Islam versus Europe

This is an example of a phenomenon that we're seeing more and more of: government ministers being nasty to European immigrants. It's considered OK to be nasty to our fellow Europeans. But if the immigrants are darkly pigmented, different rules apply.

Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm had a message over the weekend for hopeful immigrants from southern Europe who’ve been arriving in Norway in search of jobs: “Go home.” Bjurstrøm worries they won’t find jobs, and won’t be eligible for any help, either.

Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm is encouraging would-be immigrants to return home if they don't find work in Norway quickly.

“If there’s no work for them, then there is no work,” Bjurstrøm told both newspaper Bergens Tidende and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). She claimed she wasn’t being heartless, just practical.

“We are part of the free European labour market,” said Bjurstrøm, from the Labour Party herself. “That means folks can freely travel around and look for jobs. But if there are no jobs (for which they qualify), we as a state have no obligations towards the applicants, apart from making sure they don’t suffer from acute needs.”

Norwegian immigration and tax officials have been seeing a sharp rise in the number of people arriving in Norway from Spain, where unemployment is very high. The problem, they claim, is that many of the new arrivals speak very little English much less Norwegian. That makes it hard for them to find work, because they lack proficiency in languages other than Spanish.

“Then, in my opinion, it’s better for them to go back home where they at least may have friends and family, instead of being cold and broke here in Norway,” Bjurstrøm said.
She doesn’t think Norway will see a huge influx of immigrants from Spain, Greece or Italy. Last year, reported news bureau NTB, around 3,000 tax cards (needed to work legally in Norway) were issued to people from Spain, compared to 70,000 issued to immigrants from Poland and 80,000 to Swedes.

Source: NewsinEnglish.no

Here's another example of it from last week: the French Interior minister blaming a surge in crime on immigrants - from Eastern Europe.

France's hardline interior minister blamed central and eastern Europeans on Tuesday for a 16 percent surge in burglaries last year, stimulating debate on immigration just three months before a presidential election.

Claude Gueant has raised eyebrows with his right-wing stance on immigration since President Nicolas Sarkozy promoted him to his cabinet a year ago.

Gueant hailed 12,000 fewer incidents of crime in 2011. It was a 0.34 percent reduction from 2010 and the ninth straight year of falling crime. But he pointed to a recent rising trend in crime by central and east European offenders. "It's a trend we've been seeing for two years. These are raids by teams of criminals from abroad, especially central and eastern Europe," Gueant told a news conference.

Source: Reuters