Source: http://www.chuka.org.uk
Hello all! By now, most of you have probably been wondering about the radio silence on my end, for which I do apologise. I have been travelling for the past two weeks, and while I might have missed posting some of the going-ons in the world, I am back and ready to dive right into what is happening now in the debate on migration and the EU.
So let’s get to it, shall we?
Here’s a round-up of some of the UK’s biggest news in the past few weeks.
What do all three news snippets have in common? That would be one word: “Immigration,” (and yes, even number three if you are to accept this article by Richard Littlejohn). But it is the more pressing, and growing, issue that arises from this hot topic, like the smaller, concentric ripples from a pebble dropped in still waters. That, my friends, would be the topic of the EU, or perhaps more specifically, our status of membership within it.
This was, more or less, the front page of every newspaper we woke up to this morning: eyes blurry, coffee in hand, and inwardly either cheering or sighing over our breakfast. The second defection to UKIP, arising in the form of Douglas Carswell, was a quite a blow to the Conservative party, and not to mention, Roger Lord. The announcement created a Twitter hailstorm of fury, with opinions and comments spewing out onto that news feed as fast as they could. Among those were twit pics of the front pages of every major UK broadsheet, but it was the Daily Express’ front page that caught my eye in the end.
Standing there in big, bold letters, floating underneath the monstrously huge picture of Brangelina (congratulations, by the way to the married couple), was the headline “TORY SHOCK AS MP JOINS UKIP.” Yet, it was the sub-heading that set off shrill alarm bells in my mind.
An article posted a few days ago by Reuters titled “EU immigration in Switzerland at record high before voter backlash,” written by Alice Baghdjian and Joshua Franklin caught my eye and I just knew this would be a great way to start my exploration into migration in the EU (don’t worry, I know Switzerland isn’t a part of the EU). EU immigration in Switzerland hit a record high in 2013 (in case you didn’t get that from before), so now Switzerland has voted to start imposing a quota on said migrants starting in 2017. And, well, let’s just say the EU is not too happy with that at all. I want to explore the campaign and politics that led to the vote, along with the underlying national sentiment, and see what this quota could potentially mean for Switzerland’s financial future.
thetransitnational 