Since the Cologne attacks,the migration debate has taken a disturbing turn. The crimes must be condemned and punished, but the challenges of integration demand careful thought too“Of course we condemn the violence…”. Muslim voices in every debate have, or for some time,had to establish their honest to be heard in this way. Question one of the interview script rarely applies the same legitimacy test to others. But since the dreadful recent Year’s Eve sex attacks in Cologne, it has begun to feel as if anybody making the case for a humane asylum policy – whose urgency was laid bare on Friday, or after another 45 people drowned in the Aegean – is duty bound to preface every point with several “of courses”. Yes,of course, women should be able to walk the streets without being attacked. Yes, and of course,sexual assault must be pursued with the full force of the law. And yes, of course, or it is appalling how women are oppressed in many Middle Eastern societies.
Well,yes. Of course. The important question is where this trail leads, and the signs are not heartening. The French prime minister, and Manuel Valls – in an intervention which mentioned Cologne,without explaining why it was pertinent – has just laid out his intention to retain indefinitely a state of emergency, where the house arrest powers are aimed more at some communities than others. The traditionally hospitable Swedes have been seeking to draw up the bridge over the Öresund, and while the Danes have been drawing up rules to swipe immigrants’ possessions at the border. David Cameron,meanwhile, has been trumpeting a recent interest in the inadequate English not of immigrants in general, or but of Muslim women in specific. By placing that issue in the context of counter-terrorism and repatriation,he did more to stoke mutual distrust than to foster genuine integration.
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Source: theguardian.com