MNS Summary January 2008:
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The eagerly and long-awaited ruling of the European
Court of Justice (ECJ) on the case of a Latvian service provider which was
compelled to leave Sweden because of collective union action features
prominently in the January 2008 issue. What was at stake was the Scandinavian
social model of employment relationship which allows for management and unions
to decide on wages by way of collective negotiation and enables flexibility
without jeopardising workers’ interests.
One of the EU fundamental freedoms, that of providing
services, has blown a wide hole into this model, which has won praise and
admiration from a number of EU Member States. In its judgment, the ECJ has
generally upheld the grievances of the Latvian service provider.
Another ECJ ruling of major interest concerns the
right of family reunion which is acquired by EU workers exercising another
fundamental freedom, that of working freely in another Member State. It is
becoming increasingly common that when an EU national cannot exercise the right
of family reunion under the national law of his/her country, s/he does so by
relying on more liberal EU law. In order to do so, the EU national must first
exercise the right of free movement.
The ECJ ruling is not without ambiguity since the
judges were keen on upholding the right of family reunion for EU nationals
having exercised the right of free movement, but wanted to leave open the
possibility for national courts to oppose this, reminding, as it has already
done so on several occasions in the past, that it would be unlawful for an EU
national to make abusive use of an EU law with the sole purpose of
circumventing national law.
Other ECJ cases covered in this issue are the two
unsuccessful complaints lodged by the UK (and therefore Ireland as well) about
being kept out of two Schengen measures and a new challenge mounted by a German
national against his country’s general processing of personal data of
foreigners, arguing that this in incompatible with EU law.
The section of migration policies also continues to
cover the on-going debate on how to deal with shortages of manpower, especially
skilled labour, including the latest debate by EU Ministers on their response
to the European Commission’s so-called Blue Card scheme; the refusal by the
German Government to give into demands by industrialists to ease conditions of
recruitment of skilled labour; preference by Norwegian business leaders that
manpower shortages be provided by foreign service providers and the British
Government’s new immigration policy based on points.
Some of the other articles deal with the social
problems that have arisen with the strong influx of workers from the new EU
Member States in Eastern and Central Europe, especially Poles. The strong
influx appears to be jeopardising the position of Bulgarians and Romanians who
may have to wait a little longer than previously thought.
In the Netherlands, the problems are mostly related to
housing whereas in the UK, the debate is whether the influx of East European
workers has kept out British workers from the labour market or kept them on
unemployment benefits.
The problem is quite different in Italy where the
Government has had to pass a new decree to enable to expulsion of EU foreigners
who pose public order threats. Romanians, essentially those of Roma origin, are
implicitly targeted.
Other articles in this section include: the demand by
Alger that Paris loosen up its visa policy towards Algerians; France’s efforts
to sign agreements on migration management with several West African countries;
publication of criteria enabling foreigners to obtain work permits in France;
tough new measures imposed on employers in the UK to verify whether their
employees are entitled to work; UK proposal that a bond be paid by UK residents
sponsoring the visit of third-country nationals, be they friends or relatives.
Articles on irregular migration continue to cover the
numerous drowning tragedies in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Sea,
the Aegean Sea and off the coast of Western Sahara and West Africa concerning
sub-Saharan migrants wanting to go to the Canary Islands.
Other articles report on:
- Yet another hunger strike action by irregular migrants
who are convinced that this extreme way of obtaining residence permits leads to
results;
- The setting up of a new database in France to keep
track of foreigners under the obligation to leave;
- failure of the French Government to reach the target
of 25,000 expulsions even after including almost 1,000 Romanians and Bulgarians
who are now EU nationals; the agreement between Rome and Tripoli to carry out
joint surveillance operations at sea to apprehend irregular
migrants/asylum-seekers;
- Dutch authorities’ enlistment of “co-operation” of
hotels to track down irregular migrants;
- Case of four victims of forced prostitution in the UK
who have become the first to receive compensation, thus paving the way for up
to 10,000 others;
- Claims that up to 11,000 irregular migrants were
granted clearance by the UK’s Security Industry Authority to take up jobs of providing
security, including those in the police forces.
