We've seen a wave of people across the country voting for UKIP recently. Political commentators are reading all sorts into this and the potential impact on government policy. Some Tories are calling for action both on an EU referendum before the next general election, and further tightening up of immigration. Labour has repeatedly said it will "listen to voters' concerns" in this area, fearing that if seeks to argue against this, rather than pander to these prejudices it will lose out at the ballot box.
My response to this that I like immigration. I think immigration is absolutely
essential to the health of a society. I love seeing people who are of different skin colours and races and hearing those who speak different languages. They bring variety, they bring different ideas, perspectives and they enrich our country. Fear of the "other" is to me the most primitive emotion. In essence it goes back to cave people: "you're not in my tribe, keep out". I don't believe babies are born with hatred of others in them. I believe they are taught it, and the more varied and cosmopolitan the range of influences they are exposed to, the less likely xenophobia and prejudice will be.
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| A nation of immigrants: more so than most in the world |
I can
argue about history, and how Britain is a nation of immigrants. We all know full well that wave after wave of new people has settled here since well before Roman times to create over centuries the identity we have today. Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Normans, Hugenots, Jews... Each group came in turn and was eventually accepted into British society. My father's family came from Holland in the late seventeenth century. I'm sure they were shunned as "weird foreigners" with a funny name and religion who didn't fit in when they settled in Sussex. My mother is from Germany. She certainly had a massive helping of prejudice, both from strangers and from my English family, when she moved here in 1961. Now by virtue of some magical privilege of time, people don't see our family as foreigners and my family has the right to vote, if we wanted, for the likes of UKIP, in order to demand that others are shut out. It's worth remembering the simple fact that the family heritage of virtually every UKIP supporter will be the same: we are all immigrants to this country.
I can
argue about economics, and how both skilled and unskilled labour are a huge benefit to us. So many successful economies have realised this, from the Netherlands and Prussia inviting in the religiously persecuted in the 17th and 18th centuries to huge benefit, through to more recent "immigration nations" such as the United States and Australia. Skilled workers are always focused on, but unskilled ones, who are prepared to work hard doing jobs that others feel are below them, are important too. They do vital service jobs, often for low wages, pay taxes and spend money just like everyone else. Blaming them for our economic situation is simplistic, stupid and spiteful. If our unemployment is too high or our growth is too low, let's look at the way we as a society, and successive governments have run our own economy, rather than the knee-jerk reaction of blaming immigrants for our woes.
I can
argue about the enrichment of our culture. People of different backgrounds bring different cuisine, music, art and other hugely broad-ranging influences. How many anti-immigration supporters' favourite food is a curry, kebab or Chinese takeaway; and how many love downing an East European beer? I spent my first 12 years abroad and it's not tricky for me to remember just how limited the choice of anything non-British was in the average supermarket in 1983. It was absolutely striking. There has been a sea-change in this time, unnoticed, I suspect, by most people. Modern day Britain is an absolute cultural melting-pot and I adore the very real variety this brings in my day to day life.
Hitler loathed Vienna. It was too Slavic, too Jewish, too multicultural and too cosmopolitan for his tastes. When he moved to Munich he declared "Finally, a German city". After the War, (by now ethnically cleansed) Vienna was by all accounts a stiflingly dull place. It's how I remember the city in the early 80s on my first visits. Then, after 1989, it again became the cultural crossroads it always was, and it's a far, far more pleasant and interesting place for it. For a regular visitor such as me, the change in 20 years is absolutely striking. It is a brilliant embodiment of how immigration can enrich and change a place in a very short space of time.
I can
argue on the grounds of basic humanity. I don't see what gives me the right to regard all the good fortune I have, by accident of birth, as being my right to the exclusion of all others. There are people who suffer terrible misfortune and persecution in their own countries: it was the Russian pogroms that brought the wave of Jewish immigration here in the early 19th century despite the spite and hatred spewed out at the time by the right-wing press. It is the right thing to do for us to take in people who face hardship elsewhere, I am proud to be part of a society that agrees, and I think we will also benefit in the long run.
Ultimately though, UKIP seems to have tapped into a simple emotional, basic response. Their supporters
just don't like immigration. If they have the right to argue on this simple, basic level, so shall I.
I like immigration. We have always had it, and long may it continue. The more of us who agree and who state this clearly, the better. It is our society, and our country, and we deserve to be heard too.
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| 70s German slogan: All people are foreigners. Almost everywhere. |
