The figure of the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, was not familiar to me, but I must say that his reaction to the dramatic situation he found himself in has impressed me very favorably because it has been characterized by the two traits that are most appropriate to inform European immigration policy: realism and empathy.
Realism. The drama of Ceuta is above all the loss of lives at sea. We do not know the final count of this episode. But it will be over 150 deaths. The evidence that this happens repeatedly should keep us awake at night. It is not a morally tolerable normality. However: the events in Ceuta confirm with great clarity that there are only two ways to reduce the probability, and therefore the number, of these deaths to zero: to open the doors completely to immigrants or to close them completely. There is no middle ground. Opening the doors is what Morocco did, I don't know if with an instruction from above or due to an overflow from below. And it's lucky they opened them, because you try to imagine how many deaths we would have if the tens of thousands who entered on foot had tried by sea. In any case, the fact demonstrates, if it needed to be demonstrated, that a policy of complete openness is not possible. Entry must be rationed, with annual quotas that, given Europe's demographic reality, will have to be very generous. But the selection mechanism cannot be survival of the crossing at sea or swimming between two beaches in Ceuta. It is not reasonable, and it inevitably produces deaths. The mechanism must be orderly and must make illegal entry by sea impossible. As long as this is possible, many people aspiring to a better life will throw themselves into the sea. And there will be more deaths.
We thought we could delegate border control to Morocco. It has been shown that we cannot. Whether because Morocco wants to turn Europe's dependence on its border surveillance into Europe's vulnerability, or due to an inability to exercise control. And thus, Vivas's demand to secure Ceuta must be understood. Indeed: there is no alternative. Europe must secure itself against immigration that does not arrive through legal channels. It will be when illegal entry generates no expectations of success that there will be no pushbacks and that the detention centers in Albania can remain empty.
Empathy. It is the empathy that recognizes that we and immigrants, however they arrived, are part of the same humanity. It is the empathy that tries to welcome them with dignity, without discrimination and without “national priorities”. Regarding the distribution of minors, it seems that the fact that Ceuta's administration is from the PP has led to the principle being accepted that the autonomous communities will take charge proportionally. In this matter, Catalonia complies and must continue to do so. To its usual logistical and public service responsibilities, Catalonia adds an additional difficulty: while Spain's cultural Spanishness is not in danger, Catalonia's cultural Catalanness is, and, on the other hand, the legal processes of incorporation into the community place the Catalan language, the weakest, in an inferior position to Spanish. It is a situation that calls for decisive political action to symmetrize, but also for much empathy towards immigrants. It is what can make them see language not as an element that delays their social ascent but as an accelerator. And for empathy to eventually be reciprocal.
Empathy is also important to exercise towards countries of origin, and in particular, those in the Maghreb. We must work for the day to come when the borders of Morocco or Algeria are not fortified and entry quotas are not needed. This will come with economic prosperity. We must help promote it. Protectionism towards these countries would be a double blow to ourselves: that we manufacture in Europe instead of Morocco is paid for partly by the European consumer and partly by the Moroccan worker, who consequently increases their desire to emigrate and enter the EU's economic perimeter. Incidentally, border fortification must facilitate collaboration with Morocco. If the highly destabilizing instrument of unilaterally regulating the entry of immigrants disappears, so will the temptation to use it, and therefore, cooperation can be considered on normalized grounds that, on the Spanish side, should be very empathetic. It may help that we already have a significant population of Moroccan origin. They are natural intermediaries.
