Question for modern day Europe concountries

[Viktor77]

This is a question for anyone who has designed a modern day European concountry. I assume I'm not the only one. My question is how is your country dealing with the refugee crisis?

Falgwia, a member of the EU and Schengen, a Baltic state, has severely disappointed me on this matter and that's why I'm posing this question. The Falgwian government has shifted to the right after years of dominance by the center-right pro-EU party. The National Falgwia Front, a former independence party in the early 1990s when Falgwia broke off from the USSR, has rebranded themselves as a right wing Euroskeptic and of course anti-immigration party. While sentiments are usually targeted towards the large Russian minority in Falgwia, any minority they can ostracize will do just fine. Falgwia had agreed to accept about 1000 refuges last summer, but a recent election in August took the country the furthest to the right it has ever been due mostly to a campaign based on an anti-Russia platform; Russia's actions in the Crimea have Falgwians worried about what Putin could do next in the Baltics. Of course now the National Falgwia Front, having formed a coalition, has a majority in the Mykosei. Not surprisingly the first thing they did was to halt any further refuges from coming into the country, though they will honor the initial quota agreed upon. I'm quite disappointed in the Falgwian government for this move because they were a people subjugated under foreign powers for their entire history so the first opportunity they have to be a united nation and support others in need, they basically downright reject. The new Falgwian prime minister wants nothing to do with Juncker or Merkel's plans to redistribute refuges and I wouldn't be surprised if we see Falgwia kicked out of Schengen one day because of his and his party's actions.

But maybe someone has some positive news on the refuge front from their country?

[Hydroeccentricity]

Does anyone remember Novgorod? The modern successor to the old city state in today's Russia? That was a pretty in depth concountry, and I imagine they haven't been handling the refugee crisis particularly well either.

[Viktor77]

Does anyone remember Novgorod? The modern successor to the old city state in today's Russia? That was a pretty in depth concountry, and I imagine they haven't been handling the refugee crisis particularly well either.

Yea I remember it. But sadly I haven't seen Mecislau on this site for ages.

I was really hoping there were other Eurocentric conworlds out there but I suppose it is a rather specific category to expect that there would be a few others out there with conworlds situated there.

[Salmoneus]

FWIW, a language family I'm working on is set in a slightly altered Europe. In it, the countries of Trieste and of Istria and Rijeka (not sure on native names at present), which joined the EU in 2004 and 2013 respectively, are probably reacting in a rather xenophobic manner: they're socially conservative, post-communist, post-national-struggle-for-independence states. Trieste likes to think of itself as cosmopolitan and a haven for emigrés - but only in the sense of exiled intellectuals, not mass migration. Fortunately, they're not really on the migrant route and haven't had that many migrants arrive so far. Friulia (joined 2004) and Venice (joined 1995) are probably in theory more welcoming, but have also seen large anti-migrant movements develop. Carnia is ignoring the crisis - it's not an EU country, but is surrounded by the EU, and few migrants manage to get that far. Carinthia (EU since 2004), on the other hand, is deeply in crisis - its instincts are to invite in migrants, but it's right on the migration route and it's been swamped. However, it has negotiated with Germany and Austria for assistance in moving on migrants to countries more able to deal with them.

[Dewrad]

I asked Tedur about this. He responds that nobody seems to be too bothered by it, as the migrants want to spend as little time in Dravia as possible. The Austrians and Hungarians are talking of building border fences though, and this is being met with dark mutters about non-specific "treachery".

[Viktor77]

FWIW, a language family I'm working on is set in a slightly altered Europe. In it, the countries of Trieste and of Istria and Rijeka (not sure on native names at present), which joined the EU in 2004 and 2013 respectively, are probably reacting in a rather xenophobic manner: they're socially conservative, post-communist, post-national-struggle-for-independence states. Trieste likes to think of itself as cosmopolitan and a haven for emigrés - but only in the sense of exiled intellectuals, not mass migration. Fortunately, they're not really on the migrant route and haven't had that many migrants arrive so far. Friulia (joined 2004) and Venice (joined 1995) are probably in theory more welcoming, but have also seen large anti-migrant movements develop. Carnia is ignoring the crisis - it's not an EU country, but is surrounded by the EU, and few migrants manage to get that far. Carinthia (EU since 2004), on the other hand, is deeply in crisis - its instincts are to invite in migrants, but it's right on the migration route and it's been swamped. However, it has negotiated with Germany and Austria for assistance in moving on migrants to countries more able to deal with them.

Your first two states sound like Falgwia, minus the haven for intellectual immigration. Do you have a map of these two states?

