These creepy leaflets are testament to a much deeper malaise.
Something deeply disturbing is happening in Europe. Take a look at the multi-language leaflet, produced by the Health and Social Services Department of the Swiss city of Lucerne. It informs migrants not to assault women ahead of Lucerne’s upcoming carnival. It features a cross next to a cartoon of a man hitting a woman and a man beating a child, and a tick next to a picture of a man kissing a man, a woman kissing a woman, and a woman kissing a man. Similar flyers – emphasising local rules of behaviour – have been produced in towns throughout central Europe. In Bornheim in Germany, the authorities have gone a step further and banned male migrants from a public swimming pool after women complained of being sexually harassed
Although the educational propaganda produced by local authorities for migrants is full of modern, right-on terms like ‘appropriate behaviour’, the principal focus is sex. So a leaflet circulated in the German town of Hardheim might ask migrants not to relieve themselves in parks and gardens, but it’s mainly concerned with telling migrants to avoid contact with young women. These leaflets recycle the traditional narrative of protecting the ‘weaker sex’ from uncivilised types in the ostensibly value-free language of multicultural Europe.
It is particularly disheartening that these instant rules of conduct echo failed and discredited attempts to ‘educate’ immigrants in the past. The classic example of a well-meant but misguided attempt to educate Muslim immigrants in the values of a host nation is the 2006 film produced by the Dutch government. To The Netherlands told viewers that ‘people do not make a fuss about nudity’, ramming the point home with footage of an attractive woman sunbathing topless. It also explained that homosexuals possess the same rights as heterosexuals, including the right to marry. To illustrate the point, the film lingers on two men kissing in a meadow.