Gillian Duffy reminds me of my mother. Same kind of bigoted language with the emphasis on those ‘damned foreigners’. But the big contradiction was that my mother was a product of immigration. If similar immigration laws were in place at the time my grandparents and great-grandparents came to this country I wonder if they would’ve gained entry. My mother wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for immigration. And that’s what really deeply concerns me, why is immigration used a tool to oppress some of the most powerless in this society? The right-wing populist media and successive governments (Labour and Tory) have fanned the flames of racism with the emphasis placed on immigrants (nobody is illegal!)
The damn awful lies I hear (and that was part of my argument the other day) about, ‘they’re taking our jobs, homes, and benefits’… etc etc. I then react with my language dripping in sarcasm by highlighting the fact that people who come to this country for various reasons sometimes end up a racist hell-hole like Yarl’s Wood, and if that doesn’t happen then they are treated like they are at the bottom of the pile, and if a migrant gets a job which entails them wanting to join a union and get active then they are ‘rewarded’ with a trip by the UKBA! Some bloody paradise. And let’s put this damn lie out of it’s misery, asylum seekers can’t get benefits…so how can they be milking the system? But then again, it is easy to blame the powerless as a distraction from the real economic mess, indeed let’s point the finger at benefit scroungers and immigrants not at the neoliberal agenda of NL. Back to the subject of Ms Duffy…. I take David Semple’s points in his post especially as Brown decided to criticise the woman when he was safely in his car as as opposed to taking on Gillian Duffy’s arguments face to face. The hypocrisy coming from Brown especially considering many of the immigration removal centres appeared under NL! She may be a bigot then so is Brown.
And last night’s leader debate discussed the ‘hot potato’ issue of immigration, all the leaders clamouring about who can be tough. Again, that’s what worries me is what kind of society is being created? A little Englander island all narrow minded and bigoted…welcome to the future world of biometric ID Cards, language tests and caps. If you want to see how extreme anti-immigration laws can go then take a look at Arizona:
The new measure, Senate Bill 1070, instructs police across the state to stop and question anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being an undocumented immigrant. If that person cannot provide documents proving they are entitled to be in the US, they will be arrested and fined. If their immigration status cannot subsequently be confirmed, they will be swiftly deported.
Obama has described this law as ‘racial profiling’ and ‘draconian’. It certainly is! What’s ‘reasonable’? The cops, whose ideology is steeped in racism, will stop someone they don’t like the look at based on a law that is ambiguous combined with definitions that are elasticated and stretched beyond meaning.
Is that the kind of society people want?
If you don’t agree with immigration caps and points systems, then how should we deal with the increasing (and unsustainable – at least in the short-term and housing) population?
in my opinion your article is very nice and very helpful
“My mother wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for immigration”
And she wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for a mother who conceived, carried, bore, and raised her, of course. That little detail does tend to get overlooked these days.
Might I suggest that you look farther afield than the English-speaking world for any odious comparison you may wish to make, with regard to the potential of immigration control in the UK?
Here in Mexico, for example, we immigrants really are under the thumb – no freedom of speech, employment restrictions, no social-welfare benefits, unable to own property within 50Km of the coast or borders, subject to Immigration Police inspection twice yearly at our place of employment, heavy fines for failure to comply with the law and deportation (with no appeal), etc etc. Draconian laws, rigidly enforced.
Incidentally, Arizona Bill SB1070 merely enforces existing federal law – it does not create any new offense.
We are all products of immigration besides the pure Native Americans. People just need to open their eyes
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