Do Friulia and Venice have experience with other migrant movements? For example, Slovenians or Albanians or others? Could that be behind anti-immigrant sentiments? Or is it just a case of a small state feeling it's losing control (Falgwia is in this situation).

I asked Tedur about this. He responds that nobody seems to be too bothered by it, as the migrants want to spend as little time in Dravia as possible. The Austrians and Hungarians are talking of building border fences though, and this is being met with dark mutters about non-specific "treachery".

Can you link me to a map of Dravia? I gather it sits between Austria and Hungary, but just to be sure, to see where Dravia sits on the migrant route. What kind of government does Dravia have? Are they more in line with Austria or Hungary on this matter?

[Salmoneus]

Your first two states sound like Falgwia, minus the haven for intellectual immigration. Do you have a map of these two states?

No, but you can find them in an atlas pretty easily - Istria and Rijeka occupies Istria and Rijeka, while Trieste is in Trieste...

Do Friulia and Venice have experience with other migrant movements? For example, Slovenians or Albanians or others? Could that be behind anti-immigrant sentiments? Or is it just a case of a small state feeling it's losing control (Falgwia is in this situation).

It's just lack of control, I think, and a degree of nationalism in Friulia. But I don't really want to alt-world too much about them as they're real places.
In this Europe, there's an additional language family in the area, which has helped a slight adjustment in borders. When Italy threw off the austrian yoke, they weren't as succesful as in RL - Venice was made an independent buffer state, and Friulia remained within the empire. After WWI, a multiethnic state was created in the area, comprising Friulia, Carnia, Carinthia, Trieste, Slovenia, and a few Istrian areas that IRL are Croatian, including Rijeka. A sort of northern Yugoslavia, essentially. In the eighties, this collapsed into its component elements.

[WeepingElf]

I have no modern day European concountry (other than in the dormant Rosæ Crux project, which is an alternative history cum modern fantasy world branching off in King Arthur's time, where there is a number of countries that do not exist here and vice versa), but most of my conlangs are lostlangs - they are intrafictionally spoken by small minorities in a world otherwise the same as ours.

[Viktor77]

I have no modern day European concountry (other than in the dormant Rosæ Crux project, which is an alternative history cum modern fantasy world branching off in King Arthur's time, where there is a number of countries that do not exist here and vice versa), but most of my conlangs are lostlangs - they are intrafictionally spoken by small minorities in a world otherwise the same as ours.

But the course of events are different I assume?

Your first two states sound like Falgwia, minus the haven for intellectual immigration. Do you have a map of these two states?

No, but you can find them in an atlas pretty easily - Istria and Rijeka occupies Istria and Rijeka, while Trieste is in Trieste...

Ah, I should've recognized Trieste. Rijeka and Istria I had never heard of before.

[Salmoneus]

Rijeka is arguably still better known by its traditional name, Fiume.

[Nortaneous]

The only European countries I have are (let's say) Normandy and Mercia, so what you're asking is what the world would look like without a united Britain.

In OTL, OTL-Normandy was part of England between the Norman Conquest and 1204, and afterwards England often fought to regain control of it from France. So let's say French Normandy is recaptured in 1204 and Insular Normandy gets pissed. The Hundred Years' War would probably look different, since Insular Normandy is necessarily not even competent enough to take Mercia, and presumably Mercia would be allied with France since Scotland was in OTL.

I'm trying to think of a situation that would allow Normandy to end up independent. Let's see... France and Mercia ally against Normandy with the aim of splitting its territory, but Normandy allies with Scotland because Scotland of course has an interest in weakening Mercia. Normandy eventually falls, but some Owain Glyndwr figure (who properly ought to be in Mercia, but he's not useful there) leads a successful national resistance, maybe with the help of... fuck, I don't know, Portugal? (Mirroring the England/Portugal alliance in OTL.)

The colonial era ends up looking very different, since there can't be a British Empire without Britain. In OTL, Scotland fucked up trying to establish a colony in Panama right before the Acts of Union, but England refused to give them aid out of fear of war with Spain. There's no way to fuck the Spanish up, so the failure of the Darien scheme is...

...right, the Protestant Reformation happens somewhere in there. Normandy, which at this point has been reduced to its insular possessions, of course goes Protestant. The odds are strongly against the emergence of the bizarre aberration that is Anglicanism, and since Scotland can't not go Protestant, maybe Mercia remains Catholic and the Protestants flee. So Normandy and Scotland are Protestant and Mercia is Catholic. (Should Mercia go Protestant?)

The Puritans don't happen, so... who gets America? Fuck. If Mercia has London, English looks like it does in OTL, so Normandy has London, and anyway Normandy is the country with the most incentive to get good at sailing. The Normans get what in OTL was briefly the CSA, and probably also India. Mercia presumably has some colonial presence in Ireland already, since it exists because the Norman Conquest was a lot messier (and less successful) than in OTL and all those people fleeing have to go somewhere.

