Anti-anti-immigration

[dolorosa_12]

I. A friend of mine, a (white) university lecturer from Canada who did his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the UK, was in a pub with his wife, a (white) British secondary school teacher. One of the other patrons started ranting against 'the immigrants'. My friend pointed out how expensive and difficult it was to emigrate to the UK, using his own situation as an illustration.

'Oh, I wasn't talking about you,' the ranter said. 'It should be easier for people like you to emigrate. You're not like all those others.'

II. I have been in the UK on several student visas, and the process is extremely complicated and very strict. You must prove yourself able to support yourself financially, prove that you're a genuine student, and, if English is not your native language, prove English-language competence. I am now on a one-year post-study work visa, which is similarly arduous to receive. If I were not in a relationship with a person from within the EU, I would have to leave the UK - the country in which I have lived for the past seven years - next June.

Almost all my non-EU friends in the UK who have finished their postgraduate studies are here on spouse visas. Employers don't want the expense and hassle of applying for work visas. Those friends of mine who don't have a partner from an EU country have left.

III. A friend of mine, an American woman who did her undergraduate and postgraduate study in the UK and is married to a British man, recently took the test to apply for indefinite leave to remain as the spouse of a British citizen. Every single question was a variation on the following theme:

'Are you eligible for benefits in such-and-such a situation?'
'No.'

IV. As a German citizen, my partner can waltz through passport control in seconds. He can earn as much or as little as he likes. He can stay in the UK forever. But he cannot vote in general elections.

As a non-EU citizen, I am occasionally hassled at passport control (although less than someone non-white and non-native-English-speaking), as if my student status might be suspect. I must prove that I have access to funds beyond my actual daily needs every time I apply for a visa, even though I am eligible for no state benefits. I can vote in general elections, but my time in this country is measured in visa expiry dates.

V. Were I to want to move to Germany with my partner, we would have to get married, as although the UK treats de facto relationships as equal to marriages, Germany does not recognise them. However, since same-sex marriage is illegal, same-sex de facto relationships are exempt from this restriction.

VI. I come from a country whose leader - an immigrant from the UK - locks up refugees in internment camps in various Pacific countries and denies that the situations from which they've fled are really all that bad.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric in Australia suggests that the country is being overwhelmed by floods of these refugees, but in actual fact, the number of refugees who have arrived in Australia by boat in the past decade is a fraction of the number of refugees who arrived in Italy in a single year.

VII. One of my colleagues at Original Library Job is a (white) British man. Two years ago, he got into a relationship with a Chinese woman who had entered the country on a partner visa with another British man (that relationship had since ended). My colleague and the Chinese woman got married and applied for a spouse visa.

This was denied on the basis that their relationship was not genuine, and because the UK Border Agency believed that because the woman was a political dissident, she was using my colleague to get out of China. Their case is still dragging through the courts, and apart from one brief holiday together in Thailand, they have not been able to see each other. As she was refused a UK visa, the woman is denied entry to all other EU countries as well.

VIII. I reject the dichotomy by which a wealthy, educated Westerner who emigrates for work or study opportunities is an 'ex-pat' while a poor person from a non-Western country who emigrates to escape dangerous or difficult political, social, environmental or economic circumstances is an 'immigrant'. I am an immigrant. My German partner is an immigrant. The Polish woman who cleaned my former college accommodation is an immigrant. The girl I went to school with whose father was jailed for political dissidence in Thailand was (originally) an immigrant, though she may identify as Australian now. Our relative privilege levels mean that we are not treated equally, nor should we pretend that we are all the same. But on a basic level, we should reject any language that implies that one type of immigrant is excellent (and should have an easier time of it) while another type is to be despised and mistrusted.

IX. In other words, if you are arguing against racists by saying that not all immigrants are brown and/or Muslims, I don't want you on my side.

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

'Oh, I wasn't talking about you,' the ranter said. 'It should be easier for people like you to emigrate. You're not like all those others.'


