That a party with aspirations to govern like the PP makes a proposal like the points-based visa is of no interest in terms of regulating illegal immigration, but it does mean taking the public debate one step lower in the dehumanization of immigrants and the miserable commercialization of human lives. The wave of xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist, supremacist, or anti-immigration political proposals (we can consider these words as synonyms, or as contiguous terms) speculates with the lives of those who are almost never able to protest in the name of the supposed protection of native citizens, and takes advantage of and promotes their fears: their neighborhood, their town, their language, their customs, etc. You can read the ARA dossier on fear, where you will find valuable insights into how fear influences the construction of far-right discourses.
The fear of immigrants is actually nothing more than aporophobia, that is, fear of the poor and poverty. By definition, the poor have no power and are hardly in a position to "invade" anything: that's done by vulture funds and large mass tourism companies, which are the ones that truly traumatically alter the economic and productive fabric, the ways of life, and the physiognomies of cities and countries. But the poor cause rejection because they act as a mirror: they reflect what many are afraid to become, or to become again. Seeing the streets full of people who are struggling, or struggling, makes many fear that they too could be there. Like any fear, it is not a conscious or reasoned idea. But it is there, and it persists, beyond all forms of reasoning.
Like pandemics, ultraconservative and xenophobic waves evolve and must reach a peak. The retreat of closed borders, rejection of differences, and taste for authoritarianism sweeping the West seems, unfortunately, far from reaching that peak, which when it does, generally comes in the form of serious episodes of violence. Nor is there any certainty that, once the peak is over, a downward phase will be entered: societies that have been infected by the populist, intolerant, and exclusionary virus do not recover easily. We see it in our troubled days, reading and hearing how people we considered constipated give in to the finger-pointing of the weak and the temptation of fascism. And if they don't give in directly, we see them preparing landing strips.
Infamous times, then, in which the most unscrupulous politicians think, sadly and rightly so, that they will have easier and faster access to power if they negotiate people's rights in detail. If we followed their reasoning, we should propose the implementation of a points-based credibility credential: political representatives who lie, defame, and provoke tension would be deducted points, and when they finished, they would be transferred to a community service department. Managing immigrant receptions, for example.
