Gerald Knaus: Empathy and Control Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Gerald Knaus during a presentation of his book at ERSTE Foundation on 19 October 2020. Photo: Marcel Billaudet

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Will this book make a difference? Much will be gained if everyone who wants to have a say in and contribute to the migration debate reads it.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Anyone who reads this book will no longer be surprised that state premiers like Winfried Kretschmann or Armin Laschet, CDU leader Annegret KrampKarrenbauer and also the BAMF [Federal Office for Migration and Refugees] management seek advice from Knaus.”

Gerald Knaus:

Empathy And Control Are Not Mutually Exclusive

On 19 October 2020, the Austrian migration expert Gerald Knaus presented his new book on flight and migration, Welche Grenzen brauchen wir? [What Borders Do We Need?], to media representatives in Vienna.

In 2019, a total of around 100,000 people made an unregulated entry into the European Union via the Mediterranean Sea. That’s an average of 280 people a day. Is that too many? Are the numbers soon going to explode? Should they be stopped, and what measures are permitted to do so? Who has the right or the duty to make such decisions?

These questions, albeit fundamental, have been left unanswered for too long. Gerald Knaus puts them – and several more – at the beginning of his book Welche Grenzen brauchen wir? Zwischen Empathie und Angst – Flucht, Migration und die Zukunft von Asyl [What Borders Do We Need? Between Empathy and Fear – Flight, Migration and the Future of Asylum], published in German by Piper in October 2020. For many years, Knaus has been quoted in the media as an expert on migration and asylum. Governments and international institutions also listen to him and he is particularly appreciated for his ability to combine great expertise with an understanding of the viewpoints on both sides of what has become a rather confused discussion.

Compassion, empathy and the willingness to help refugees in need seem to be in obvious conflict with the need for security and control over one’s own life – not only within European societies, but often also in the hearts of their citizens. Gerald Knaus is convinced “that it must be possible to control Europe’s borders while respecting human dignity”. For him, zero deaths in the Mediterranean cannot be the only goal. “Successful policies must always present solutions capable of winning a majority,” said Knaus when presenting his book to selected media representatives at ERSTE Foundation in Vienna on 19 October 2020.

What Borders Do We Need? not only sums up all the arguments of the current debate and questions well-known beliefs such as maritime rescue operations being a “pull factor”, the injustice of the Dublin system or the link between demography, climate and migration. In chapters on the Vietnamese boat people of the 1970s or the Cuban bolseros of the 1990s, Knaus reminds us that neither flight nor demarcation, neither clever nor brutal border management, nor the debate on the universality of the right to asylum are new. He finds examples to learn from in Canada, Australia, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Ukraine, Turkey, Libya and Morocco, among others.

The question of why we should make the case for humane European Union borders is clearly answered. The right to asylum and humane forms of migration are each a pars pro toto. Knaus points out that human rights as such are by no means set in stone. “All values are transient if they are not defended.” In view of today’s situation in the Mediterranean, our societies must ask themselves, “Who are we? Who do we want to be?”

Gerald Knaus, who now lives in Berlin, is founding director of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) think tank. He studied philosophy, politics and economics in Oxford, Brussels and Bologna, is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and was Associate Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Governance in the USA for five years. In 2018/2019, Gerald Knaus was a Fellow of Europe’s Futures – Ideas for Action, a project of ERSTE Foundation with the Institute for Human Sciences (see p. 62). ERSTE Foundation has also been a partner of the European Stability Initiative for many years.

We believe that culture is a central part of our identity.

Every society needs culture: as a laboratory in which the past is considered, the present criticised and the future imagined. Culture strengthens the complex identities in Eastern Europe’s societies. We therefore want to explore important artistic practices in the recent Eastern European past.

The cultural heritage of dissident history must be secured and made accessible to an international audience. Artists need (free) spaces for their production, theorists need international recognition; and both, work and interpretation, should be accessible.