Open borders rhetoric in Europe

Open borders rhetoric in Europe

I found this BBC article, EU immigration policies condemned, a useful compendium of open-borders rhetorical devices:

Attribute concern about immigration to the “far right.”
Call for “strong leadership” (i.e., ignoring popular concerns).
Request the strong leadership to “dispel popular misconceptions and fears” (i.e., engage in obfuscation and shut down discussion).
Call excluding illegals “sealing borders” or “Fortress Europe.” Say it’s xenophobic and can’t be done anyway, so what’s needed are legal channels of entry.
Say “anti-immigrant” and not “anti-immigration.”
Otherwise refer to everything that might be done as ineffective, counterproductive, or against human rights, and claim all immigration is either beneficial to the receiving country, required by human rights, or both.
Never vary from the key point: there are no legitimate arguments, and can be no legitimate arguments, against essentially open borders. The only problem worthy of public discussion is xenophobia and how to fight it. Thus EU proposals to do something about illegal immigration can only be understood as a way of dealing with the far right.

Similar rhetorical devices are of course used with regard to other elements of the left/liberal agenda.
Posted by Jim Kalb at June 22, 2002 03:33 PM | Send

Comments

This reminds me of how Pat Buchanan is sometimes called “anti-trade” for being against free trade. Just take someone’s views out of context. Then cook up with a snappy distotion which is treated as fact.

Posted by: Jim Carver on June 22, 2002 7:37 PM

The Horrifying Idiocy of the European Left:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/22/international/europe/22FRAN.html?ex=1025409600&en=8935b50c4882ccac&ei=5001&partner=YAHOO

A new book called _L’Effroyable Imposture_ (The Horrifying Fraud), which blames a nebulous right-wing conspiracy on the Sept. 11 attacks, is enjoying brisk sales in France. It’s on their best sellers list in fact. It appears the European Left is no longer content with dubious historical analysis but now wishes to frabricate a bizarre delusional history that requires suspension of all intellectual faculties. To be fair, the French center-left is openly deriding the book and a comprehensive rebuttal is available called _L’Effroyable Mensonge_ (The Horrifying Lie). However, to my mind that doesn’t excuse the French Left’s infatuation with the book.

We are constantly told by the media and educational system that liberalism has a monopoly on rational thought. Then why is a book that has the credibility of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” even being glanced at?

The author of “L’Effroyable” is here: http://www.reseauvoltaire.net/
He’s doing presentations for the Arab League it appears.

Posted by: Jason Eubanks on June 23, 2002 2:44 AM

From the BBC article:

“The summit host, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar, has rejected allegations that the EU is seeking to seal its border to anybody from outside the West.

“I have said it clearly and I want to reiterate that debates about a ‘Fortress Europe’ make no sense,” he said.

“Europe is not going to be a fortress, nor do we want it to become one, but it will not either be a chasm where anything can pass through.”“

Well, at least one leader in Europe isn’t hopping mad. Aznar for President, anyone?

Posted by: John on June 23, 2002 6:45 AM