Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-068"
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"en.20070926.2.3-068"2
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substitute; Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America (2007-03-14--2009-07-13)3
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"Illegal immigration is a somewhat paradoxical notion. I grew up under a political system in which certain terms were deemed to be
positive or negative by those in power and their propaganda. For instance, international was classed as positive but cosmopolitan as negative. We must guard against falling into a similar semantic trap. Since xenophobia is bad, one can hardly consider that it is a very good thing for a country or the European Union to protect itself against illegal immigration. It is surely more of a necessary evil.
I saw the words 'Nobody is illegal' painted on a wall in my home town of Poznań. It is sometimes worth pausing to consider whether a human being can actually be illegal. It is not only on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean that people put their lives at risk attempting to cross the Union's borders. Last week a Chechen woman and her three young daughters died on the border between Ukraine and Poland. They were fleeing from the tragedy that has befallen their homeland. It is hardly surprising that people are trying to escape from Chechnya, and are even prepared to risk their lives to do so.
The presence of several million immigrants in Europe, who entered the Union illegally, is a very real problem. As we strive to resolve it, however, we must keep in mind the universal values that underpin European integration. We must also remember that immigration itself is not a negative phenomenon, for the very simple reason that no human being is a negative phenomenon."@en1
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