Skip to main content

Was away for a week visiting my parents. Don’t get to see them nearly enough, in no small part thanks to our lovely “European Values” meaning they have to jump through more hoops to come visit us in Ireland than they can manage at their age. You see, we don’t really see non-Europeans as human in Europe. They’re something less. A potential threat.

I may have an EU passport and pass for white but I never forget that. In fact, I think about it every time I miss my parents.

#eu #racism #xenophobia

#EU #Racism #xenophobia

Rokosun reshared this.

in reply to Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

Even having an EU passport isn’t enough to be considered fully human in the EU.

What about your family? Your parents? We must protect ourselves from them. They could be dangerous. Goodness knows my 79-year-old dad and 77-year-old mom might be potential terrorists. Let’s make sure we make it as hard as possible for them to visit. After all they were born in Brown lands and have funny names. Can’t be too careful.

By the way, did we mention how progressive we are in the EU? Racism, what’s that?

Rokosun reshared this.

in reply to Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

If you don’t have provisions for family members of citizens to visit without being subject to bureaucratic hurdles then you have two classes of citizens: ones who you recognise as having families and ones who you don’t.

A father or a mother or a brother or a sister should not need a visa every time they want to visit.

That’s a racist and xenophobic policy.

And if you don’t have to experience that because your family all have the same citizenship, count yourself lucky.

#eu #family #xenophobia

#EU #xenophobia #Family

reshared this

in reply to Aral Balkan

Design by Adrian
Design by Adrian
• •
My newborn daughter can’t meet her grandparents because the EU has decided that an old couple from the middle east, who’s had multiple visit visas before, suddenly would decide to stay indefinitely.

Aral Balkan reshared this.

in reply to Design by Adrian

Diego Beghin
Diego Beghin
• •
@designbyadrian It's perverse people visiting family are unwelcome because they would have a good reason to stay. Our whole migration/border is incredibly cruel.
@Design by Adrian
in reply to Aral Balkan

Design by Adrian
Design by Adrian
• •
Thanks. Believe me when the entire family feels extra ‘special’ right now.
in reply to Aral Balkan

Raul Portales
Raul Portales
• •
or if they need a visa, it should be free and automatic (probably easier as a first step)
in reply to Aral Balkan

Raul Portales
Raul Portales
• •
I see that people from outside the EU are treated differently, but it used to be anyone from outside your country. To me that's an improvement (more people are treated better).
It's not perfect and we should strive to do better thou. It's also something we usually forget and don't see, so thanks for the reminder.
in reply to Aral Balkan

Dave Spector
Dave Spector
• •
☹️so frustrating, I’m sorry you and your parents have to tolate this irrational stupidity. We, as a species, really do waste so much energy on BS.
in reply to Aral Balkan

Tio
Tio
•

Yes it is terrible. My girlfriend (Sasha) still cannot legally stay with me in EU despite us going through the process of "marriage" some 3 years ago. We try and try to get her a residency so she can also be able to leave, go to the US visit her family and such. We cannot....we at times talk to 3-4 different lawyers. It is insane.

It is such a prison....and you realize it so much when you bang your head into these things...

Like for us, to give her a residency I have to have a job and make more than 1k a month for at least a year. Else we are not humans.

in reply to Tio

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

@tio And all the work you do for the common good. Of course none of that counts. Because of course.

It bloody sucks. *hug*

@Tio
in reply to Aral Balkan

Rokosun
Rokosun
• •
@Tio
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Tio

censored for “transphobia”
censored for “transphobia”
• •
@tio Is that also in Ireland where they require you to support your g/f? I’m confused because you say she’s your g/f yet you’re married. Was it a non-EU marriage.. is that the issue?
@Tio
in reply to censored for “transphobia”

Tio
Tio
•
She is "my wife" for the past years, but we hate that ritual especially because we were forced to do it for the papers. So I call her "my girlfriend" normally. But yes, I am an EU citizen. Have Romanian citizenship and Spanish residency. The marriage was done in the EU. But it seems to make 0 difference. The lawyers told us that it does not matter, unless I can show that I can support her financially and have at least a one year contract and make over 1k a month.
in reply to Tio

censored for “transphobia”
censored for “transphobia”
• •
@tio @tio Well I’m baffled. An EU marriage w/one person being an EU citizen-- I would have expected that to entitle your wife (by law) to reside with you, and that entitlement to residency should also automatically entitle her to work in Spain as well. I’m surprised Spain has that red tape & that it’s even legal for Spain to do that under EU laws.
@Tio
in reply to censored for “transphobia”

