asylum system under the background of refugee crisis: policy framework, realistic predicament and development prospect. German Studies.2015 (4).

[3] Huang Haitao and Herry Liu. An analysis of European refugee crisis. Modern international relations. 20 15( 12).

[4] Zhang Jun. Welfare dilemma, "democratization" and European integration: the path of political transformation in Europe. European studies. 20 14 (1).

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