Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 14/8/2024; Authors: Lara Mavrič, Žan Premrov
The European Commission has clarified that the document referred to in the Nova24tv article was not used in the development of the bloc’s migration strategy.
The Nova24tv web portal published an article on 24 July headlined “[UN document] The Great Replacement is not just a conspiracy theory?”, which spoke about the UN document entitled Replacement Migration. They argued that “such documents also serve as a basis for migration policies ” drawn up by the European Union that detail commitments on how many migrants each country should accept.
In the March 2000 document, the United Nations presented a study on trends in population decline and ageing, and analysed whether replacement migration is the solution. They explained that the term replacement migration “refers to the international migration that would be needed to offset declines in the size of population, the declines in the population of working age, as well as to offset the overall ageing of a population”.
The European Commission told Razkrinkavanje.si that “the Commission has not used such a document to develop its migration strategy “.
The Migration and Asylum Pact, adopted this year and in force since 11 June, sets out guiding principles on how the EU manages migration, and protects its borders and vulnerable people. The new legislation does not provide for mandatory country-specific quotas for the admission of migrants, they noted.
The pact is the EU’s first permanent, compulsory solidarity mechanism, giving member states flexibility to address migration challenges, according to the Commission website. Each member state will have to provide solidarity measures such as relocation of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection, financial contributions in the form of support for projects in third countries, or alternative solidarity measures such as capacity building or deployment of staff to work with migrants. The type of measure to be deployed is at the discretion of each individual country.
The Commission also stressed that “member states alone are responsible for deciding how many non-EU nationals can look for work on their territory”.
According to a study by researchers at the Amsterdam School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, published in the peer-reviewed The British Journal of Sociology in September 2020, Islam and Muslims in Europe have often been portrayed as newcomers based on demographic data for the past few decades, which ignores historical facts such as past colonisation and centuries of Islam’s spread in different parts of Europe.
They also noted the growing public interest in how the Muslim population reproduces, which has become part of the wider public discourse, including theories such as “population replacement”. Such discourse reflects fears in the white and Christian population, who consider themselves to be the indigenous inhabitants of Europe, that they will be outnumbered and “replaced” by Muslims.
Mojca Pajnik, who teaches political communication at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana explained to Oštro that the concept of remigration, i.e. the idea that barbarians are invading the territory of a country with the intention of colonising and “replacing” the indigenous population, is mostly used in current discourse by right-wing political groups that spread ideas similar to Nazism and Fascism.
Professor Pajnik believes that all attempts to reformulate the concept of remigration are dangerous, because their proponents use migration to create a sense of security with the argument that “if we get rid of migrants, we will be safe”.
It is extremely problematic that the controversial nature of these concepts is not highlighted in public, she stressed. It is important to be aware that reversing concepts developed in the context of democratic ideas is one of the ways in which the far right operates. Such an example is “we are not against migrants, we are for the rights of our people”.
She also stressed the importance of understanding that remigration should not be equated with the integration of foreigners, or with the notion of a multicultural society, as this discourse is sometimes presented.
We have shared our findings with Nova24tv. We will publish their response when we receive it.
The claim that EU migration policy is based on documents such as the United Nations document on “Alternative Migration” is false.