Tio
Tio
•
Oh yeah we were also surprised....we thought the marriage certificate is enough. But it is not. She can "legally" stay with me in spain, but she has no documents here or the right to work. Nor can she leave spain and expect to return back. So she is trapped for now. The lawyers told us multiple times there is no way for her to get the residency just because she is married with me. I started to film for a documentary about this situation some 3 years ago but we were so tired and busy that I did not film much....I wanted to make a documentary about this bullshit situation because most people are unaware of it.
in reply to Kevin Karhan :verified:

censored for “transphobia”
censored for “transphobia”
• •
@kkarhan @tio When I visit the thread on mstdn.social, indeed it is very broken. But when viewing the same thread on social.trom.tf, it appears continuous (no orphaned posts AFAICT). mstdn.social has 31k active members, so it’s bizarre that the thread is so broken & minimal on that big far-reaching server. Perhaps there is something stux@mstdn.social doesn’t want ppl to see?
@Tio @Kevin Karhan :verified:
in reply to censored for “transphobia”

MortSinyx
MortSinyx
• •

doesn't follow @aral or @tio but someone on another instance who propagated @tio's post above. Instances running Mastodon't tend to fetch posts no user explicitly subscribes to IIRC.

Tio

2023-06-17 20:37:29


Oh yeah we were also surprised....we thought the marriage certificate is enough. But it is not. She can "legally" stay with me in spain, but she has no documents here or the right to work. Nor can she leave spain and expect to return back. So she is trapped for now. The lawyers told us multiple times there is no way for her to get the residency just because she is married with me. I started to film for a documentary about this situation some 3 years ago but we were so tired and busy that I did not film much....I wanted to make a documentary about this bullshit situation because most people are unaware of it.

@Tio @Aral Balkan
in reply to MortSinyx

censored for “transphobia”
censored for “transphobia”
• •
@Tio @MortSinyx @Kevin Karhan :verified:
in reply to censored for “transphobia”

Tio
Tio
•
social.trom.tf uses Friendica and Friendica can handle long threads. Perhaps that's the cause. I used Mastodon before but the way they handled the threads made me move to Friendica. social.trom.tf is my node, so anyone can join btw.
in reply to Degrowth or Extinction

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
@ecosurrealism @koherecoWatchdog @kkarhan @tio @stux Hey folks, @stux and I follow each other and I don’t see why they’d implement some sort of shadow banning/block – I’m assuming this is some shortcoming of federation/the software/setup; I don’t think we need to jump to conclusions. From what I’ve seen, they’re doing a great job of moderating their instance and providing a valuable service to the community.
@Tio @stux⚡ @censored for “transphobia” @Kevin Karhan :verified: @Degrowth or Extinction
in reply to Aral Balkan

stux⚡
stux⚡
• •
@ecosurrealism @koherecoWatchdog @kkarhan @tio Uh.. may I ask what this is all about?
@Tio @censored for “transphobia” @Kevin Karhan :verified: @Degrowth or Extinction
in reply to censored for “transphobia”

maswan
maswan
• •

@koherecoWatchdog
So, this is not really something covered by common EU law, but each country get to make up their own rules.. Up until quite recently a "serious relationship with the intent to live together" would have been sufficient on its own for residency in Sweden, but I hear this is getting more barriers due to anti-immigration politics in the last decade, with more incoming.

But I hear other EU countries have had household incone requirements for much longer.
@tio @aral

@Tio @Aral Balkan @censored for “transphobia”
in reply to Aral Balkan

Michael
Michael
• •

as someone who’s married to an Egyptian I feel your pain!

My sister in law has never been able to get a visa. My mother in law was refused when our first child was born. My father in law is weirdly the only one who’s been able to get a 5 year visa.