I arched my eyebrows at that. What are the others "like", then? Was it a typical "oh, I didn't mean you" or does this person hold a grudge against non-white immigrants? The implications are disturbing. It's okay to be Australian or American, but not Pakistani or Indian? Here, it's Mexicans. People say awful things about Mexican immigrants, and don't seem to realize that's a problem.

I used to live in another country, and was an immigrant. In fact, I was a kid, and when I read a book about a girl who immigrated to America (a great book, but that's beside the point) I said "Dad, we're immigrants too!" I even saw firsthand how immigrant communities will often come together through a common language, though I didn't think of it like that until I was older.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I think this person was a straight up racist, and had made some false distinction in his mind between 'bad' (i.e. non-white, non-English-speaking) immigrants and 'good' (i.e. white, English-speaking) immigrants. To the extent that the word 'immigrant' only had the connotation of the 'bad' kind. So when my friend jumped in and explained that Britain is not being flooded with immigrants because it's very difficult and expensive to emigrate, this racist guy's response was to suggest that it be made easier for the 'good' immigrants to emigrate.

The whole thing is utterly ridiculous, and it's yet another instance where the tabloid newspapers have whipped people up into a frenzy about a problem that doesn't exist, with the result that a lot of racists think the country is overrun with immigrants stealing British people's jobs.

[malinowy.livejournal.com]

*slow clap* I want to print this and show this to every single racist and make them read it and then argue their case again. This is such an excellent post and everyone should read it.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This post is the product of a lot of exasperation that finally boiled over.

[pax_athena]

:(

And don't forget that even when you go and get your new citizenship, you are still "not real German". Not to mention that you are "not real XYZ" with XYZ being your previous country anymore.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

It's all so unnecessarily complicated. I want residency. I don't really want citizenship - I can't ever imagine not feeling Australian, and while Britain feels like home, I don't ever feel British and I can't see that changing. The feelings of other immigrants may be very different.

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

'Oh, I wasn't talking about you,' the ranter said. 'It should be easier for people like you to emigrate. You're not like all those others.'
I would've had fun tearing into that person. First, I would've happily called out their racism by going "People like me? You mean because I'm white? So, do you automatically assume every non-white person you see is an immigrant even though there's a huge possibility they were born in your country? If so, congrats! You're a fucking racist :)"

Then, I would have fun teaching them about history. "Just because you're white doesn't mean you have it easy immigrating. For example, ask those of us who are Irish descent (though Austrians and Germans had the same problem, especially when they came to America around the time of the World Wars and that's just another example)". I mean...I remember watching something on Viasat History called "Family: Turn Back Time" and when they recreated the sixties...they had a family that was black on there and when they looked at the second house, there was a recreation of a sign that said "No Negros! *No Irish!*", and I forgot what the last thing on the sign said. People in the UK were discriminating against the Irish fifty years ago, and I doubt they had an easy time immigrating there and they were white (and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if some Brits still have animosity towards the Irish and try to make it hard for them to immigrant there).

When Sweden had their election on Sunday, my SO was asking his mom who she was voting for and trying to deter her from voting for the Swedish Democrats again (Sweden's version of the BNP) like she did in May. He got pissy with her because I could understand him asking his mom (in Swedish) does she want to get rid of me, her daughter-in-law, and her grandkids since all of us are immigrants and not pure Swedes. She said "No" to each and said she just didn't want the Muslims to come here. However, she (and the other dipsticks that voted for them, which was 12.9% of the population unfortunately) don't understand that the Swedish Democrats main goal is to get rid of immigration in general to preserve a mythical pure Swedish bloodline (like the BNP do, except preserve a British bloodline)....not just one group of immigrants, but they lie to the masses that are ignorant. And of course, that whole "pure *fill in the blank* bloodline" is horseshit on so many levels.

Of course, when I do encounter these people, my over all retort is this: "Well, a thousand years ago your ancestors (the Normans) invaded my ancestors' homeland (Ireland and Scotland). Considering me being here as payback"

[spotsofcolour.livejournal.com]

I always find the BNP rhetoric about the 'Pure British Bloodline' hilarious because if ever there were a country of historical mongrels, it's Britain.

