By Sebastián Lacunza
Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief
Berni’s strategy hints at an electoral battle with anti-immigration leanings
It was long ago that anti-immigrant and hard-on-crime rhetoric, two faces of the same coin, shed all inhibition in order to take hold in the mainstream media and political discourse throughout the country.
Amid the noise of an electoral campaign, the voices that firmly oppose characterizing foreigners as a source of social danger have become few and far between. Their more convinced counterparts, and those people with trepidations on the issue, offer a bleak outlook.
The strategy of pandering to phobias to win votes is as old as democracy. As an example from recent history, it is worth recalling the premise of 1999 BA province gubernatorial candidate, the right-wing Peronist Carlos Ruckauf, who said “we have to use bullets against criminals.” Not quite three years had passed since the execution of photographer José Luis Cabezas with the participation of the godforsaken Police. Those were times when a news magazine thought it acceptable to erase, from an image of alleged Bolivian citizen, one of the man’s teeth, running the headline, “The Silent Invasion.” And a time when the building workers’ union blamed foreigners (namely, Bolivians and Paraguayans) for “stealing the bread from our children.”
Ruckauf’s competitor was human rights activist Graciela Fernández Meijide, a centre-left candidate whom he accused of atheism and of defending the rights of criminals. Meijide and her Alliance colleague, Fernando de la Rúa (elected president weeks later), responded by launching ads showing themselves standing in front of police patrols bearing weapons. It wasn’t enough. Third in the polls was Luis Abelardo Patti, a pro-torture candidate who would later be found guilty of crimes against humanity. As winner, Ruckauf called on Aldo Rico, a lieutenant-colonel who had headed several coup attempts, to be in charge of security in Buenos Aires province, with foreseeable results.
There are some observable differences nowadays. At the end of the 1990s, the preferred target of criticism were not Colombians but rather Peruvians. Nuances aside, the percentage of those born abroad living in Argentina has remained stable in the last decades. In 2001, foreigners accounted for 4.2 percent of the country’s 36.2 million inhabitants, and nine years later the proportion remains similar — 4.5 percent of a population of 40.1 million residents. This percentage is much lower than what was reported in the mid-1960s, when the sounds of ships full of immigrants arriving during the first decade of the century still echoed. Those were foreigners who were referred to as “high-quality immigrants.”
The number of permanent residency permits given since 2004 show that historical trends are being respected. As such, the biggest recipients of permits are Latin Americans with the only novelty being the recent acceleration of the permits given to Colombians, while the percentage of immigrants within the prison population has not varied.
The phenomenon can be seen beyond the national border. If we are looking at blaming foreigners, Europe is the best place to start. Le Pen’s National Front received between 10 and 20 percent of the vote for more than a decade, remaining firmly entrenched in the uncivilized corner of French politics. When the xenophobic Front surpassed its electoral threshold, Nicolas Sarkozy — a conservative — would begin fighting for votes in the same terrain and would launch express deportations of Roma people. The socialists followed suit, with pragmatist Prime Minister Manuel Valls at the forefront. A full house.
Europe has exhibited (once again) increased support for Nazi-identified parties (Greece, Germany and across Eastern Europe) or the inclusion of racist groups as coalition partners, some of whom promote civilian patrols that go out searching for immigrants in small communities (Italy). The xenophobia extends to the most prosperous and liberal areas of the continent’s north (the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark.)
But one must cross the Atlantic to find an illustrative moment of dramatic comedy when it comes to immigrants. At the 2012 Republican Convention, the unfortunate representative from Puerto Rico — Zori Fonalledas — took to the stage to announce her district’s support for Mitt Romney’s candidacy but she was unable to speak nor hide the disbelief caused by a shower of insults that she received from the audience, most of whom urged her to go back to her country. The scenario explains why Latino voters vote for the Democrats in a proportion of seven to three, despite Barack Obama’s administration comfortably surpassing the number of deportations ordered during George W. Bush’s time in office.
In that way, the slip on the part of Kirchnerism by way of Secretary Sergio Berni, who has already outlived three ministers, should not be surprising. The lieutenant-colonel has been expanding his influence and reorientating it towards social work and immigration without any of his superiors clipping his wings, while others find encouragement with poll numbers.
To be fair, it can’t be said that Kirchnerism has suddenly changed because of its security policy, as it did with media (its relationship with media giant Clarín turned sour) or energy (its relationship with Spanish oil company Repsol). If the disorder caused by the criminal law reforms of 2004 (the so-called Blumberg law) is taken into account, today’s hardline stance is coherent.
However, if the secretary is able successfully push for the immigration law reform that he is proposing (including instant deportations when the police arrest a foreign suspect), it would signal an important shift given that the current law, passed by the Kirchnerite government, calls for integration in accordance with Argentina’s immigration tradition, a tradition that was interrupted by the military dictatorship.
And so as 2015 approaches, we can expect an electoral battle with anti-immigration leanings that will later be nuanced and watered down with suggestions that there are foreigners in the country who do not deserve all this rejection. That’s the view that Kirchnerite, PRO party, Broad Front-UNEN and Renewal Front politicians have taken in recent days.
Meanwhile, we will have to wait until December, when the diverse security forces — who have nothing to do with discrimination, trafficking of drugs and people, extortion, bribes, happy triggers and decisions like throwing one’s body against the windshield of a car — decide to start demanding a return to collective wage bargaining.
@sebalacunza