Europe rejected President Trump’s bombastic warnings on unchecked immigration — “Your countries are going to hell” — during his speech this week at the United Nations General Assembly, but leaders across the continent are hearing increasing complaints from angry voters about open borders.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, speaking for many on the European traditional left, called Mr. Trump’s remarks “racist, sexist and Islamophobic.”
Despite Mr. Khan’s fiery response and other officials’ frequent and pointed disavowals of Mr. Trump, leaders in Britain, Denmark and Hungary are clamping down on the waves of migrants seeking asylum and opportunity in Europe.
Populist right-wing parties with hawkish views on immigration have grown rapidly in recent years. They are emerging from the fringe and overwhelming official efforts to discredit or ban leaders and organizations.
The Alternative for Germany party holds 152 seats in the Bundestag after a surprise showing in elections earlier this year. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has a substantial bloc in the National Assembly and leads in national polling. Elsewhere in Europe, parties seeking tougher restrictions on immigration are already in power.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy won voters’ confidence after pledging to crack down on migrant boat crossings. Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, Hungary’s construction of a fence along its southern border is a signature policy.
The power of the grassroots movement is forcing left-wing politicians to move — haltingly, in most cases — to the right on immigration.
In Denmark, the Social Democratic government, led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, has proposed testing would-be immigrants for anti-democratic views before granting citizenship.
“Denmark has long been tougher on immigration than much of Western Europe,” said Steffen Sjorslev, Danish political analyst. “Since the early 2000s, immigration has been a decisive election issue, pushing even center-left governments toward a more hard-line stance, particularly regarding applicants from Muslim-majority countries.
“Citizenship in Denmark has historically been a formality, but this proposal marks a shift toward scrutinizing whether applicants truly share democratic values,” Mr. Sjorslev said.
Denmark’s government has sought to link these changes to traditional social democratic values of inclusiveness and shared responsibility. In recent weeks, drones, possibly part of a Russian sabotage campaign, violated Danish airspace. In response, Denmark reestablished temporary border controls. Italy and Greece have raised concerns this year about an influx of migrants from North African countries allied with Russia.
European Commissioner Magnus Brunner warned this summer that Russia is “weaponizing” migration to destabilize Europe.
“There is certainly a danger that Russia … [will] use migrants and the migration issue as a whole as a weapon against Europe. This weaponization is taking place,” he told Politico.
A YouGov poll this year found that majorities in many Western European countries say immigration to Europe is too high. In Denmark, 55% of respondents agreed that immigration levels were too high.
More than 70% of respondents in Sweden, Italy and Britain agreed. The strongest scores were recorded in Germany (81%) and Spain (80%).
Denmark is only one example of a Western European country where illegal immigration is a top priority for the ruling government.
Ms. Meloni came to power vowing to crack down on illegal migration, which she called a threat to national security, public order and social cohesion.
Ms. Meloni has overseen policies that have reduced irregular migration to Italy by up to 60%. Her government signed a deal with Albania to process up to 36,000 migrants a year rescued at sea. She has balanced this with policies that support legal and skilled migration.
Debating the best response to the growing dissatisfaction with asylum-seekers has created confusion.
“I think leftist parties have to work on inclusion,” said Francisco Senese, a political adviser to the mayor of Naples. “You can’t have ghettos in the cities. … If you combine constructive integration and social assistance, you have a chance to have a safer and more prosperous country.”
Ms. Meloni’s tough stand on unregulated immigration has been an unlikely inspiration for the Labor government of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
After taking office in July 2024, Mr. Starmer praised Ms. Meloni’s “remarkable progress” in combating illegal migration across the Mediterranean.
Mr. Starmer further pledged $5.6 million to Europe to support Ms. Meloni’s Rome Process, one of her signature initiatives to combat illegal migration.
Britain’s historical status as an island that could depend on surrounding seas to serve as buffers against turmoil on the continent has been no match for modern smugglers, who routinely ferry migrants across the English Channel.
In the first six months of the year, illegal crossings in small boats reached a record high. In response, Mr. Starmer rolled out his “one in, one out” immigration deal with France, allowing the return of some of those who had crossed the border illegally.
Protests against British immigration policies have become large and violent.
The case of an Ethiopian asylum-seeker convicted of sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl has attracted national public attention and sparked protests led by fringe right-wing groups. Smaller protests have targeted hotels housing asylum-seekers, and a recent protest in London attracted some 150,000 people and was addressed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Nigel Farage, the head of the Reform Party, which now leads in the polls, drew attention and criticism this week for his Trumpian suggestion that migrants from Eastern Europe have been “eating swans” from public parks.
The “one in, one out” program has had only limited success. As of this week, four migrants have been deported under the program, which has faced legal challenges.
French President Emmanuel Macron has felt pressure from the right-wing National Rally party, which leads in polls. In July, he blamed Brexit for the rise of illegal immigration across the English Channel. Like Denmark, France has tightened the path to residency and introduced stronger French language requirements.
Speaking at the United Nations this week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto touted his country’s border security measures: “Not a wall but a fence,” he said in an homage to Mr. Trump. Mr. Szijjarto said the protective fence had stopped more than 1 million migrants from entering the European Union. Hungary’s hard-line approach to immigration has earned it rebukes from Brussels and a fine for failing to comply with EU regulations regarding asylum-seekers’ processing.
Official statistics suggest that the focus on combating illegal immigration within the European Union has a broader effect. The European Commission estimated that 918,925 people were in the European Union illegally, a 27.4% decrease from 2023.
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