On protection issues, the leading article is the
decision of the UN Committee against Torture, criticising the tough and rigid
Swiss asylum procedure of refusing to examine the merits of claims lodged by
asylum-seekers unable to provide acceptable proof of identity without 48 hours
of making an application.
National news items include:
- Case of the 15-year old Kosovar girl Arigona ZOGAZ who
has lost her last court battle to remain in Austria;
- French Government’s plan to offer protection to Iraqi
Christians;
- Falling numbers of rejected Nigerian asylum-seekers on
board chartered repatriation flights from Ireland;
- Dutch Government being confronted with an annual bill
of 50 million Euros following regularisation of long-stay asylum-seekers;
- Decision of the Swedish Migration Board that Mogadishu
is not in a situation of armed conflict;
- Swedish Migration Court of Appeal upholds decision
that Iraqi asylum-seekers must provide proof of being personally targeted to
deserve protection;
- Swedish Immigration Minister’s proposal that
asylum-seekers live in places where there are jobs;
- Lower and Upper House of Swiss Parliament remain
divided on the use of the taser gun when expelling rejected asylum-seekers;
- Swiss Government’s decision that all EEA Member States
are now safe third countries;
- Restricting access to healthcare for irregular
migrants and rejected asylum-seekers is still under consideration by the UK
Government;
- High Court judge’s strong criticisms against UK’s Home
Office for returning an unaccompanied 15-year old youth to Austria where he had
stayed previously (under the terms of the EU’s Dublin Regulation).
In the section on discrimination and racism, the January issue returns
to the incident concerning a German teenage girl who claimed that neo-Nazi
thugs in the East German town of Mittweida had carved a swastika on her thigh.
The authorities have expressed doubts on her claims.
Other articles concerning Germany in this section cover
the ruling of an industrial tribunal which found the Welfare section of the
German Protestant Church guilty of discrimination for refusing to employ a
non-Christian and more incidents of racist violence in eastern Germany.
As for other countries, one article reports on a
client of North African origin of a French mobile telephone company who
received as his password “dirty Arab”, and another, on Greece, where a lawyer
became the first person there to be convicted of anti-Semitism.
In Miscellaneous news items, the articles
include:
- Granting of official recognition to mosques in
Flanders, Belgium;
- difficulties encountered by Finnish MPs in passing a
“citizenship test” with questions similar to those asked in countries where
such a test has now become obligatory;
- Failure of a constitutional challenge of the headscarf
ban in the German State of Hessen;
- report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of
Interior which concluded that 14% of the some 3 million Muslims in Germany have
“anti-democratic tendencies” and as many as 6% support violence in the name of
Islam;
- Berlin’s decision to authorise the repatriation of two
convicted killers of three Iranian refugees and their interpreter;
- Latest annual report on the situation of foreigners in
Germany which pointed to their rather poor level of education and professional
training;
- Long processing time of naturalisation applications in
Ireland;
- Italian statistician’s warning of distortion of
reality of rape in Italy, pointing out that 90% of such crimes are carried out
not by foreigners, but by Italian men, almost 70% of whom were the victims’
former partners;
- Indignation in Italy after a city councillor suggested
the use of “SS tactics” to control immigrants;
- Proposal in the Netherlands to create a movement
against the anti-Islamic position of a populist politician;
- Dutch Minister’s approval of new medical guidelines
which support the demand by Muslim women to be treated by women doctors, except
in emergency situations.
- End to Switzerland’s long tradition of government by
consensus after mandate of a former xenophobic Federal Minister is not renewed
and his party, which has become the largest in Switzerland, goes into
opposition.
- UK’s Minister’s call to cut down on translation of documents
for immigrants because it hinders their integration
- More on case of a Brazilian youth mistaken for a
“terrorist” and executed in London – recognition that “catastrophic errors”
were made, but no one is to blame.
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