Over the course of a six year period, from 2013 until 2019, Europe experienced a dramatic rise in irregular arrivals entering Europe in order to seek refuge and attempt to make a better life for themselves and their families. This “crisis” reached its peak in 2015, when just over one million immigrants were reported to have entered Europe throughout the twelve months of said year (Greenhill, 2016). This sudden influx of immigrants and how best to handle the situation became a topic of great discussion amongst politicians within the countries of the European Union. Furthermore, public fears towards migrants increased due to perceived economic, security and cultural threats of the increased number of migrants into the countries of the European Union (Baldwin-Edwards, 2019).
Around this time, a conspiracy theory was slowly making its way into the mainstream discourse of society. The Great Replacement conspiracy is defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center (2020) as ‘the racist idea that white Europeans are being replaced by immigrants.’ The Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory has two core beliefs. The first belief is that white Europeans are being systematically replaced by mostly Muslim migrants. Once this process will be completed, white Europeans will be the minority and European culture and tradition will have been completely eradicated. The second core belief of this conspiracy is that a small main group of elite people are secretly plotting against the European people. This group scheming against the Europeans are often believed to be Jewish, however in recent years the anti-Semitism that is linked with this conspiracy theory has become more subtle (The Guardian, 2019).
The Great Replacement conspiracy is closely linked to the Identitarian Movement. One can trace the origins of this movement to the European New Right movement (henceforth: ENR), founded in 1968 by far right philosopher, Alain de Benoist. The ENR reject the beliefs of the 18thcentury enlightenment of Christianity and fights back against ‘materialist’ ideologies such as liberalism and socialism (Murdoch & Mulhall, 2019). This conspiracy theory remained dormant until the late 1990s. It was ‘revived’ by French writer, Renaud Camus. He drew attention to it through his books l’Abécédaire de l’in-nocence(Abecedarium of innocence) and le Grand Replacement(The great replacement). Identitarianists believe in pan-Europeannationalism and a wider world of ethnically homogenous communities. The Identitarian Movement have youth chapters in countries throughout the European Union, including, but not limited to Austria, Germany, Belgium the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
This conspiracy theory is interesting as its core concerns deals with many issues that come with mass-migration. As Renaud Camus states, this theory is “not a hypothesis, not a concept, not a theory, but a simple statement of a fact. It describes an all-encompassing phenomenon, a continuing process which will end with the dissolution of peoples and civilization” (Camus, 2016, p. 161). The core concerns are from real life ‘crises’ that people need to understand (van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017). The main concerns of this conspiracy theory deal with the issues of mass migration, problems of integration of migrants and ‘no-go’ areas (The European Perspective, 2019).
During this time, tensions towards migrants of Muslim heritage were very high. People that believe in this conspiracy theory often reference the changing demographic rates of European countries to validate their arguments. Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch Mosque Shootings, was a firm believer in this conspiracy. In his manifesto, he declares that “It’s the birth rates, if there is one thing that I want you to remember from these writings is that the birth rates must change” (Tarrant, 2019). After the second world war, birth rates within Europe were booming. This has gradually slowed since the 1970s and demographers have observed negative trends within the European Union with regard to its population structure (Linz & Stula, 2010). White European birth rates have been declining at a steady rate, while the birth rates of people of the Muslim faith has increased drastically since the 1980s. Two recent trends can be observed amongst immigrants into the European Union. On the one hand, recent migrants that have relocated to Europe come from countries located in the global south (Michaels, 2009). The second trend demographers have observed is that the number of migrants has accelerated exponentially (Michaels, 2009). A big determinant in demography change is the decline of belief in a religion. Lower rates of fertility are often associated with declining rates of religion (Kaufman et al., 2011). A trend of religious decline can be observed within various countries within the European Union. It has been stated that forty-eight percent of people living in Western Europe nowadays almost never go to church(Ferguson, 2004). In a study from 2003 it was stated that in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark less than one in ten of the population now attends church at least once a month (Ferguson, 2004). This aligns with the notion that fertility trends must drop as a result of declining levels of religion. Subsequently, due to the declining birth rates Europe is now facing a unique problem of an ageing society. On the 23rdof September the European Union adopteda new policy towards migration. Much to the chagrin of the Identitarians, this policy welcomes economic migration to combat the complex issues that come with countries that have declining birth rates and an ageing population.