You know what would be cool? If Mercia had Iceland. By the Rule of Cool, Mercia gets Iceland, and Iceland gets some Mercian settlement, which means Icelandic ends up looking very different. Mercia also gets Greenland and Vinland, and eventually some guys over there go "shit, everyone else is setting up a colony" and Mercia ends up with a lot of Canada. That leaves Scotland with... what?

Maybe they lay off Panama and instead try to claim a chunk of North America, roughly corresponding to New England and points west, since Mercia got an early start at colonization somehow. Let's say it ends up looking roughly like CSA (Normandy) / Union (Scotland) / Canada (Mercia). The Mercian realms are integral parts of the country, so they're not likely to have a war of independence; the Union, however, is. So the Union throws off the Scottish yoke and tries to conquer the Norman Confederacy.

I don't know whether there ends up being a major New World power. What should happen here?

But that's not terribly important, since no matter what happens, nationalism breaks out in Europe, all three of the countries are independent, Normandy may or may not turn to irredentism and go to war with France (if France gets Louisiana, a Norman/French war seems reasonable, and maybe OTL USA splits into a Norman America and a Scottish New England, which is of course the Correct division)...

So what do these countries' political climates end up looking like in the 21st century? Well, a lot of that depends on the world wars.

WW1. Holy Alliance: Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary. Russia leaves, Italy joins. Shit happens. Austria-Hungary provokes Serbia into war, Russia goes to war with Austria-Hungary, Germany declares war on Russia, France provokes Germany into war, Belgium... does Belgium exist? I have no idea. It shouldn't. What matters is how many allies Germany has. Where do all the German immigrants go? Norman America, probably, since it gets the most land. Does Norman America ally with Germany?

I have no idea what the reaction ends up being, since if there's no WW2 or if Germany wins it, there's no Hitler to replace Satan in the popular mythology, and so everyone has the good sense to keep the gates closed.

[Mecislau]

Yea I remember it. But sadly I haven't seen Mecislau on this site for ages.

I still exist, I just have been focusing more on languages than on history of late.

[WeepingElf]

I have no modern day European concountry (other than in the dormant Rosæ Crux project, which is an alternative history cum modern fantasy world branching off in King Arthur's time, where there is a number of countries that do not exist here and vice versa), but most of my conlangs are lostlangs - they are intrafictionally spoken by small minorities in a world otherwise the same as ours.

But the course of events are different I assume?

Not really. Think of a mainstream novel, i.e. a novel set "in the real world", but featuring fictional characters. It is the same with lostlangs, only that it's languages that are fictional.

But in Rosæ Crux, the course of events is of course different, though in many ways parallel to our world.

[Copperknickers]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but this issue is pretty central to my conworld (or rather, extra-European concountry situated in the real world). Since my conculture is based on an island off the coast of Europe it is drawn into certain European political developments (think of it like a kind of an Atlantis that never sank into the sea but survived and became a European nation). It has recieved substantial immigration from West Africa, including the Maghreb, so it is currently experiencing problems similar to Belgium and France, with 'ghettoised' communities forming terrorist cells. It is facing a certain amount of immigration from African displacement although it is far away from the main stream of Syrians/East Africans/Afghans etc. It is not part of the EU so has not been pressured to accept many migrants, although it is a large and wealthy country with a highly developed military, so has participated in some actions against IS and has recieved the usual threats therefrom. Right now the terrorist cells are not the primary problem however, as the city of Xelits and the city of Tsaresi are currently heading an armed secession attempt from the rest of the country.

[Frislander]

Frisland, where my conlang Frislandian is spoken, is in about the same position as Iceland: it's too far out to sea for many refugees to make it over, but it has chosen to accept some, around 100 or so.

[Alon]

Good question!

There's a concountry I created for a LARP. That was in 2013, before the refugee crisis, but the issue of rising anti-immigrant nationalism was already there; it's based on a mixture of the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, and of those, the first three had huge far right surges even before 2014-5. In the early years of the decade it was more about unemployment and the financial crisis (not in Switzerland, but there, SVP is an established party that became right-populist, not a new player like FN or PVV); today, it's more about refugees. Since it's meant to be a generic non-Scandinavian core-Europe country with a multiparty system, most likely it took in about 10,000 asylum seekers in 2014 and somewhat more in 2015 - national population is 8 million - and shipped them to the worst ghettos in the capital and its suburbs, populated by low-income first- and second-generation Arab immigrants who came in as guest workers and never left.