Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/576901
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 15 est countries in the world. So even though the numbers coming to Eu- rope are challenging – there've been around 500,000 this summer alone – it remains nothing compared to the immediate region. And the reason why more haven't come to Europe is simply because they don't have the strength or means to do so." Africa – or the 'global south', which in this context also includes parts of Asia and South America – currently forms what Pisani describes as the primary containment area. "Then there's what I call the 'sec- ondary containment' within Europe itself: the Dublin convention, which means that asylum seekers have to remain in the first country of asylum. So anyone coming from the global south – if they've been forced to take the irregular route – is always going to land in Italy, Greece, Malta… the external border countries." However, it seems this two-tier defence system was fatally flawed. People are clearly not staying within the primary confinement area… and now, not even in the secondary one. "What we've seen this summer is that the Greek system has collapsed; the secondary containment policy has failed, and asylum seekers are making their way into Serbia, Hun- gary, and on into the rest of Europe. Now, the countries in the north are experiencing the same flows - in- tensified, of course – that they had been shielded from. Before, all those asylum seekers would have had to remain in Greece, Italy and Malta. It has become increasingly difficult for someone from Somalia, Kenya, or even Syria to get a visa to enter the EU. Bearing in mind that it is impos- sible to stop people from migrating - particularly in the case of war or conflict – the only option left is ir- regular migration. The possibility of regular travel to Europe is closed to them… and if they can't find a way in through the front door, they'll come in through the window." Faced with that situation, Pisani ar- gues in favour of providing safe and legal ways to get to Europe. Unsur- prisingly, there is no consensus on this either. In fact, there doesn't seem to be consensus on any aspect of Eu- rope's policies… "There never was any 'common European approach'," she continues. "There never was any solidarity. And it doesn't matter how much money you throw at a country. There is ab- solutely no denying that the external border counties faced disproportion- ate responsibility for asylum seek- ers." Even if the system hadn't collapsed this summer, its consequences would still be serious in the long- term. Pisani argues that the current legislative framework governing migration in Europe has succeeded only in increasing the number of un- documented migrants throughout the EU. "If you look at Malta's statistics: there have been around 20,000 boat arrivals over the past 10 years or so. It is now estimated that around 6,000 of those people are still here. In reality, however, nobody really knows: that's the reality of irregular migration. If you count foreigners illegally resid- ing in Malta, the number is probably much higher than that… but they probably won't be Africans." Coming back to the 20,000 fig- ure: "Of those, I think around 5,000 were resettled in the USA; around 300 availed of assisted voluntary re- turn programmes. I don't know how many forced deportations, but let's say 1,000 – these are only rough es- timates, to give you an idea of how it works in practice – and another 600 relocated to other parts of the EU. Add up that total – 7,000 – to the 6,000 we know are still here, and that makes 13,000 accounted for. In other words, 7,000 unaccounted for…" Many of these, she adds, would have been given some of protection and left for Europe on legal travel documents… and then overstayed. Others would have remained un- documented, here or elsewhere. "The bottom line is that the present system produces undocumented people. So what we will see in the coming years is a growing popula- tion of undocumented migrants. According to the most recent statis- tics there are an estimated 6 million undocumented migrants in Europe; but those statistics are five years old. The figure will have grown since then, and it is will continue to grow. And this is problematic. It's prob- lematic for the migrants themselves, but ultimately it is problematic for the broader society. We know that where you have socially excluded groups, the whole of society suffers." Would she say, then, that the aim of a workable European immigra- tion policy should be to regularise the position of those undocumented persons? "Yes," she replies without hesita- tion. "The problem is we are still very much functioning on a nation-state basis: on a citizenship basis, where citizenship trumps human rights. But the world is changing. There needs to be a massive shift in the way we look at the entire issue." Interview Europe's old asylum policies have failed. Sociologist MARIA PISANI argues that our entire perspective on migration needs to shift to accommodate new realities beginning of a new era PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD