The social landscape in which we practise our freedoms is highly volatile. Can we afford to be reckless? After the massacres in 2011 by the racist terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, ‘we’ were all, briefly, Norwegian. It was a gesture of sympathy for the blameless casualties and solidarity for those suffering their loss. As with many
Geography: France
Another deportation death in Europe
An Iraqi man, who collapsed and died in Sweden following a deportation attempt, is the seventeenth deportee to die in Europe since 1991. Questions are mounting about the death of a 45-year-old man, who had worked for the US military in Iraq and lived in Sweden for eight years. The man, who is named in
Deaths of Europe’s ‘unwanted and unnoticed’ migrants exposed
The IRR publishes a disturbing new report, Unwanted, unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe, revealing the extent of Europe’s departure from its vaunted humanitarian ideals. The deaths over the last five years, in the detention and reception centres, the streets and the squats of Europe, are a product of the rightlessness
Counter-terrorism policy and re-analysing extremism
Below is an edited transcript of a talk given by Arun Kundnani, author of ‘The Muslims are coming: Islamophobia, extremism and the domestic war on terror’, in January 2015, shortly after the Paris killings. The situation we find ourselves in is not entirely new. Most of what we’ve seen over the last few days is
Where monoculturalism leads
As France grieves for those whose lives have been so brutally taken, and more emergency and counter-radicalisation measures are discussed, the future for a peaceful Europe rests on how our leaders diagnose the problems that we collectively face. It may seem counter-intuitive, but far from suffering from an excess of multiculturalism, European thought and culture
Patriot games and culture wars: the politics of national identity in Europe
Muslims, those of African and African-Caribbean descent and white women speaking out against racism are being targeted in a new culture war now distorting and degrading Europe’s electoral politics. Is it possible to demand a common reflex, a unified emotional response from all the citizens of a country to the symbols or cultural traditions that
Calendar of racism and resistance (28 November – 11 December 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Policing & criminal justice 27 November: Judge Richard Hollingworth resigns as district judge after making racist comments about Asians while hearing a harassment case. He does not resign as immigration judge until a few days later. (Guardian, 7
Calendar of racism and resistance (14 – 27 November 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees 14 November: It is revealed that an unnamed language analyst working for Swedish firm Sprakab, is a convicted drug smuggler whose expert reports have been used to refuse asylum to hundreds in the UK.
Roma – fascism’s first victims, again
Anti-Roma violence draws strength from fascist ideas that linger on in mainstream European thought. On 15 September, a Roma man from Romania, homeless in Sweden, died of injuries sustained on 31 August, when a fire broke out at a Roma temporary tent camp in Högdalen, southern Stockholm. We will probably never know whether the man,
Calendar of racism and resistance (31 October-13 November 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees 3 November: The trial of three G4S guards on charges of the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga, during a deportation in October 2010, begins at the Old Bailey. The court is told the guards repeatedly