{"id":12386,"date":"2011-05-23T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=12386"},"modified":"2011-05-19T14:56:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T13:56:54","slug":"europe-the-epidemic-of-xenophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/05\/europe-the-epidemic-of-xenophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe: The Epidemic of Xenophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Europe is being swept by social and political changes so massive that they are calling into question its fundamental principles. Diversity, which has been a positive constant throughout our history, is now considered a threat. The signs are plain to see: a propagation of intolerance and fanaticism, growing support for populist and xenophobic parties, an ever more massive presence of immigrants without status or rights, &#8220;parallel&#8221; communities that do not interact with the rest of society, the repression of individual freedoms, and democracies in crisis. <\/em><em><br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nGiven this alarming panorama I accepted last July the invitation of the General Secretary of the Council of Europe, Thorborn Jagland, to join a selected Group of Eminent Persons presided over by German foreign minister Joschka Fischer with the mandate of preparing a report on how to combine liberty and diversity -two concepts central to the European identity- in the 21st century. The report, released on May 11, proposes an alternative to this wave of populism and tries to show a way forward for a Europe that is stronger and more sure of itself and that integrates diversity instead of rejecting it.<\/p>\n<p>We are asking the Council of Europe and the European Union to work together on a common immigration policy and at the same time to reach out to our neighbours in the Near and Middle East and North Africa to offer them a real possibility to meaningfully participate in the institutions and conventions of Europe. e a better place.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/newsTVE.asp?idnews=55685\" > <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/newsTVE.asp?idnews=55685\" >Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diversity, which has been a positive constant throughout our history, is now considered a threat. The signs are plain to see: a propagation of intolerance and fanaticism, growing support for populist and xenophobic parties, an ever more massive presence of immigrants without status or rights, &#8220;parallel&#8221; communities that do not interact with the rest of society, the repression of individual freedoms, and democracies in crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}