Rise of the Far Right: Immigration puts Europe at a crossroads

With beautiful beaches and sparkling seas, Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa looks like an ideal holiday destination.

It's known as the door to Europe, and for many thousands of irregular migrants it is just that. Migrants from all over Africa, the Middle East, as well as many other countries, arrive here after a perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.

In total, more than 3,000 died crossing the Mediterranean in 2023, with many hundreds more so far in 2024. They're risking their lives, hoping for better times, better chances, and better jobs. They are just a small fraction compared to the millions who arrive every year by authorized routes, with visas.

They're filling big gaps in the continent's labor markets. Most of Europe now has a low birth rate and needs immigrants to boost its workforce and grow its economy.

Vincenzo Saccone runs a kiwi fruit farm near Rome. He struggles to find labor when the fruit matures. Instead of taking a week, the process now takes a month, sometimes causing the fruit to rot.

"The problem is, they don't like working in the farms, probably, the Italians. That's the biggest problem," Vincenzo says.

The anti-immigration political campaign

It looks like a perfect match, the labor forces and labor market. But as the economy turned sluggish, far-right parties have framed the migration issue as a threat to the continent. They claim migrants take away jobs and even the cultural identity, deepening social separatism and racism.

Steve Emejuru was a refugee from the Biafran War in Nigeria over 40 years ago. He now works as a dance teacher in Rome. He was beaten up in a racially motivated attack, being told that he should go back to his own country.

"As a continent, Africa is being used for campaigns, putting fears into the Italian citizens that Africans have come here to substitute the Italian community," Steve says. "They are using the discrimination, racism to earn votes."

Carlo Cotarelli, former Italian Prime Minister designate, points out that while this may be the easiest approach for many politicians, it is not necessarily correct.

"What is easy is that, in the short run, to say we are against immigration because these people are coming here, they are eating what you are supposed to eat. They're taking jobs away from you. And so the easy way is to say - for many politicians - that the only solution is just, to close borders and that's it," Cotarelli says.

In Italy, anti-immigration sentiment has helped put Giorgia Meloni into power in 2022 at the head of its most radical right-wing government in eighty years. Her Brothers of Italy group also won the most votes in the European parliamentary election in early June.

In France, the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen beat every other French party in that vote. They even led the first round of the French Parliament election later, and it was left-wingers from the hastily assembled popular front alliance who succeeded in stopping the National Rally from coming into power. But still, they have their eye on the French presidency in two years.

Germany's far-right AfD also made significant gains in that European election. It is now a major force in German politics.

Is fascism just history?

Far-right parties are surging across Europe, sparking concerns that fascism may not remain a relic of the past.

Ercan Yasaroglu owns a coffee shop in an ethnically mixed part of Berlin. He believes he was targeted by fascists because of what his venue represents.

"Another time people chanted 'foreigners out' and 'immigrants, asylum seekers out'. They broke the big window and the advertising billboard, then we've had swastikas smeared on the wall from the outside," Ercan recalls. "That's how they made themselves known as fascists. This cafe is a transcultural space. That is why it is attacked, one could say. The fascists are testing their courage."

Professor Pascal Perrineau from Sciences Po in Paris believes the fear of immigration is a fear that is linked to the loss of national identities.

"The impression that the old world is leaving and that we have nothing left, that society is becoming an increasingly cosmopolitan society. At its core, it's a nostalgia movement: France is no longer the same as before, the Netherlands is no longer the same as before, Italy is no longer the same as before. And it is this feeling that an old world is dying, which in fact feeds hostility sometimes and sometimes even extremely strong movements of hostility to immigration," Perrineau says.

Perrineau also points out that the far-right parties in Europe have exploited this immigration issue to channel public dissatisfaction with economic stagnation and high inflation. However, while it may be easy to incite hatred and win votes, governing a country and bridging differences is much more challenging.

"Because to govern, it is not enough to designate scapegoats, it is not enough to speak out loud and clear, you need technical skills, you need the will to unite and not divide voters against each other."

Europe at a crossroads

For some upholding the traditional value, this shift to the far right is problematic. French journalist and filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo is one of them.

"I'm not ashamed to be French, but I'm ashamed of my country. I have to say, sometimes when I'm abroad and people ask me things about my country. I say I didn't vote for them. It's so sad. Our country is seen as the country of the enlightenment and human rights. And seeing how so many people are mistreated, how we are unable to meet our principles, is a shame for real."

In Portugal, the far-right Chega party, with its hardline stance on migration, rose to the third largest party in the March national election. But in June's EU parliament elections their vote percentage almost halved. That made Portugal one of just a handful of countries where the EU-wide trend of a surging far-right may have slowed.

The debate over immigration and integration will continue to shape the political landscape, forcing Europeans to confront their values and the vision they hold for their collective future. However, for the migrants continuing to reach the continent, not all roads lead to a better life.

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