3071-The political economy of new slavery

Jeroen Doomernik 51
nations – are invested in countries of origin; for the upkeep of family
and friends and for the migrant’s own future (business) activities. In such
a fashion migration contributes to the levelling out of economic disparities
between developed and developing nations.
Lastly, all highly developed nations are facing the prospect of ageing
populations due to low fertility rates and better health care. Even though
immigration is not the only answer to counter the economic effects
of this, present levels of immigration are needed to maintain current
population sizes (UNPD, 2000).
In short, there are good reasons for governments who feel
‘threatened’ by immigration and immigrants to practise what good
politics should be about – developing long-term visions. As pointed out,
the causes of increased mobility are very long-term in nature, and
largely autonomous; the consequences can therefore not be addressed
by ad hoc, short-term, responses (see Penninx and Doomernik, 1998,
pp. 132–3).
Notes
1. An example from the Netherlands would be the case of an imam publicly
stating that according to Islamic writings homosexuals are no better than
animals and hence deserve to be killed. To a number of commentators
this was yet more proof of the incompatibility between Islam and liberal
democracies.
2. These are descendants of German colonists who moved east several centuries
ago and had retained, to a smaller or larger extent, their German ethnic
identity and language.
3. Among the others were Jews (who not only can migrate to Israel but also to
the USA and Germany – a different story found in Doomernik, 1997a) and
Greeks.
4. A refugee is a migrant who fulfils the criteria formulated as follows in Article 1
of the Geneva Convention: ‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion ’.
5. These figures are not particularly recent because EUROSTAT tends to lag
behind considerably due to the need to use uniform criteria for all member
states, which, apparently, is time consuming. Publication, furthermore,
appears time consuming too.
6. It would make one cynical to realize that this, too, is the result of Western
interference. Especially the introduction of basic health facilities and vaccinations
has greatly reduced the infant mortality rate.
7. See, for example, Westin, 1999, who makes the point that often unfinished
processes of nation building, impeded by earlier colonization, cause such
conflict.