Plus: the right Canadian model for Brexit Britain; the coming trade war over European cars For all her faults, Angela Merkel has done more to help refugees in recent years than any other European leader. So it is incongruous – indeed, shameful – that the German Chancellor’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is in the same political group in the European Parliament as Fidesz, the party of Hungary’s vehemently xenophobic …
Continue readingThe right Canadian model for Brexit Britain
Britain has much to learn from Canada’s modest realism in negotiating with a neighbouring economic giant By Jack Graham “Britain clings to imperial nostalgia as Brexit looms” (Washington Post). “Whatever form Brexit eventually takes it is a rearward step into an imagined past” (Globe and Mail). “With Brexit, [Britain] seems to be embracing an introverted irrelevance” (New York Times). Having moved from the UK to Toronto last summer, I’ve been struck by the fact …
Continue readingThe new global disorder; is Berlin the new London?; year in review
The new global disorder Season two of The Trump Show. Season three of Brexit Breakdown. Part five of Homicide: Australian PM. 2018 has been another eventful year – and not just on Netflix. There’s also an edgy new French drama, Gilets Jaunes. A terrifying new Brazilian telenovela, Comandante Bolsonaro. Meanwhile a long-running German series, the Merkel Mysteries, has been cancelled. And much else besides. Yet when historians look back at 2018, it is likely …
Continue readingMilitarising the US-Mexican border
Plus: the value of asylum seekers; Brexit; after Merkel As so often with Donald Trump, the move is both for show and at the same time deadly serious. Sending up to 15,000 US troops to defend the border with Mexico against an unarmed “caravan” of Central Americans fleeing violence to seek refuge in America is primarily a way of rallying the Republican base for today’s crucial midterm elections. The images …
Continue readingOPEN briefing: migrants’ right to vote, Brexit blunders, good news on refugees
Nativists are in the ascendant in many countries right now. Governments are responding by curtailing migrants’ rights. And whether it is Brexit Britain or Trump’s America, immigrants are often powerless to fight back. That needs to change. Giving long-term foreign residents the right to vote isn’t just a matter of human rights, it’s about bringing democracy into the 21st century, argues Iana Dreyer in a must-read new piece for OPEN. Electing the people who …
Continue readingWeekly report featuring Dayton, Jersey, Italy and refugees
America’s Rust Belt. Old industrial towns in the north of England. France’s northern Hauts de France region. Eastern Germany. The places that have suffered from industrial decline in recent decades often focus their anger on immigrants. But what if newcomers could actually help regenerate such areas? After its economy suffered and its population slumped, the city of Dayton, Ohio has put that theory to the test. Its innovative “Welcome …
Continue readingThe threats to migrants’ right to stay
Plus: France’s asylum reforms The 3 million EU citizens who have made their lives in the UK are understandably concerned about their post-Brexit residency rights, as are the 1 million or so UK citizens who have settled in the EU. While there is a broad political consensus that they should be able to stay and the prospect of legal certainty in the UK’s EU exit agreement, the uncertainty is still deeply unsettling. So …
Continue readingHighlights of 2017, Prospects for 2018
The “highlights” of 2017 are mostly lowlights. The year began with the inauguration of a racist US president who pledged to build a border wall to keep out Mexican “killers and rapists”, ban Muslims from entering America and tear up the liberal international order in favour of an America First strategy of nationalism, protectionism and xenophobia. While many of Trump’s actions have been symbolic, his clampdown on refugees and immigrants is very real. 2017 was …
Continue readingBrexit: Sufficient progress, Irish fudge, much still to do
“Sufficient progress” has been made on the terms of the UK’s orderly withdrawal from the EU to move on to discussing the framework of their future relationship next year. That is the European Commission’s recommendation to EU leaders who meet at the European Council on 14-15 December. Barring unforeseen hitches, that means negotiations can soon move on to discussing the post-Brexit transition period that the UK has requested and the …
Continue readingBrexiteers’ delusion of regulatory independence
By Sam Lowe Far from reclaiming its independence, post-Brexit Britain will have to choose between remaining within the EU’s regulatory ambit or performing a transatlantic pivot towards the US. Either way, it will be a rule-taker, not a rule-maker Brexit-induced dreams of independence have poisoned Britain’s political discourse. Scarcely a day goes by without a new rallying cry plastered across a tabloid front page: We will break free of the …
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