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Do I wish there was a better way for people to seek asylum? Absolutely. There was talk about setting up centers in some northern african countries to let people apply without crossing the Med. Don't know if that happened yet though. Sounds like a reasonable idea to me. And I seriously doubt that Frontex "sends them back to get raped & tortured". If they knew that was going to happen they're not allowed to.
Brexit was a Russia sponsored fluke. I'm not saying there aren't people using migrants as scapegoats for everything, but they're a minority, but as times gets tougher I get how migrants gets blamed. It's hard to help someone when you barely got enough for yourself.
About the americans, they would by what's commonly referred to as "high value migrants", meaning educated and experienced, someone who can go more or less directly into productive work. That's the kind of migrant every country on earth wants. Those are the kind of workers that helps grow the economy.
As a continent I think we're very far from both racist and backwards. Yes, there are those elements among us, but for the most part we're decent people. We make mistakes and stumble, but we're generally doing the right thing. I have fatih in us.
The part of brexit is manifestly not true. Brexit is a US invention, the far right from the US banked the whole thing. Case in point, Steve Banon and Cambridge analytica. Allowing US companies to run our digital life is the biggest mistake of the european civilization, and now that civilization is at risk, threatened by a raging jingoistic maniac.
I'd say both. There were absolutely Russian money involved in brexit. By saying this I'm in no way denying US far-right involvement. I don't think it was state-sponsored from the US though. I 100% believe it was when it comes to Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_Brexit_referendum
I have very little doubt it was state sponsored. There has been ample evidence there is an interest from the US to make the EU a vassal region again, regardless of who is president. Starting with spying on allies with the help of DK to AUKUS, to fast tracking a war in our region to stop our only de facto dependence on them, hydrocarbons, from being made redundant. The EU is leading the world in renewable energy, but we can't have that, because the only coercive lever after that is direct conflict. In fact, there's ample evidence Biden and Bojo chose to prolong the UA war with empty promises to Zelensky that are now being paid in blood. The purpose of that is obvious, when you ask qui bono. Putin didn't want NATO at his door, RU & the US didn't want UA in the EU, so here we are. Had UA entered the EU, the supply of hydrocarbons from RU and US would have been made redundant enough given UA has reserved estimated to be enough to support the EU energy transition to renewables independently.
Maybe? But there's no evidence of US-government tampering with the brexit referendum, but there is for the Russian government. I'm not going to defend the US, certainly not currently, but I'd like to see evidence before accusing the US of something. They've done plenty of shady stuff, so there's no shortage of things to blame them for, but so far I haven't seen any evidence of US state sponsored brexit shenanigans.
I think your view is a bit optimistic - centers in North Africa won't fix the systemic issues with our border policies. Frontex absolutely does send people back to places where they face torture and sexual violence. They've been repeatedly documented performing illegal pushbacks in the Mediterranean and the Aegean.
They're actively pushing people back to Libya where EU-funded detention centers are effectively torture camps. And Frontex continues illegal pushbacks regularly despite court rulings against them.
There's extensive evidence of this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/03/libya-migrants-tripoli-refugees-detention-camps
I understand wanting to believe we're better than this, but the facts don't support it. The "we're decent people making mistakes" narrative is comforting but doesn't hold up when you look at the policies we collectively support through our governments.
About the "high value migrants" thing - that's exactly my point about how our immigration system works. We welcome people based on economic utility, not humanitarian need. We'll roll out the red carpet for an American engineer but let Syrian doctors drown.
And this economic utility approach is still fragile - when the economy turns, even the "high value" migrants become scapegoats. Just look at how Brexit campaigns targeted Polish doctors and Eastern European professionals despite their contributions.