It's All Their Fault!
On Prejudice.
Apparently there have recently been heated discussions in the US over "Immigration" & "Illegal Immigrants". We've had similar 'debates' this side of the pond. Often full of prejudice & fuelled by fear & ignorance. The other day I noticed a newspaper headline "Britan accepts one in seven asylum seekers"! Big deal, we deport the other six.
Think one of the main things these days is that many of the asylum seekers/immigrants are not White/European. They are Different, usually have a noticably differently coloured skin. & Difference has always been a sore point.
Heck, Britain, too, is a country of immigrants. Admittedly from the beginning most of them came more as invaders - various Celtic tribes, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Norman French (last & most noticably 1066, & all that).
There have been others since, smaller groups, refugees, people seeking a new life, freedome from oppression & discrimination in their 'home' countries - French Hugenot Protestants, survivors of the St Bartholemew's Day massacres; Jews escaping prejudice & pogroms; West Indian people seeking jobs & new lives in the "Mother Country" of the Empire (later Commonwealth).
In the past two hundred years alone Portsmouth (Hants, UK) has seen many newcomers: - Polish soldiers & their families seeking refuge from Napoleon & the Czar (1813); Jews; Hong Kong Chinese who came with the Navy to service the Senior Service and stayed. Then, shortly before we handed Hong Kong back to China, brought over their elderly parents, not wanting them to live out their remaining years under Chinese Communist rule.
In the local cemetry we have a monument to those Poles, Chinese graves, Bengali graves, Italian graves (two families came in the 19th C & founded icecream dynasties - which have been much appreciated by subsequent generations!) and many many more. The mix has made us stronger.
Everyone knows - in plant & animal breeding at least, that hybrids are stronger. Mongrels thrive, pure-breeds often have to be helped to breed & have all sorts of genetic problems. Plant breeders charge more for F1 hybrids - they are just better. So why not celebrate a culturally mixed society? We get more reasons to party for one thing! Better cuisine for another - we like Curry? (It's currently Britain's favourite National dish. & it is Britain's - 'curry' as such doesn't exist in the Indian subcontinent!) Pizza? Thai food? We're happy to seek out the authentic ethnic recipes, cooked by authentic ethnic groups of people.
Then again, the metalurgists among us will tell us that pure metals are weaker than amalgam. Bronze is stronger than copper, steel of various kinds, stronger & more durable than iron etc.
re:illegal immigrants & migrant workers - we have the same thing here. They do the jobs none of the Brits want to do. Hard, difficult &, above all, low paid jobs. And because they are illegal immigrants & migrant workers - the remain low paid jobs & the people are exploited. We benefit from that exploitation & then complain because they are "over here, taking our jobs" - as if we wanted to do the jobs in the first place. But exploitation is NEVER a Good Thing.
Which may help, partly, explain our ambivalent attitudes. We don't want to do the jobs ourselves. We don't mind other people doing them, particularly if their low wages keep prices down. We do mind being accused of perpetuating injustices (we Brits have always prided ourselves on our fairmindedness), we mind being exploited, too, by groups which play on our fears - BNP et al.
BNP gained several seats in the local council elections last Thursday too, noteably in Dagenham & (somewhere nearby). Guess what? Those areas have fairly high 'immigrant' populations. Many of the people voting for BNP candidates were non-white. They've been here for years, maybe were born here, are British citizens, have the vote etc. And now they too are worried that other people are 'coming in here, getting council houses, getting benefits we've paid our taxes for. And they're taking our jobs!" (See previous two paras!) Which is the same line used by those (white Brits) who claim to be worried about immigration & asylum seekers.
Apparently areas most likely, though, to vote for the British National Party (BNP - & it IS racist) are those which are mainly, or totally, white. They like their lives, they want them to stay that way, they are afraid of Different, & their prejudices are fuelled by tabloid (& some broadsheet) journalism.