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

I find the whole rhetoric of "pure *Fill in the blank* bloodline" to be hillarious and assining at the same time. For starters, they definitely don't know their own history well...let alone, history is general. If I really wanted to be a huge smart ass, I will be like "Well, there's no way you can really be pure British/Swedish/whatever because humankind originated in Africa. If your ancestors from X amount of years ago didn't migrate from Africa to Britian/Sweden/where ever that person is at, you wouldn't be *Fill in the blank*. You, my dear, would be Africian right now." I would literally have fun watching their head implode from someone telling them that they are a descendant from Africia since Africans are one of the groups of people these assholes are prejudiced against.

I would also have fun pointing out to them that they are a descendants of a few thousand people that survived a population bottle neck event that occurred between 74,000 to a million years ago (no one is 100% sure what caused it, but the Toba Super Eruption from 74,000 years ago is a huge suspect in causing almost near extinction of the human race). Many of these people were not in Britian or Sweden yet. So, if it weren't for these people that survived the bottle neck even all those years agot, no one would be alive today...including these racist fuckers.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know, it's just ridiculous. I studied medieval Irish literature in a department that also teaches/researches the literature and history of Britain (Welsh, English and Scottish) and Scandinavia, and all of my friends were just sitting there with their jaws open in astonishment about the bizarre things Nick Griffin was saying about the 'original native inhabitants of Britain' in that televised debate he had a few years ago.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I know, the ignorance these kinds of anti-immigration ranters have is astounding. Such a lack of knowledge of history, of demography, of their own countries and of the experiences of others.

Certainly there was a lot of discrimination against the Irish in the UK until quite recently, although I suspect things are different now. The Irish, as members of the EU, can freely emigrate to the UK, and in fact the border between the two countries is one of the few in the world where no documents are checked - every time I've come back to Britain from Ireland, there is no passport control.

The Swedish Democrats are scary. The situation with the most recent Swedish election reminds me of what happened about a decade ago in Finland with the True Finns party - all the other major parties agreed to ignore them completely, and suddenly they won a huge percentage of the vote. I actually think it matters that legitimate, non-racist parties from across the political spectrum take a stand against deeply offensive political viewpoints. I'm not sure that televised debates are the way to go - I don't think those parties deserve a platform - but other political parties have to say something. And not just what was said in Australia when our equivalent anti-immigration party became popular in the mid-90s, when all that the government of the time said was 'Oh, well, we don't agree with them but we think they raise legitimate concerns'. Ugh.

As I was trying to say in this post, I don't think it helps matters to argue against anti-immigration people by saying that not all immigrants are Muslim, because it then opens the possibility for them to say, 'oh, well then I'm against all the immigrants who are Muslims, but the rest of you are okay'. If the worst you can accuse them of is being unintentionally discriminatory towards white, non-Muslim immigrants, it's a pretty offensive argument and not at all progressive or inclusive.

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Certainly there was a lot of discrimination against the Irish in the UK until quite recently, although I suspect things are different now. The Irish, as members of the EU, can freely emigrate to the UK, and in fact the border between the two countries is one of the few in the world where no documents are checked - every time I've come back to Britain from Ireland, there is no passport control.
I agree. I don't think things are as tense between the British and Irish as it used to be. I would say it's on par like relations between Brits and Americans. If there is anything, it's just playful rivilary rather than full on discrimination as well as hatred. Although, I wouldn't put it past me that there are probably a few people in Ireland that hate the British for what happened as well as in Britian that hate those in Ireland that they never grew out of. That, to me, is similar to how you still have people in the U.S that have the attitudes of those just before and during the American Civil War where they hate the South or North. It's actually amusing to me how people in the U.S still have similar attitudes to those during the Civil War because no one alive today was even alive during the Civil War. But that's another discussion for another day :P

In Sweden, I have probably gone through passport control once. Every other time between visiting here to see my SO and being a resident? None...but Sweden is a part of the EU too, so that's probably a major reason why.

