The current refugee crisis
Sep. 7th, 2015 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkThe EU Commissioner for Migration praised Austria's refugee camp Traiskirchen: "certain things could be improved in the next days, but all in all it's a hospitable and orderly environment. […] refugees are treated in a very humane way", and that Austria should be lauded for establishing this camp. (transl. by me) This is barely a month after Amnesty International visited the camp and reported inhumane conditions because of self-inflicted total systematic failure. During that time from what I can tell some conditions were improved, there are now a bit fewer people there and new management, so at least that's something, but I'm skeptical things changed this much. Since the latest wave of Syrian refugees coming from Hungary the media are reporting a lot less on those already here.
The outpouring of help for the refugees in Vienna + surrounding areas is beautiful. There are a lot of donations, one time when I drove by the train station ten minutes from my home half the pavement was full with refugees and helpers handing out stuff. Currently they're mostly still looking for money to buy tickets. There was already one big demonstration for treating refugees better (unfortunately I couldn't go because I was sick), and so far there has been surprisingly little xenophobia even from the political right and in the public discourse. Unfortunately I'm sure it won't last.
Isn't it interesting how public perception of refugees is much more welcoming when they're not staying here? Maybe I'm becoming too cynical.
I'm actually feeling mostly positive about my country in this regard right now, which is nice. There are many incredibly helpful people who are doing good things, the current wave of refugees is treated relatively well by a combination of volunteers and public institutions (thank you ÖBB), and even politicians seem to not be screwing this up yet. Austria is one of the leading European countries in accepting refugees per inhabitants (4th in 2014, according to UNHCR. 1st is Sweden, 2nd Hungary and 3rd Montenegro, while Germany and Turkey lead in refugees accepted per GDP/capita. data)
On the other hand I'm frustrated with several aspects of public discourse (what else is new.) For example there seems to be this idea that this is all happening very sudden. Maybe this particular group, but Europe has had a refugee problem for years that it refused to acknowledge, and people warned it would get worse and still nothing happened. People talk about the photograph of the drowned Syrian kid as if they only just found out that refugees are drowning on their way to Europe. This has been happening for years, thousands of them, and after every bigger catastrophe for a week people would remember this problem exists and then forget it again. (Props to Italy for actually financing a program to save people. Now the EU has a program but it has a much smaller budget.) That makes it hard to believe that this time a sustainable solution will be found instead of another temporary patchwork fix.
Or how so many seem to put all the blame on Hungary for not treating the refugees better. Hungary has finite resources, is shouldering a large part of the refugee crisis, and that after a recent economical crisis, and many EU states just can't agree on what to do and do very little. When Austrian journalists are talking about how terrible the situation at Keleti is and how terribly the Hungarian police is treating the refugees there's always this self-congratulatory undertone of how Austria is doing much better and acting in a much more humane way. Selective perception.
Unfortunately I have only a limited ability to deal with the refugee topic despite the fact that it's extremely important. (Also since I moved out of my parents' place and don't get their newspapers anymore it's been harder to stay well informed in a non-stressful way.)
Some "regular" political absurdity to end this post: Ursula Stenzel was a member of the ÖVP, Austria's moderate conservative party, and has been for ten years the political leader of Vienna's first and central district despite the fact that the whole city has been firmly in SPÖ, i.e. socialist, hands for years. She's known for not liking fun, like street artists and festivals etc. For the next city elections in October the ÖVP didn't nominate her as their main candidate again, so she recently announced that she will run for election as an independent candidate – on the list of the FPÖ, Austria's right-wing party, the party that the ÖVP has been trying to distance themselves from whenever politically convenient, which is always except when they desperately need a coalition partner. Politics.
The outpouring of help for the refugees in Vienna + surrounding areas is beautiful. There are a lot of donations, one time when I drove by the train station ten minutes from my home half the pavement was full with refugees and helpers handing out stuff. Currently they're mostly still looking for money to buy tickets. There was already one big demonstration for treating refugees better (unfortunately I couldn't go because I was sick), and so far there has been surprisingly little xenophobia even from the political right and in the public discourse. Unfortunately I'm sure it won't last.
Isn't it interesting how public perception of refugees is much more welcoming when they're not staying here? Maybe I'm becoming too cynical.
