Ahh, the 2020s. So far an era of unprecedented pandemics, graphic global wars and crippling economic downfalls. Oh, and of immigrants. Namely individuals seeking improved standards of living in a new location on this shared planet. Their lives are none of our business, you might say. But, somehow, these individuals have become nothing but business, becoming one of the top concerns for people in the UK and around the world. Bizarrely, the ‘solution’ against them is, for many governments, a priority above economies, health, and wars.
Immigration is a contentious topic but there are always reasons behind why people choose to become immigrants. For many people, what disturbs them is that people are ‘illegally’ immigrating, with many entering the UK via ‘small boats’ across the English Channel. However, there are sparse legal routes to enter the UK and make an asylum claim. If you were short of pocket and fleeing persecution, then the bright promises of the smuggling gangs who operate such ‘small boats’ seem a lifesaver. Plus, more than 90% of people claiming asylum in the UK were granted refugee status in the year ending September 2024. So, in the end, most ‘illegal immigrants’ aren’t ‘illegal’ after all. But why are they coming from safe countries like France, you may ask. Well, an Amnesty International report has revealed the intimidation tactics of French police forces against immigrants in France; with some urinating on their tents and others stealing immigrants’ clothes, their conduct understandably compels people to migrate to England.
The remnant of English colonialism is also a reason people choose to arrive in the UK. As British colonialism spread across the globe, so too did the English language, meaning it has since become the most widely spread language in the world with an estimated 1.52 billion speakers. Also, after the Second World War, the Government openly encouraged immigration from colonised continents under the British Nationality Act 1948 to help repair war-torn Britain and support the new National Health Service (NHS); migration to the UK is a choice that exists largely due to the actions of the UK itself.
However, general misconceptions about immigration have allowed politicians to use migrants to their advantage. Take the vow to ‘Stop the Boats’, a key legacy of Rishi Sunak’s short time in office (though not as short as Liz Truss’ lettuce days). At that time, the UK was faced with the worst inflation in decades: energy prices were torturous to look at, working families were suddenly dependent on food banks, and many of us even refused to use heating to avoid its insurmountable cost. Yet the main thing the Government rambled on about in 2023 was immigration. The [migrant] invasion on the Southern coast, stop the boats, send them to Rwanda: everything seemed like plans against an alien landing. All this rhetoric makes people forget about the financial insecurities the Government has failed to solve. It’s easy for them to use immigrants to mop up the blame for the failures of their administration, particularly spikes in crime and inflation. As many political commentators agree, immigration has simply become a tool used by politicians to make us feel less worse off than we are.
The more politicians use immigration to their advantage, the more crucial it becomes for us to remember immigrants are nothing more, nothing less, than people. Think back to Sunak’s floating immigration barge, which hardly anyone remembers, off the Dover coast. Not only claustrophobic, but teeming with Legionella bacteria; the place was evacuated for fear it’d turn into a death camp. And yet nobody batted an eyelid. What about Nigel Farage’s promise to ‘deport all illegal migrants’: a Reform UK pledge that even neo-Nazi Mark Collett thinks is more far-right than the British Nationalist Party’s, and one that English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson finds attractive. And still, Reform UK (a very new party) received more votes than the Liberal Democrats in the 2024 General Election. Nobody cares about Farage’s links to fascism, a fascination which started at an early age (his teachers had once reported him for enthusiastically singing Hitler Youth campaign songs in the street). And now Trump, a man who reportedly used to sleep with a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed.
‘They’re murderers…they’re from mental institutions…they’re eating their cats and dogs…animals…[worse than] Hanibal Lecter.’
His lies are often greeted by immense applause at Republican rallies and events in scenes reminiscent of Hitler stirring up his radical crowds to scapegoat the Jews. Whilst Trump doesn’t seem set to slaughter immigrants, neither did Hitler, who only initially planned to deport Jews to places including Madagascar.
The point is, it’s no exaggeration to say that people in power can get away with murder once immigrants have their humanity flushed out of them. Reports emerging from the Mediterranean have revealed the harrowing conduct of the Greek coastguard towards people coming to Greece for asylum. At least 43 people are alleged to have died at the hands of the coastguard according to the BBC, often by being launched back into the sea on a dinghy to be left stranded in the ocean, or even by coastguard officers pushing individual immigrants into the water and watching them beg for mercy until their pleading hands sinks down with the rest of their bodies. Regardless of your political views, your ideas on land borders, and your thoughts on immigration, surely, as a member of this shared planet, this incident alone must make you question what humanity has become, whether the virtue of humanity is something we still even have, in this increasingly dark 21st Century.
Behind all the political phrases and pledges are people, and that’s something we should all be very aware of.
Image Credit: Alejandro Cartagena (Unsplash).