If the worst you can accuse them of is being unintentionally discriminatory towards white, non-Muslim immigrants, it's a pretty offensive argument and not at all progressive or inclusive.
I'm more used to the anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S, which is a bit different than the anti-immigrant one that the BNP and Swedish Democrats harbor. While it's a bit racist in the states too (because it's the Hispanics that get harped upon rather than Muslims since there's more Hispanic immigrants than Muslim), the major issue anti-immigrant Americans have is mainly illegal immigration. They believe that if you come to America, you should do it legally (which I used to agree with until I moved to Sweden and the majority of people in my SFI class were from the Middle East. It gave me insight that if you're coming from a war-torn country or your country's government is corrupt...or there's another major issue going on, you may not have the time or money to come to another country legally). They usually have issues too with how the Hispanic immigrants don't want to adapt to the English language or adopt the American customs, which I think many people in any country would feel the same way...even if they are pro-immigration (Swedes, in my experience, are more like this than Americans are). So, when I came across this attitude of the Swedish Democrats and BNP, I was floored because it's nothing as extreme as it is back in the states.

[spotsofcolour.livejournal.com]

The visa situation over here is really crappy. I know a lot of people in a similar situation to you - postgrads from non-EU countries. One guy and his wife have to regularly sell stuff to make sure they have the frankly excessive amount required in their bank account to qualify for the visa. Banking is hard too, we've got a trainee on my course - doctoral level, professional course - from Mauritius, but the bank won't let her take out cheques because she's on a visa. She has to pay £25 if she wants to make out a cheque.

I remember when I used to work in Recruitment for my university, we also handled all the new visas and visa renewals. One of our Canadian members of staff somehow travelled to Canada during his visa renewal period, and his visa was denied (presumably because he requested a temporary passport to travel home, and in order for the visa to be processed we were supposed to have every single travel document he possessed). He didn't find out until he tried to re-enter the country on his return. But because he was a white native-english speaker, and the person who had refused his visa wasn't in the office that day, he was allowed into the country anyway. And I found myself thinking how very few other people would have had the situation turn out that way.

We also have a number of refugees employed at the University, and had to take departments to task when they got stroppy that these people didn't have passports/visas. Of course they don't! They're refugees.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's really awful. I applied for my PhD visa in person because I wanted to make sure I was there to clarify any confusion, and it's a good thing I did - you see, I had less than the required amount in my bank account, but I also had letters from the two funding bodies that were giving me scholarships, stating how much they would be paying me each year, so I had proof of funds. But when I got to the door of the visa place in Croyden, they had someone checking everyone's bank statements to make sure they had enough money before they went through to apply (in order to save them paying the fees when they were going to be refused a visa). So this idiot guy looked at my bank statement and started trying to tell me I would be refused a visa. I had to argue with him for about ten minutes, showing him the scholarship letters and getting more and more exasperated, before he would let me through. He still didn't understand or believe me that this was proof of funds, although of course when I had the actual interview, I was approved.

:(

[miss-foxy.livejournal.com]

Pretty horrible.
The personal has never been more political, and your act of writing this is an act to at least try to shift some of the power that is being used to invalidate and abuse those who are voiceless - knowledge is power, and one of the most important things we can do as citizens/immigrants/humans is to keep informed and never believe we cannot stand up to injustice.
The world devours us if we are not brave...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I know, right? And I have it pretty easy - there are just some farcical situations I get into because of my status as a Commonwealth citizen living in the UK. I have seen first-hand how complicated, expensive and difficult it is to emigrate to another country. I certainly don't want to put myself in the same category as some other immigrants - especially not refugees - as our relative levels of privilege mean our experiences are going to be very different. But at the same time, I don't want to be used as a counter-argument to anti-immigration rhetoric. Because if the best argument you can muster against these racists is, 'hey, middle-class, white, wealthy immigrants find it difficult to emigrate to the UK, so clearly we're not being flooded with immigrants', you've already lost.