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So Georgia Meloni, the supposed far-right firebrand of Italy, is now planning to radically open up visa access for non-EU migrants. PiS in Poland are planning similar measures, even as they've let in record number of workers from moslem-majority countries since they've took power. Of course, the rhetoric from both the Italian and the Poles are all about asylum seekers and illegal migration. Sort of reminds me of GOP rhetoric about stopping people at the border even as they get jawboned by business lobbies to liberalise legal avenues for work visas.
It's the same thing here and it deserves to be pointed out that these fake populists in Europe are ultimately in thrall to the same power system as the old parties are. What's driving large-scale migration isn't some evil plot. It's not Soros or even the Kalergi plan. It's just capitalism. Both of those individuals may be colorful but ultimately the driving force is structural.
Of course, my explanation is boring, perhaps even banal, which is why it will never take off. Not enough drama. As for these developments, I think Europe should be a bit "pragmatically racist" in selecting groups from countries that have a track record of integrating well, e.g. I'd give preference for South-East Asia, but it appears that such a moderate policy is too racist even for the "far-right".
Incidentally, when reading about Max Weber's life in recent days, I found out that he was quite nationalistic as a young man and even campaigned against cheap foreign labour (principally from Eastern Europe). Quite ironic for someone who later became a liberal intellectual, but also amusing in that it shows that this thing has been going on for a lot longer than people realise and it likely won't end soon either.
Painting Meloni as “far right” was always weird. Another contradiction - she’s an unmarried mother living ‘in sin’ and yet claims to be a good Catholic.
In general there is a sizable portion of the Italian right that runs vague apologetics for Mussolini and is semi-descended from postwar fascists the US tolerated in case of an Operation Gladio type situation where they’d be needed to keep the country from falling to communism. But these shouldn’t necessarily be considered “far right” by euro political standards, often they’ve been part of mainstream parties previously. It’s just that unlike Germany and France there wasn’t the same clear historical dividing line between what counted as ‘center’ and what counted as ‘far’ right that was as vigorously policed as it was in much of Northern Europe.
Lastly, I’m skeptical of the Polish Muslim immigration chart. Not because I don’t think PiS would do it, but because I can’t find any sources online that suggest those kinds of visa counts to citizens of Muslim majority countries are being granted. Which countries are they?
Mussolini did not lead a very conservative lifestyle yet I don't think anyone disputes that he was, well, a fascist. Admittedly, being a conservative and a fascist aren't the same things. But the "far-right" epithet contains multitudes, as it were. Someone's personal habits isn't always indicative of their political beliefs, at least stated ones.
These are being collated by a Polish-American who lives in Krakow. The source is the ministry of labour and the PiS government isn't even disputing them as far as I am aware. After all, why would they? It's their own ministry. These numbers are quite recent and haven't filtered in the wider Anglophone press, probably because of the language barrier. The dataset is in Polish, hence the translation. I've looked at Eurostat data and seen supporting evidence, though their methodology slightly differs and as such probably underestimates the number. Eurostat also hasn't released their 2022 numbers yet, that will only happen this autumn.
As for countries, it's places like Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Turkey etc. Lots of Uzbek cab drivers in Warsaw these days.
Yeah, anything I searched on Polish immigration from Muslim countries was an order of magnitude lower than the numbers in that guy’s chart. Immigration is hard to stop, that’s the reality. Malaysia now has a large Nigerian population, a bunch of the Grab (Uber) drivers I had there last year were Africans, usually overstaying student visas. They almost all bring dependants obviously. In the end any government that isn’t explicitly opposed to mass immigration and takes big steps (like Denmark’s slowly developing ethnic preferences system that will largely limit migration to ‘Western’ countries) in that direction will see mass immigration.
Still, if you do find a source for the Polish figures, let me know - I’m curious.
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