I'm actually feeling mostly positive about my country in this regard right now, which is nice. There are many incredibly helpful people who are doing good things, the current wave of refugees is treated relatively well by a combination of volunteers and public institutions (thank you ÖBB), and even politicians seem to not be screwing this up yet. Austria is one of the leading European countries in accepting refugees per inhabitants (4th in 2014, according to UNHCR. 1st is Sweden, 2nd Hungary and 3rd Montenegro, while Germany and Turkey lead in refugees accepted per GDP/capita. data)
On the other hand I'm frustrated with several aspects of public discourse (what else is new.) For example there seems to be this idea that this is all happening very sudden. Maybe this particular group, but Europe has had a refugee problem for years that it refused to acknowledge, and people warned it would get worse and still nothing happened. People talk about the photograph of the drowned Syrian kid as if they only just found out that refugees are drowning on their way to Europe. This has been happening for years, thousands of them, and after every bigger catastrophe for a week people would remember this problem exists and then forget it again. (Props to Italy for actually financing a program to save people. Now the EU has a program but it has a much smaller budget.) That makes it hard to believe that this time a sustainable solution will be found instead of another temporary patchwork fix.
Or how so many seem to put all the blame on Hungary for not treating the refugees better. Hungary has finite resources, is shouldering a large part of the refugee crisis, and that after a recent economical crisis, and many EU states just can't agree on what to do and do very little. When Austrian journalists are talking about how terrible the situation at Keleti is and how terribly the Hungarian police is treating the refugees there's always this self-congratulatory undertone of how Austria is doing much better and acting in a much more humane way. Selective perception.
Unfortunately I have only a limited ability to deal with the refugee topic despite the fact that it's extremely important. (Also since I moved out of my parents' place and don't get their newspapers anymore it's been harder to stay well informed in a non-stressful way.)
Some "regular" political absurdity to end this post: Ursula Stenzel was a member of the ÖVP, Austria's moderate conservative party, and has been for ten years the political leader of Vienna's first and central district despite the fact that the whole city has been firmly in SPÖ, i.e. socialist, hands for years. She's known for not liking fun, like street artists and festivals etc. For the next city elections in October the ÖVP didn't nominate her as their main candidate again, so she recently announced that she will run for election as an independent candidate – on the list of the FPÖ, Austria's right-wing party, the party that the ÖVP has been trying to distance themselves from whenever politically convenient, which is always except when they desperately need a coalition partner. Politics.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-07 09:08 pm (UTC)This has been happening for years, thousands of them, and after every bigger catastrophe for a week people would remember this problem exists and then forget it again.
YES THIS. It's the actual unfunny, tragic version of how surprised motorists are by the first snow. Snow? In December?? Who knew winter was coming?
Who knew so many people needed somewhere to go? What a surprise! Especially ironic when the same newspapers that are very anti-immigrant are the ones blaring ISIS stories at everyone - the more horrible the better, and they're coming for you. Well guess what - these are the people who ISIS did come for and most of the same shitty papers have bleated on about "migrants" and "UK under attack" and even published editorials comparing refugees to roaches (URGH the vile excuse for humanity that wrote that...) and saying it was fine for them to drown.
So the hypocrisy of "oh let's save these poor souls" is STUNNING from some quarters.
The quarters that are still on the anti-migrant rants are even worse, though.
(Props to Italy for actually financing a program to save people. Now the EU has a program but it has a much smaller budget.)
Yes, absolutely. Of course, the UK didn't pitch in, saying funding the rescue would only cause more people to attempt the crossing. (!?!?!) Yeah. These politicians have the blood of drowned babies and families on their hands.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 10:31 am (UTC)Of course some politicians still don't seem to understand that, or like to ignore that, it's infuriating.
And that is a terrible excuse not to rescue people. They do know that we don't have the death penalty anymore for a reason, right? The deterrent does not work, that is proven.
After the last UK election one reaction was "this will literally kill people" and I'm horrified to see that they were right.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-07 11:57 pm (UTC)I'm very glad Austria took them on, in any case. You have lots of reasons to be proud this week. (And if I were a Syrian refugee, I'd rather go to Austria than stay in Hungary anyway.)
-J
no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 10:48 am (UTC)There were actually very few refugees from this wave seeking asylum in Austria, last I heard between one and two hundred. Most want to go to Germany or further north. Many refugees in Austria are still houseless, hopefully the situation will improve soon. At least the initial reception was welcoming.