In the light of history, Latin American leaders deem the "Return Directive" to be despicable. Their countries welcomed 35 million Europeans between the end of the 19th century and the Second World War.

    "Up until the end of the Second World War [...] tens of millions of Europeans left for the Americas to colonize, escape famines, financial crises, wars, totalitarianisms, and the persecution of ethnic minorities." On the eve of the European Parliament's review of a new directive on the conditions for expelling undocumented aliens, Bolivian President Evo Morales solemnly appealed to history. In an open letter, he enjoined the Union's leaders not to vote in that law. All for nothing: by a small majority on June 18, Europe adopted the "Return Directive," which opens the way to detaining illegal aliens - including minors - recalcitrant about returning for up to eighteen months, and prohibits their setting foot on European soil in the five years following an expulsion.

    "Directive of Shame"

    The immediate reaction of Latin America's leaders "was both comprehensive and polyphonic," emphasizes Denis Rolland, professor of the history of international relations at Strasbourg. "Unfair and not very Christian," as seen from Peru, the directive "constitutes a human rights violation," according to the Uruguayan Senate, and a "xenophobic" measure for Brazilian President Lula. Acting in character, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was deliberately provocative: on June 19, he threatened to cut off the oil faucet (Venezuela accounts for 0.95 percent of European supplies) for those countries that applied the "directive of shame." For his part, Evo Morales wants to instigate a mobilization campaign that would include Africa. It is beginning to be echoed in Algeria.

    Last week Latin American leaders reasserted their disapproval in the common communiquè that closed the Mercosur (South American Common Market) Summit. They reject "any intent to criminalize irregular migration and the adoption of restrictive immigration policies." Although Brussels has since directed them not to "caricature the directive," Latin American tension over the issue must be seen as "a key element in the process of deteriorating relations between the two continents," asserts Denis Rolland.

    Shared "Latin Heritage"

    Based on the idea of a shared "Latin heritage" on both sides of the Atlantic, those relations have been inexorably weakening since the beginning of the twentieth century. And positive signals, such as the massive influx of European investment after the fall of the dictatorships, are not sufficient to cover up that trend, Roland adds. "The EU has committed a serious diplomatic mistake, just at the time when it is trying to conclude free trade agreements with Latin America," appends Professor Janette Habel of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Latin America.

    According to these specialists, Evo Morales and his peers may legitimately use history to buttress their anger. For decades, their countries welcomed Europeans in quest of better tomorrows. In total, 35 million Europeans uprooted themselves to settle in Latin America between the end of the nineteenth century and the Second World War, demographer Maria Eugenia Cosio reminds us. It took until the 1990s for that flow to reverse itself. Minuscule in the beginning, Latin American immigration to Europe, first made up of rich families, then of militants fleeing authoritarian regimes, had "become a strictly economic phenomenon starting in 1980," contends Rolland.

    But it's only during the most recent years that it's become really significant, "as reception conditions in the United States have hardened," notes Maria Eugenia Cosio. "Europe seemed a substitute solution." Generalized poverty, the crisis in Argentina and its repercussions for its neighbors, Brazil's economic difficulties, the new regime in Venezuela and the civil war in Colombia have encouraged these departures. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 220,000 Latin Americans - young working people for the most part - are presently living in Italy, 67,000 in Portugal and 85,000 in France. And 725,000 in Spain - where there were less than 100,000 in 1995 - a favored exile destination due to its generous openness. The transposition of the directive "will necessarily harden the Spanish position and complicate bilateral relations with Latin American countries," Cosio underscores. "Previously, a letter sufficed to bring someone from Colombia."

    Latin America has all the more difficulty accepting the lock-up of Europe in that it needs the "remisas," the sums of money migrants send back to their home countries. In Bolivia, that manna amounts to 10 percent of GDP. Odious treatment of the undocumented, historic non-reciprocity.... For the continent that welcomed its ancestors, Europe's "Return Directive" is nothing less than a slap in the face.

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.