It’s so very painful, that we are essentially only able to meet our family when we travel to Egypt…

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

reshared this

in reply to Michael

Tio
Tio
•

reshared this

in reply to Aral Balkan

IAG
IAG
• •
One of my Discord friends just got his German citizenship at 19. He has lived there his entire life.
And I thought immigration policy in the US was bad...
in reply to Aral Balkan

Sardo
Sardo
• •
@aral, In France, I don’t see this often. I might have said before, I am uzbek and only citizenship I have is Uzbekistan. I also cannot be an example, because I have a blue card (passeport tallent). However, to invite my mom to visit me and my son, it is a bit of a headache. Also, if I loose my job, I will have only three month to find another, which is not always easy even as an engineer. If local person, looses a job, they can live on chômage but I can’t.
@Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan

Yasmina
Yasmina
• •
so true. My mother in law got a visa back in 2010 to visit - no Problem. Last year nothing changed exept she is now widdowed and 89 years old. Visa denied on the grounds that she can "not prove without reasonable doubt that she has strong enought ties in homecountry to return". Ah yes, my MIL the femme fatale, traveling to germany to seduce our famously charmant seniors while all her children exept for one are back home. Makes sense, not.

Aral Balkan reshared this.

in reply to Yasmina

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

@MrsGalaxy I’m so sorry. Clearly, it would be absolutely devastating for a broke-ass, dilapidated country like Germany if, say, you really did decide to have your mom stay with you… say (goodness forbid) if you needed to look after her, for example. The whole place would crumble.

(I guess Europeans never take care of elderly family members so they have no point of reference to comprehend such a thing from a human perspective. Maybe some day, when they’re more civilized, they’ll understand.)

@Yasmina
in reply to Aral Balkan

Daniel Schildt
Daniel Schildt
• •
@MrsGalaxy Elderly care was outsourced to the institutions, so that people in the working class would be fully equipped for the factory work. Oh wait, work is largely knowledge work these days, but the old systems of isolating the different age groups are still largely in effect in a lot of countries in the EU. So it's lot more than border control, as people are isolated even as a citizens, based on the age groups.
@Yasmina
in reply to Aral Balkan

ex or current IDF unwelcome
ex or current IDF unwelcome
• •
should have told the Brits several years ago that voting yourself to be non human is silly.
in reply to ex or current IDF unwelcome

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

Oh, we did.

(We used to live in the UK before they voted the Tories in again.)

But the real problem is the xenophobia and racism itself, of course, and not whether you’re privileged enough to be part of the group perpetuating it instead of the group that’s its victim.

ar.al/notes/so-long-and-thanks…

Aral Balkan — So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

ar.al
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Aral Balkan

(car '(potato lisper))
(car '(potato lisper))
• •
there is new sickness now - English schools. I have a lot of Latino friends now, that have a school visa for 8 months. They have to pay horrendous amounts for these privileges and their visa only allows for part time work. They are basically paying to be a cheap labour
in reply to Aral Balkan

Ciara
Ciara
• •
I am sorry you and your parents are put through this. The amount of energy and thought that officialdom puts into designing rules that create a hostile environment for individuals - if only all that energy and thought instead went into designing radical climate crisis policies that could collectively improve all our lives.
Unknown parent

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
@Pierrette @MrsGalaxy It is not “over the board”; it is specifically designed to be as insulting and offensive as possible to anyone who would be insulted and offended by the criticism and shaming of a xenophobic and racist policy instead of the xenophobic and racist policy itself.
@Pierrette @Yasmina
in reply to Aral Balkan

Robin
Robin
• •
I recently listened to the Trojan Horse Affair podcast. It was so so disturbing. I’m 100% European (born in the US) and half of that is Ashkenazi Ukrainian Jew. I’m also married to an Afro-Honduran and I’ve been a first hand witness to how he’s been undervalued his entire life (been together 33 years). That podcast drove home how impossible it is to thrive when your very existence is inherently not valued. Our daughter immerses herself in her art as a refuge and expression.
in reply to Aral Balkan

Paul Brownjohn
Paul Brownjohn
• •

I used to live in Thailand where locals getting a tourist visa to visit Schengen countries is fairly straightforward but locals getting a tourist visa to visit the UK was practically impossible. I cannot see a reason for this as, so far as I'm aware, there is no wish on the part of most Thais to move to the UK, especially not illegally by entering via a tourist visa. My conclusion therefore is that the government dept responsible is run by bigoted, racist, fückin arseholes!

In my three years over there, I met dozens of Thais who applied for a UK tourist visa; many were in stable relationships with either Brits or other EU nationals (this was before Britain left the EU) and whilst none that I met were refused a Schengen visa if they applied for one, equally none were granted a UK visa; not one single one!

Unknown parent

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •

@nlovsund Bloody hell, these people.

*hug*

@Nathan Lövsund 🐒 🚀
⇧