Does being on the left necessarily mean being in favor of mass immigration?

All left-wing parties are relatively pro-immigration

Migrants come to Europe because of imperialist wars and the plundering of their countries, so it's only right to welcome them.

It's impossible to be on the left and reject others who are disadvantaged

The left is internationalist

Immigration strengthens the proletariat and left-wing forces

Rejection of immigration is racism

Xenophobic nationalists want to close borders

The media and governments that serve capitalist interests stir up fear of immigration

The bourgeoisie stirs up divisions in the proletariat by inventing a pseudo immigration problem

Immigration promotes multiculturalism, which is a plus for a society and human progress.

Solidarity means welcoming migrants

Muslim migrants convey the human values that our hyper-individualistic societies need.

Several left-wing parties and governments are relatively opposed to immigration

There's also a historical left-wing tendency against immigration

Employers and urban bourgeoisie want immigration

Certain Marxist analyses are unfavorable to mass immigration

Immigration is contrary to the interests of French workers and immigrants themselves.

Mass immigration is a by-product of unbridled liberalism and globalization

In working-class neighborhoods, mass immigration gives rise to complex "culture clashes" that fuel the far-right vote.

Some migrants advocate patriarchal and retrograde values that the left fights against

Emigration is a wrench, and a left-wing policy is to reduce North/South inequalities so that people in the South don't need to emigrate.

The left sees mass immigration more as a necessary evil than an asset

The question of being for or against immigration makes no sense, since it will always exist whether we like it or not.

The real profiteers of mass immigration are far-right populists

Keywords : Immigration, Left

To understand the debate

A more complex question than it seems

Immigration is a subject that structures the political arena. For many, the left is by definition in favor of immigration. The right is generally hostile to immigration, and the further to the right you go, the greater this hostility becomes. Yet nothing is so simple: a tradition of left-wing authors and movements has been reserved on immigration, while right-wing liberals are in favor of it. In the 1980s, Georges Machais's PCF took positions on this issue that today we would attribute to populists!

The left has always fought racism, but it also saw that it was big business that wanted to bring in foreign workers en masse, creating additional exploitation and making workers already in France more precarious. The issue is therefore more complex than it seems. All the more so as today, the Social Democratic parties in Denmark and a left-wing movement in Germany are taking up theses unfavorable to mass immigration.

In France, too, the debate exists or is emerging on the left. In 2015, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said of the great wave of migration in Germany that "welcoming refugees is not the answer to the problem". "True realism is to block the causes of departure. It's not about preventing people from arriving, it's about dissuading them from leaving," he insisted. "The French are more intelligent than their elites think. They've understood perfectly, they're all in favor of welcoming refugees today - and I say we have to do it because we have no choice, we're not going to throw them back into the sea! [...].people [...] know that if we start like this we'll have to continue year after year, and that makes no sense!" alarmed the former presidential candidate, while France has pledged to take in 24,000 refugees over two years." (http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/2015/09/11/25001-20150911ARTFIG00089-pour-melenchon-accueillir-les-refugies-n-est-pas-la-reponse-au-probleme.php#xtor=AL-155-[Twitter]). Jean-Luc Mélenchon's critical stance on the reception of migrants revealed the complexity of the problem.

All left-wing parties are relatively pro-immigration
Migrants come to Europe because of imperialist wars and the plundering of their countries, so it's only right to welcome them.
It's impossible to be on the left and reject others who are disadvantaged
The left is internationalist
Immigration strengthens the proletariat and left-wing forces
Rejection of immigration is racism
Xenophobic nationalists want to close borders
The media and governments that serve capitalist interests stir up fear of immigration
The bourgeoisie stirs up divisions in the proletariat by inventing a pseudo immigration problem
Immigration promotes multiculturalism, which is a plus for a society and human progress.
Solidarity means welcoming migrants
Muslim migrants convey the human values that our hyper-individualistic societies need.

Several left-wing parties and governments are relatively opposed to immigration
There's also a historical left-wing tendency against immigration
Employers and urban bourgeoisie want immigration
Certain Marxist analyses are unfavorable to mass immigration
Immigration is contrary to the interests of French workers and immigrants themselves.
Mass immigration is a by-product of unbridled liberalism and globalization
In working-class neighborhoods, mass immigration gives rise to complex "culture clashes" that fuel the far-right vote.
Some migrants advocate patriarchal and retrograde values that the left fights against
Emigration is a wrench, and a left-wing policy is to reduce North/South inequalities so that people in the South don't need to emigrate.
The left sees mass immigration more as a necessary evil than an asset
The question of being for or against immigration makes no sense, since it will always exist whether we like it or not.
The real profiteers of mass immigration are far-right populists