The sociologist Jean Viard, director of research at the CNRS, talks to us today about migrations, in particular with this case of the boatocean viking, arrived in the military port of Toulon, Friday, November 11 in the morning, after the refusal of Italy to welcome this ship of 230 migrants. We are now in the process of welcoming people who were on board. This process of future distribution of people who are accepted on European territory under well-defined asylum conditions between the different countries of Europe is today the subject of much tension and procrastination.
franceinfo: How do you explain that tens of thousands of people who arrive on the continent each year make Europe and Europeans so tense?
John Viard: I think it’s first of all because there is anxiety about the future of France, about its identity, it’s true in the different countries of Europe. For the moment, we do not have a positive account of what will happen to us. So, in a way, the migrant is the emblematic figure of this anxiety, which I respect, and which is particularly strong in certain popular circles and which we find in all countries, especially in the United States too, with all the wall debate with Mexico.
For me, this is a symptom of a society which is anxious about its identity, its future and which needs a combative narrative to be reforged, in particular to win the climate war, and that the climate fight becomes what brings us together. We will be less sensitive to a small surge of immigrants because, let’s face it, in Europe, there are 5,000 to 10,000 people arriving almost every month. So out of 447 million inhabitants, it is very marginal in quantity. So the anxiety is much stronger than the number, but the anxiety exists.
What is also true is that there are demographic imbalances. And there is also a huge weakness in development investments in Africa, which will increase with the climate crisis if we do not put things in order. All of this, obviously, creates both the suffering of the people who leave, because their life has no meaning in countries that have no future, even if it must also be said that the “great replacement “is first and foremost a myth and a political instrument. You realize, there are 30,000 people who drowned in the Mediterranean, which is absolutely monstrous. 30,000 people more or less in the European Union, but that’s not even the thickness of a pencil. So in fact, you can’t see it.
You used the word, the great replacement, the fear of replacement by part of the population. And sometimes, we oppose to this idea a humanism on the reception of exiles. Is that really the debate or is it simplistic to oppose these two parties?
The people who come are often inscribed in the colonial memory and they are often Muslims, but not always. And indeed, France has not managed to accept that the second religion of France is Islam. There is no big mosque in Marseille, etc. so you could say you don’t culturally recognize part of the population. So when there are people who come to these communities, it tenses up society.
But afterwards, we have to say the other way around: what is the battle of the 21st century? It is the battle of rare brains who will invent in art, science, technology, what we will need to save ourselves, in the face of global warming. Me, I call it rare brains. And the Americans are doing a huge job to recover the best elites, from Singapore, from everywhere, look at the English, when there was the tragedy in Hong Kong, where China took over Hong Kong, they opened up to people from Hong Kong to bring in tens of thousands of hyper-educated people whom they put in their research laboratories, their universities, their factories.
So Europe needs the elites of the world, what I call rare brains, and Europe has something to offer which is extraordinary. If it is a democratic, respectful territory that is fully engaged in the ecological battle, we can go more or less quickly, but fully engaged. So for people from Russia, right now there are hundreds of thousands of Russians leaving Russia. There are obviously the Ukrainians, some of whom are no doubt likely to stay with us. But there are obviously all the people from totalitarian countries, Muslim, Islamic countries, radical Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc., where there are extraordinary elites who simply want a normal life, to dress how they want, to kiss when they want and to work as they can.
Yes, there are lots of places where people are expelled with very good training and who are people who can invent. Remember that the Covid vaccine was first invented by two Turkish refugees in Germany. so the diaspora, the arrival, is a driving force in the creativity of societies.
But if the elites of the developing countries go to the developed countries to live a better life, they will be missed in the countries of origin.
Yes, that’s why I’m not talking about elites, but rare brains. No, you shouldn’t sting the people next door, but on the other hand, you have to offer creative opportunities to people who are prevented from doing so. When you are in Iran, in Russia, you cannot create. You are in danger if you are a creator, if you go beyond the norms, basically you are sterilized. These, we must offer them to create with us. That’s what I was thinking.