By Aram Aharonian on July 20, 2018
England, France and Belgium, three of the four semifinalist nations of the 2018 Russia World Cup, have players of African descent on their teams. The legacy of colonialism and immigration as a result of this highlights a story that continues to beat the rhythm of xenophobia and discrimination.
Fourteen of the 23 members of the victorious French national team are of African origin: Kanté is from Mali; Mendy, Dembelé and Sidibé from Senegal, Pogbá from Guinea, Umititi and Mbappé from Cameroon, Ramis from Maruuecos, Fekir from Algeria, Kimpembé from Congo, Tolissó from Togo, and N’Zonzi, Mandanda and Matuidi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Twenty years ago, at the 1998 World Cup in France, the local team was crowned champion by admitting that the descendants of Africans were also French citizens. Since then, it is not uncommon to see blacks, Turks and Arabs in other “European” entries such as Germany, Belgium, England and even the Scandinavians. Zinedine Zidane [a French professional football coach and former player] has many feelings of guilt because “Zizou” is a son of Algeria in which French colonialism perpetrated too many horrors to count. Twenty years later, the French national team is even more multicultural than in 1998. England is another example of multiculturalism that benefits their football. Croatia’s history is different; the Balkans are not the land of immigration, but rather the opposite. Switzerland can attest to this with several Balkans on their team.
It may seem but Africa has never had a team that made it to the quarterfinals, but Africa triumphed in Russia through Belgium, England and France. Men and women who left the Congo, Guinea, Morocco, Cameroon, Algeria, Mali, Nigeria and Angola to settle in Europe, today proudly they see how their children are sporting heroes wearing the shirts of those countries in which all grew up, and mostly were born.
These children are French, Belgian, English, Danish or Swedish, but they know where their families came from. This is the case of the Belgian Romelu Lukaku, whose parents came from the former Zaire, today Democratic Republic of the Congo. Or Blaise Matuidi; his parents left Angola, devastated by a civil war that left more than half a million deaths. “I never forgot my Angolan roots, I had to make a difficult decision when I chose France,” said the midfielder years ago.
And then the case of Samuel Umtiti, author of the goal that launched France to the final, who was born in Cameroon but grew up in France. Undoubtedly, Africa contributed much to the growing success of European soccer.
1,400 dead in six months for European xenophobia
From January to the beginning of July 2018, more than 1,400 immigrants lost their lives in the waters of the Mediterranean. They have no name or face, the hegemonic media turned them into numbers and they are forever buried in the anonymity of the seabed and forever separated from the family.
Their dreams turned into nightmares, the hope into tragedy. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, in the first four months of 2018, 9% of migrants-refugees from North Africa drowned during the Mediterranean crossing. It would obviously be an exaggeration to call them the martyrs of migration.
As for the current immigration of refugees, the phenomenon is due, among other factors, to the acute asymmetry between the countries and the central regions and peripheral countries and regions. The truth is that technical progress and economic growth, by itself do not lead to integral development and peace, which are only possible when growth is accompanied by a real and deep distribution of income and wealth.
The asymmetry is even greater when we compare the nations of the old European continent with those of the new African continent. With the revolution of transport and communications, things and people run and fly at an unprecedented speed: today we are astonished by the speed of the movement of goods, money, technology, news, knowledge, information, weapons, drugs and violence, sometimes just online..
Undoubtedly, human mobility has an umbilical connection to the economic policy of each country and the entire globe. Today, massive human displacement has become planetary and hence their relationship with world geopolitics, with the turning to the right (and far right) of several European countries like France, Germany, part of the United Kingdom, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Italy and the United States.
The most serious thing is that xenophobic attitudes usually resonate from the respective populations and is based on fear, threat, rejection and ignorance of those who come from abroad.
The last summit of the European Union (EU) formed by 18 countries was held on June 28 and 29 of this year, where it became clear that the issue of migrants represents a ‘hot potato’ in all of them. The rulers are pressured by a good part of their population that does not accept a neighborhood of migrants; nor the Berlin Agreement of 2017, with the promise of a immigration quota system for each nation.
Progress at the summit? , there was none. Each country presents itself with a series of conditions that most resemble invisible walls, and rejects a restrictive and supportive position, even though they recognize that no country can solve by itself what they call the “migratory crisis”.
