Immigration

Ever since the last election, I've found myself puzzling over why there is such a big screaming deal about Immigration. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why it was becoming a rallying cry for both the left and right; from the perma-tanned sociopaths who wanted anyone vaguely foreign kicked to death, to the well meaning wet lettuces who would have you believe that everyone from outside the UK is physically and morally incapable of committing any crime whatsoever. All of them seemed to be fervent in their belief that immigration was either the worst or the best thing that could ever happen to this country.

And I really don't understand why this should be. Personally, I have an attitude of "Who cares who lives on which particular bit of dirt on this planet?" Living in Newcastle means that I don't have the aversion to bizarre accents that some people cite as their reason for feeling uncomfortable around foreign types. That, along with having had the proverbial ripped from me mercilessly by a party full of Kenyans for my obvious discomfort at being surrounded by black people (hey, until I was 18, I'd never seen more than 2 black people in the same room before...) before pretty much dismantling all of the parochialism that caused my discomfort, means that I'm comfortable around people of any hue and sound. No matter whereabouts in the world someone originates from, they're just as capable of being personable. Or arrogant. Or charming. Or violent tempered. Or stupid. Or witty. In other words, I believe people are people, no matter what they sound or look like.

But apparently, I'm in the minority on this. During the election, I found myself embroiled in a ferocious argument with a chap who was absolutely adamant that all of the problems that this country faces are due to immigrants. NHS underfunding? Immigrants; their presence puts a strain on our Health Service that it wouldn't face otherwise.
Housing crisis? Immigrants; because they're here, it leads to an increased need for housing, which in turns sends prices up, which in turn makes it more difficult to buy a first home. Benefit fraud? Immigrants; they're all here to scam the Social Security fund, which means that the Government are cracking down on genuine claimants. Unemployment? Immigrants; despite the fact that they're all here to rip off benefits, the cunning little swine also simultaneously manage to steal all of our jobs.

Naturally, this is for the most part, uninformed and ignorant toss that Kilroy dreamt up during a particularly nasty psychotic episode (incidentally, I have a plan for capturing Osama bin Laden; ask the Islamic world to give him up to the West, and we'll give them Robert Kilroy-Silk to do with as they please in return). If one wants to find reasons for the NHS farting and dying, one could point the finger at the amount of money it is forced to spend patching up both the victims and perpetrators of alcohol fuelled mischief on a Friday and Saturday (approx 164 million back in 92; anyone care to bet that it hasn't gone up since then?). The housing crisis? There are between 150 and 300 thousand second homes in the UK. That's before we even consider the size of some of the estates owned by the great and good. The majority of us live on less than 10% of the UK's land. I'd be looking at these reasons before I started to blame people for being brown and sounding funny (plus, lets be honest; anyone already in the housing market is almost certainly sexually aroused at the rise and rise of their house price).

The benefit fraud complaint...well, no doubt some immigrants do indeed scam the service. As I said earlier; people are people, with all their failings. However, the only people I've ever met who actively boasted of ripping off the benefits system were very much white Anglo-Saxons (including my own dear and bloated former sister in law, who probably counts as 2 white Anglo Saxons). When I spoke to someone working for the Benefit fraud office, she said that the cases that grab people’s attention are the ones involving immigrants. People who were born and raised here commit the majority of the actual fraud they deal with. As to the idea that the Unemployment figures are due to immigrants, that strikes me as one of the more unpleasant side effects of globalisation. Don't blame the lady from Slovakia who has taken your job. Blame the businesses that are doing their best to keep profits high by using the cheapest labour available.

Of course, all of that only goes so far to assuage the fears of many in this country (whipped up by equal parts "tabloid frenzy" and "insular arrogance") that it is turning into an overcrowded, underfunded hellhole. Even when you mention the studies that show that immigrants give the UK a net profit of something like £2 billion in terms of taxes and general income, people tend to the view "Well, you can prove anything with statistics...".

Part of this fear seems to come from the general inability (or unwillingness) to differentiate between immigration, and illegal immigrants. However, even then I have a hard time believing that illegal immigrants are responsible for so many woes; if any of them escape from being enslaved by pimps, drowned in cockle beds, or worked half to death in sweatshops...well, good luck to 'em. As near as I can tell, illegal immigrants tend to be the ones who suffer the most in the whole sorry debacle. The only paid that the average Daily Mail reader would experience is an increased difficult in getting an English speaking prostitute to degrade on a Saturday night.

I also used to think that the British fear of immigrants was down to simple, old-fashioned racism. After all, the main objection to our immigrant population used to be based on colour; Enoch Powell and his Rivers of Blood speech exemplify this. It's an attitude I've always found someone idiotic; until recently, the majority of immigration into this country was from nations that used to form the Empire. Call me overly liberal if you like, but I don't see that we have the right to complain when, having invaded and subjugated half the world and told them all that Britannia is the greatest, some of them decide to follow us home.

I'm less sure of that now (or at least, less sure that's it's to do with the colour of people's skin). Mainly because I hear equal amount of grumbling that the biggest problem arising from immigration is the gangs of men originating from Eastern Europe who hang around various cities trying to either get work or beg for money. The main source of that complaint is women, who say that they feel uncomfortable when faced with a large group of men whom they don't understand. As you may have noticed, I'm not a woman, so I don't feel I can either dismiss or confirm that argument, but I present it to you for your consideration.

So where am I going with this? Basically, I'm saying that a large number of people in this country have a skewed view of both immigrants and immigration. And that is a problem, because both sides of the immigration debate are fairly polarised and almost totally unwilling to even consider the point of view of the opposition (weighing in on the Pro-immigration side myself, I'd love to simply dismiss all anti-immigration people as ignorant doughfaced bigots, but alas for me, that's just not the case). However, in my view there are 2 things that prevent any sort of reasoned debate from taking place. One is the media, particularly the tabloids. Whilst the Mail and the Sun insists on giving disproportionate acres of print to "the problem of immigrants", and whilst the Mirror and the Guardian do the same about how we should all feel guilty for not having the positive attitude and blameless lives of immigrants, there is no chance of a calm and rational debate. In addition, whilst the government fudge figures to show immigration is worse or better than we thought (depending entirely on which group of people they want to influence at the time), we cannot even point to any hard facts as a starting point.

Until we can have such a debate, then we can look forward to bigots continuing their bigotry, apologists continuing to apologise, and ignorance flourishing unchecked. Surely putting an end to that is worth it?