Integration

National borders are a reality – and for most people, they are something that is taken for granted and indeed necessary.

The right to asylum is not a numbers game, it is a human right.

Borders are back! After 60 years of peace in Europe and the gradual abolition of its internal borders, Europe is now experiencing the full force of the backlash. National borders are once again being heralded as the essential panacea for the multiple crises which have shaken Europe right down to the depths of its foundations.

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, the international spotlight has been on Belgium as an alleged breeding ground for radical Islam.

The events of the last couple of weeks in Poland are no peripheral abomination, and certainly no exception. They are a part of a global trend of liberal democratic models becoming weaker and weaker, a trend which can also be found in the heart of Europe.

The conflicting messages of welcome displayed by the German government towards refugees is hindering integration processes, for the state, the refugees and the citizens. For the sake of all three, accepting the situation is the only way of moving forward.

Europeans have to make their societies genuinely inclusive, and Greens could play a constructive role in making this work – says Green MEP Jean Lambert, in an interview with the Green European Journal, which touched on Jeremy Corbyn, Calais and the British response to the refugee crisis.

Alexander Langer was a political Green pioneer, both in Italy, where he founded the national list of the Greens, as well as at the European level, where he became president of the Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament. In his thinking he radically challenged not only the myth of unlimited economic growth – but also to the notions of ​​progress and thinking in terms of left and right politics.

While the traditional European way of peace-making was based on separating peoples, the Green European way of peace-building should be based on power-sharing and trust-building.

Joschka Fischer’s new book, ‘Is Europe Failing?’ does not offer armour-plated solutions. Nevertheless, as well as its sharp analysis of the causes of the current European problems, it proposes a framework for resolving them. In any case, the book is an essential reading – beginning with the electric shock of seeing such an ardent supporter of the construction of a united Europe sounding such a loud alarm.