wfn.org | Europe's "golden curtain" replaces Iron Curtain

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 10, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{262}

NOTE:  This is the second story of a two-part series. It is accompanied by a
sidebar, UMNS story #263.

By Linda Bloom and Kathleen LaCamera*

Under Communist rule, Eastern Europeans had difficulty getting permission to
leave their countries to visit the West. Today, they are being stopped on
the other side of the border.

The Rev. Ulrich Meisel, a United Methodist pastor from Dessau, Germany, 50
miles south of Berlin, believes the 15 member states of the European Union
(EU) have created a new Berlin Wall. "We have a wall of prosperity instead
of an Iron Curtain," he explained.

The relaxing of internal borders within the EU has resulted in a tightening
of all external borders. "There are some questions about how do we live
together in Europe when we still have these divisions about who is out of
the union and who is in the union," said United Methodist Bishop Heinrich
Bolleter, based in Zurich, Switzerland. "The Iron Curtain, which hindered
the people to come to the West, has now turned, as we say, to a 'golden
curtain.'"

United Methodist Bishop Ruediger Minor, who served in his native East
Germany before being assigned to oversee new church growth in Russia, noted
that the societal changes that opened the former Soviet Union to Europe made
it seem "as if a dream would come true of frequent contacts (and) the
possibility to travel. ...However, it became obvious very soon that there
were new obstacles dictated by economic conditions."  

At the same time, Minor added, while Russians "happily accept" the amenities
of the West, they are reluctant to accept any changes to their culture. "The
European Union is sometimes understood as the focus point of those fears and
hopes," he said. 

The issue of immigrants and refugees is a thorny one. Meisel, a former
member of the European Parliament - one of the union's five governing
institutions - noted that "this economically strong Europe is like a magnet
for people coming from all parts of the world."

Just as U.S. churches once provided sanctuary for illegal Central American
refugees, German churches of all denominations assist asylum seekers. "Even
though it's illegal under German law, it's the duty of Christians," he
added.

The Rev. John Kennedy, a British Methodist, said he witnessed a sit-in by
the "Collective for People Without Papers" in the Church of the Beguines
during a recent trip to Brussels. The protest supported the growing number
of immigrants and displaced people (such as from Kosovo) who are wandering
around Europe without papers to prove their nationality.

"Fortress Europe is very much in place, and the waves of immigrants are
beating against its walls," he explained. "Border controls within the EU
have become even tighter, more strict because countries don't want to take
on huge numbers who have been passed on by others."

Even in non-EU countries, migrating ethnic minority groups run into
problems. Bolleter, who has done mission work among Europe's gypsies, said
the governments formed from what was once Czechoslovakia "through special
legislation tried to hinder the gypsies to settle down in their parts of the
new divided countries." If the gypsies do not register, he explained, they
cannot become citizens and must move from the richer Czech Republic to the
poorer Slovakia. Since many gypsies do not read, they have no idea of how to
proceed.

While its economic success is attractive to immigrants and others outside
the European Union, the wealth is not spread evenly within the union. "To
make Europe one economic unit means that always the cheapest will get the
business. In some parts of Europe, people are not competitive," Meisel
explained. For example, a farmer in the Alps cannot work as effectively as
in "the fat and rich grounds of Holland," he said.

In East Germany, an unemployment rate of 30 to 40 percent has strongly
affected the local church. Congregations that were "full of life" 10 years
ago are struggling because young people have left the area searching for
work, he said. Theology students must wait three or four years to get a
first appointment in a church because there is no money to pay them. 

The Rev. Stephen Plant, a British Methodist and secretary of the Methodist
European Council, pointed out that, technically, residents of EU states are
free to work in any country where they can find employment. But such job
mobility, he added, is not a reality for most people.

Kennedy was more blunt than his British Methodist colleague about that
reality. "The union is very keen to keep people out," he said. "Unemployed
people just stay unemployed where they are.

"Language differences are quite profound," he added. "Only a small minority
of people can speak fluently and effectively in another European language.
We are separate nations ... We can't be a democracy because we can't argue
and debate because of our language barriers." 
# # #
*Bloom is UMNS news director in New York. LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent
based in England.

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