Around this time, people within Europe started to develop a fear of Muslims due to numerous terrorist attacks that were carried out in the countries of the European Union in the name of Islam. A narrative that was often used in this debate was that immigrants of the Islamic faith simply weren’t compatible with the ‘westernised way of life’, thus making integration extremely difficult. This notion that they are not compatible with the westernised way of life is a completely baseless assumption. The presence of Muslims within Europe is not new and can be traced back to the middle ages (Mohammed, 2013). Furthermore, Spain was a Muslim stronghold for many centuries, the United Kingdom built its first mosque in 1889 and from 1798 onwards Germany had an Islamic cemetery.Furthermore, most of European/Christian values can be traced back to key ideas from Greek philosophy and science. It is well known that the Greeks borrowed key ideas and thoughts from Islamic societies (Hedges, 2013).
Moreover, The failure of integration cannot be solely put on immigrants. As Jerome Vignon, former director of social affairs and inclusion for the European Commission stated “it has certainly been underestimated – there is a general rhetoric that social intergration of migrants should be given as much importance as monitoring the inflow of migrants” (Guardian, 2019). The European Union perhaps was too focused on the control of asylum seekers and the control of migration rather than implementing policies that focus on the integration of said migrants. Ever since the inception of the European Union after the Second World War, it has been argued that the policies that were set up to aid migrants were actually insufficient and in certain cases even harmful (Joppke, 2007). It is crucial for a governing body to have a solid integration policy for incoming migrants. A parliamentary inquiry into a government policy in the Netherlands concluded that ethnic minorities between 1970 and 2000 have succeeded was in spite of, rather than because of, the policies that were provided by the Dutch government. A similar result was observed when the French government investigated their integration policies (Wiesbrock, 2011).
Having appropriate integration policies is key for the integration of immigrants. These policies help immigrants to become contributing members of society. According to the OECD (2018) over 5.8 million immigrants are unemployed. This report further states that over a quarter of these people wish to work. Due to COVID-19, we are now predicted to be entering the worst recession in peace time ever we (Irwin, 2019). As a society we need to get all the help that we possibly can, in order to be able to get out of this recession.
Finally I want to point out the short-comings of the media. Western media gives very little positive coverage to incoming migrants. In some cases the media added fuel to the fire to demonize Islamic migrants. Throughout the period of increased terrorist attacks in Europe, the media would often portray Muslims in a less than favourable light. This has been a criticism in the Western World for a significant time period, where anti-Muslim attitudes can be observed after the events of 9/11 (Ogan et al. 2013). The media would often portray the migrants as the ‘others’: a population that is closely associated with underdevelopment, illiteracy, homelessness and failed states (Reza, 2011). Furthermore, the media would seldomly publish success stories about immigrants of the Islamic faith. By portraying Muslimimmigrants in a negative light, this has blighted the acceptance of these people into society.
As the media is often the only reliable news source for some people, certain members of the public will not question what they read. As a result of this they will take what they read in the newspapers as fact and similarly adopt a negative outlook towards Muslims.
The Great Replacement theory is a dangerous and hateful conspiracy that blames migrants for factors that are outside of their control. The incoming migrants are often fleeing war-torn countries and their only wish is to live a normal life. Help and guidance is needed to enable them to integrate into society. The European Union has struggled to provide adequate support in this regard. Furthermore, the media have often demonised the migrants for the actions of a small minority of people. A serious rethinking of integration policies is needed in order to sufficiently help them to integrate into society.
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