“Exclusive” or “Inclusive”?

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, sharing all the world. (John Lennon)

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, sharing all the world. (John Lennon)
Tens of thousands of people take huge risks to flee across the sea because they see no future for themselves in their home countries. In the not too distant future, large areas of coastland and small islands will, due to rising sea levels, no longer be habitable for people.  What does this tell us? We have to close ranks! But we also get uneasy, especially when we hear deliberate scare stories. And we are quite used to hearing that if we have to make space for someone, then at least let it be someone who “fits in”. 
Yet the details of the dramas taking place at Europe’s borders are shocking to the great majority of people living in Europe – assuming they ever hear about them. Anyone making it across the Greek-Turkish border, literally under cover of darkness, ends up in a refugee camp near the border town of Soufli. In a programme broadcast by Deutschlandfunk in July 2011, a representative of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) reported that the conditions there were worse than anything he had experienced in Africa: 1 lavatory for 170 people, for example. It would be easy to improve conditions if the EU did not want to use such conditions as a deterrent!
“Denmark puts up the barriers”, was the headline that described the strictest immigration rules anywhere in Europe in this, until last year’s change in government, once exemplarily liberal country. Subsequent immigration of spouses under 24 years of age from non-EU countries was generally forbidden. Following a decision by the conservative government in 2010, older spouses are only allowed to follow if the couple provide  DKK 100,000 (Euro 13,500) as security. A points system was introduced to control immigration, whereby it is easier for partners who have degrees from “leading universities” to receive a residence permit – even if younger than 24 years old. Unfortunately the social democrat government now in power also supported the points system at the time.
In Canada there is no question that EVERY person can make a positive contribution to society. Canada is a classic immigration country. This is emphasised by slogans such as “Celebrate Diversity”. A role model is the establishment of “settlement workers” in schools. These external specialists make early contact with immigrant families (also from other regions of Canada). Parents as well as teachers are decisively disburdened, and the children are thereby indirectly supported. Investment that pays off.
People who end up in German refugee camps have no chance of making themselves useful. They are consciously kept in a parallel society, without contact to the outside. This is because work colleagues, neighbours or friends from the sport club could be voices of protest when they are due to be deported. And the German state is quite happy to spend plenty of money to maintain this situation! “Tolerated” persons and people with an ongoing asylum application receive a third less income support than someone on the Hartz-IV social security tariff. But according to research by the TAZ newspaper, the collective accommodation in which asylum seekers are housed in mostly remote areas, are often run by private firms who take more money than people on regular Harz-IV tariff would have to pay for a flat.
The musician Heinz Ratz cycled almost 8000 km through Germany between January and April 2011, to draw attention to these “degrading” conditions by giving benefit concerts in the camps. He visited around 80 facilities, where he met world-class musicians who are well-known in their home countries, but who are not even allowed to buy an instrument here, let alone perform their art.  This is why he now collects instruments for the refugee camps at all the concerts he gives with his band “Strom und Wasser”, and has recorded a CD with some of these musicians.
Concerts by Strom & Wasser with guests from Afghanistan, Gambia, Macedonia and Kosovo 

Text: Jens-Peter Müller