President Obama on Monday called on Germans and all Europeans not to blame immigrants for the stagnant wages and other problems that have plagued Europe, and warned that xenophobic politics don’t benefit anyone.
Speaking in Hannover, Obama told Germans to reject the same “us versus them mentality” that he’s told Americans to reject in their presidential campaign for months, and said people need to resist the idea of blaming immigrants.
“Unfortunately … if we do not solve these problems, you start seeing those who would try to exploit these fears and frustrations and channel them in a destructive way,” Obama said. “A creeping emergence of the kind of politics that the European project was founded to reject — an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality that tries to blame our problems on the other, somebody who doesn’t look like us or doesn’t pray like us — whether it’s immigrants, or Muslims, or somebody who is deemed different than us.”
Obama added that the immigration issues facing Europe make it a “defining moment” for the continent.
“If a unified, peaceful, liberal, pluralistic, free-market Europe begins to doubt itself, begins to question the progress that’s been made over the last several decades, then we can’t expect the progress that is just now taking hold in many places around the world will continue,” he said. “Instead, we will be empowering those who argue that democracy can’t work, that intolerance and tribalism and organizing ourselves along ethnic lines, and authoritarianism and restrictions on the press — that those are the things that the challenges of today demand.”
Obama’s remarks came at a time when parts of Europe are under threat of having to absorb thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing from the Islamic State. Obama has encouraged Germans to resist resorting to the same nationalistic politics that have prompted GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among others who sought the nomination, to call for shutting down the border.
Obama also encouraged Europe to not waver from looking out for workers, or reigning in Wall Street, and said both requires welcoming in others seeking refuge.
“But if you’re really concerned about inequality, if you’re really concerned about the plight of workers, if you’re a progressive, it’s my firm belief that you can’t turn inward,” Obama said. “That’s not the right answer.”
“We have to keep increasing the trade and investment that supports jobs, as we’re working to do between the United States and the EU. We need to keep implementing reforms to our banking and financial systems so that the excesses and abuses that triggered the financial crisis never happen again,” he said.
Obama stressed that Germans and Europeans need to stay true to their idealistic governance, even when the U.S. may not be able to do so.
“Perhaps you need an outsider, somebody who is not European, to remind you of the magnitude of what you have achieved,” he said. “The progress that I described was made possible in large measure by ideals that originated on this continent in a great Enlightenment and the founding of new republics.”
Obama also addressed Europeans’ fears about U.S. intelligence agencies accessing their private information, both in light of revelations that the U.S. spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the controversy over Apple being asked to unlock the iPhone of alleged San Bernardino, Calif., terrorists.’
“But I also, in working on these issues, have come to recognize security and privacy don’t have to be a contradiction,” Obama said. “We can protect both. And we have to.”
“If we truly value our liberty, then we have to take the steps that are necessary to share information and intelligence within Europe, as well as between the United States and Europe, to stop terrorists from traveling and crossing borders and killing innocent people,” he said.