The hegemonic media – which represent the de facto powers of each country and the EU – continue to talk about illegal immigrants. The Italian press, for example, spoke of the failure of the summit, others of “chaos, indifference and insensitivity”, “decadence and blindness” or “silent slaughter” to define the outcome of failed negotiations in Europe. What did survive is the nationalism of other times and a renewal of the notorious national security ideology.
Criminalization of migrants
The politicization of migrations represents, in general, the criminalization, they are strongly unwelcomed, rejected. For right-wing governments, they constitute a “problem” that demands solutions; for certain media they are a “threat” in disguise; for a good part of the population, they provoke “fear and risk”, they are afraid of what they dismissively describe as a “human avalanche”.
Some more serious analysts talk about taking into account the argument of demography, since several European countries are in decline of population, with a growth below zero. The migrants, mostly young, could fill the gap of a generation in terms of replacing labor that sooner or later will begin to run out. According to others, Europe is reaping what it sowed in past centuries, in the dark days of the most rapacious colonialism, stripping vast areas of Africa and the Middle East of all their riches, even taking away their workers who were turned into slaves and sent to the Americas.
The truth is that the speech of the xenophobic right – to expatriate the undocumented and prevent the entry of new immigrants (copied almost literally from the policy of “zero tolerance” of Trump), – holds great popular support. Some center-left governments tried and keep on trying to keep the borders open, relief, rescue, shelter and even an attempt of integration.
There are extreme cases, as in Hungary, where people, families and entities that are willing to welcome and help immigrants can be considered criminals and, therefore, subject to penalty and imprisonment.
In July, the Austrian Sebastian Kurz, dictated measures to strengthen control on the border between Austria and Italy. Italian far-right Matteo Salvini, circulated a letter to all mayors, to restrict the right of asylum to immigrants and took to the Supreme Court the European idea of closing Italian ports to all international ships.
Borders such as those that unite and divide Turkey and Greece, North Africa and southern Europe, Mexico and the US, Myanmar and Bangladesh, Batan Island (Malaysia) and Singapore, Chile, Peru and Bolivia at the same time, Venezuela , Colombia and Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, among others, – become volcanoes in a state of eruption.
The motivations for migration are almost always the same: poverty, misery, hunger, lack of employment and opportunity; violence, war, conflicts that can be ethnic, religious or political-ideological; natural disasters, not rarely amplified due to progressive environmental changes. Young people are especially more likely to escape, but also women and, increasingly, unattended children
The great majority of migrants originate in African countries, especially in the sub-Saharan region; Middle East. Countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq in the Middle East; Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali (Africa) appear in the foreground. Other nations such as India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia (Asia) expel thousands of people, some of whom also arrive in Europe.
Soccer and Migration
Of the French population 7% is of immigrant origin, a proportion that in its player selection is multiplied by ten. In Switzerland, one of every four inhabitants are of foreign origin. Russia has selected 60% of its players with immigrant origin. Similar is that of England, with 10% of its team coming from the former colonies but with an important contribution from Jamaica grows to 50%.
England introduced six players of Nigerian origin in the last Sub-17 World Cup, for which paradoxically (or perhaps not so much) Nigeria did not qualify. The English are now world champions Sub 17 and Sub 20 with this make up.
And not only does Africa improve European football but Germany has many stars who are the children of Turkish immigrants. Albania is represented by the Helvetic Confederation and Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, opened a bank account a few days ago for his fellow citizens to donate money to pay fines to Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaquiri for having celebrated their goals against Serbia by making the gesture of the double-headed eagle, symbol of Greater Albania sending explosive geopolitical reverberations through the Balkans.
Switzerland has players born in Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Cape Verde. Xhaka and Shaquiri were born in Switzerland, but are still closely linked to the land of their parents. Even Taulant, Granit’s brother, plays for Albania. And Belgium, a clear example of immigration talent, is a Tower of Babel: its players talk to each other basically in English at the games as a common international language.
And although the role is not that of their teams, Africa has contributed a lot to the growing success of Europe. There is a revolution that is taking place in the peripheries of the great European cities: after changing the face of European society, immigration is now changing its football, despite the xenophobia and discrimination encouraged by its elites.
https://www.alainet.org/es/articulo/194222
Source: America Latina en Movimiento, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau