fortress europe | Pandaemonium

A REFUGEE CRISIS – AND A CRISIS OF RESPONSE

September 15, 2015 by Kenan Malik

In October 2013, a ship carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. Some 300 people drowned. European leaders expressed anger and outrage. The Italian government declared a national day of mourning. ‘I hope that this will be the last time we see a tragedy of this kind’, said Jean-Claude Mignon, head of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, ‘and I make a fervent appeal for specific, urgent action by member states to end this shame’. […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: europe, european union, fortress europe, germany, immigration, refugees

THE PRICE OF FORTRESS EUROPE

May 14, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of my article on the Mediterranean migrant tragedy, first published in the New York Times last month, at the start of the current crisis, under the headline ‘Migrants face Fortress Europe’s deadly moat’. ( I cannot publish my New York Times articles on Pandaemonium until the following month.) Up to 1,200 people are believed to have died this past week when, in several incidents, their flimsy boats foundered in the Mediterranean. These migrants from Syria, […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: european union, fortress europe, immigration, italy, racism

MIGRANTS FACE FORTRESS EUROPE’S DEADLY MOAT

April 22, 2015 by Kenan Malik

My latest column for the New York Times is on the tragedy of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and the immorality of the EU policy. Here are the opening paragraphs. You can read the full article in the NYT. The image above is by Arianno Vairo from the New York Times. Up to 1,200 people are believed to have died this past week when, in several incidents, their flimsy boats foundered in the Mediterranean. These migrants from Syria, Mali, Eritrea, […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: european union, fortress europe, immigration, italy

TIME TO UNFENCE OUR VIEW OF MIGRATION

October 6, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Ruben Andersson is an anthropologist at LSE’s Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, and the author of Illegality, Inc: Clandestine migration and the business of bordering Europe. He recently published a post on the LSE politics blog which described how immigration border fences feed the very problem they supposedly address. I am delighted to be able to republish it on Pandaemonium. Ruben Andersson It is time to unfence our view of migration Migration panic is upon Calais yet again. Amid […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Race & Immigration • Tags: borders, britain, european union, fortress europe, immigration, immigration controls, refugees, ruben andersson, spain, use

MELANIE PHILLIPS RESPONDS

March 31, 2014 by Kenan Malik

Last week I wrote a critique of Melanie Phillips’ column in which she claimed the progressive ground for critics of mass immigration. Here is her response to my critique. My thanks to Melanie for taking the time and trouble to write this. I have written a response which I originally posted as a comment but have now attached to the end of this post. ‘A compendium of straw men, misunderstandings and questionable assertions’ I’m afraid Kenan’s criticism of my Times […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, fortress europe, immigration, liberalism, melanie phillips, muslims, racism

IF ONLY SHE HAD READ MY ESSAY FIRST…

March 27, 2014 by Kenan Malik

On Monday my essay ‘In Defence of Diversity’ – which exposes the hollowness of contemporary anti-immigration rhetoric, and places it in historical context – won the 3 Quarks Daily 2014 essay prize. And on Monday, the Times’ new columnist Melanie Phillips – my old colleague from the days when I was a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze – published a polemic trying to claim the progressive ground for critics of mass immigration. Her arguments are familiar – […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-semitism, british politics, david goodhart, fortress europe, immigration, liberalism, melanie phillips, muslims, racism, working class

IN DEFENCE OF DIVERSITY

November 25, 2013 by Kenan Malik

There has recently been built in Merton in south London a ‘mega mosque’ that has inevitably become the focus of much controversy. In his book The British Dream, David Goodhart, director of the centre-left think tank Demos, takes the mosque as symbolic of the unacceptable change that immigration has wrought upon the nation. The mosque, he writes, ‘replaced an Express Dairies bottling plant which provided a few hundred jobs for local people and lots of milk bottles — an icon […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: christopher caldwell, cultural diversity, david goodhart, fortress europe, identity politics, immigration, jews, lampedusa, paul collier, racism, robert putnam, working class

A POLICY WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE

October 9, 2013 by Kenan Malik

The Italian government declared last Friday to be a national day of mourning. President Giorgio Napolitano talked of the latest in ‘a succession of true slaughters of innocents’. ‘We must end this now’, insisted Jean-Claude Mignon, head of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly. ‘I hope that this will be the last time we see a tragedy of this kind’. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the disaster should be ‘a spur to action’. Pope Francis called it ‘a […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: fortress europe, immigration, italy, lampedusa, migration