I could go on, for ages. But I have a dentist appointment in 3/4 hr and must go clean my teeth. So let's try thinking a little more clearly about the whole issue. Y'all have a good, thoughtful & hopefully less prejudiced, day now!
Apparently there have recently been heated discussions in the US over "Immigration" & "Illegal Immigrants". We've had similar 'debates' this side of the pond. Often full of prejudice & fuelled by fear & ignorance. The other day I noticed a newspaper headline "Britan accepts one in seven asylum seekers"! Big deal, we deport the other six.
Think one of the main things these days is that many of the asylum seekers/immigrants are not White/European. They are Different, usually have a noticably differently coloured skin. & Difference has always been a sore point.
Heck, Britain, too, is a country of immigrants. Admittedly from the beginning most of them came more as invaders - various Celtic tribes, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Norman French (last & most noticably 1066, & all that).
There have been others since, smaller groups, refugees, people seeking a new life, freedome from oppression & discrimination in their 'home' countries - French Hugenot Protestants, survivors of the St Bartholemew's Day massacres; Jews escaping prejudice & pogroms; West Indian people seeking jobs & new lives in the "Mother Country" of the Empire (later Commonwealth).
In the past two hundred years alone Portsmouth (Hants, UK) has seen many newcomers: - Polish soldiers & their families seeking refuge from Napoleon & the Czar (1813); Jews; Hong Kong Chinese who came with the Navy to service the Senior Service and stayed. Then, shortly before we handed Hong Kong back to China, brought over their elderly parents, not wanting them to live out their remaining years under Chinese Communist rule.
In the local cemetry we have a monument to those Poles, Chinese graves, Bengali graves, Italian graves (two families came in the 19th C & founded icecream dynasties - which have been much appreciated by subsequent generations!) and many many more. The mix has made us stronger.
Everyone knows - in plant & animal breeding at least, that hybrids are stronger. Mongrels thrive, pure-breeds often have to be helped to breed & have all sorts of genetic problems. Plant breeders charge more for F1 hybrids - they are just better. So why not celebrate a culturally mixed society? We get more reasons to party for one thing! Better cuisine for another - we like Curry? (It's currently Britain's favourite National dish. & it is Britain's - 'curry' as such doesn't exist in the Indian subcontinent!) Pizza? Thai food? We're happy to seek out the authentic ethnic recipes, cooked by authentic ethnic groups of people.
Then again, the metalurgists among us will tell us that pure metals are weaker than amalgam. Bronze is stronger than copper, steel of various kinds, stronger & more durable than iron etc.
re:illegal immigrants & migrant workers - we have the same thing here. They do the jobs none of the Brits want to do. Hard, difficult &, above all, low paid jobs. And because they are illegal immigrants & migrant workers - the remain low paid jobs & the people are exploited. We benefit from that exploitation & then complain because they are "over here, taking our jobs" - as if we wanted to do the jobs in the first place. But exploitation is NEVER a Good Thing.
Which may help, partly, explain our ambivalent attitudes. We don't want to do the jobs ourselves. We don't mind other people doing them, particularly if their low wages keep prices down. We do mind being accused of perpetuating injustices (we Brits have always prided ourselves on our fairmindedness), we mind being exploited, too, by groups which play on our fears - BNP et al.
BNP gained several seats in the local council elections last Thursday too, noteably in Dagenham & (somewhere nearby). Guess what? Those areas have fairly high 'immigrant' populations. Many of the people voting for BNP candidates were non-white. They've been here for years, maybe were born here, are British citizens, have the vote etc. And now they too are worried that other people are 'coming in here, getting council houses, getting benefits we've paid our taxes for. And they're taking our jobs!" (See previous two paras!) Which is the same line used by those (white Brits) who claim to be worried about immigration & asylum seekers.
Apparently areas most likely, though, to vote for the British National Party (BNP - & it IS racist) are those which are mainly, or totally, white. They like their lives, they want them to stay that way, they are afraid of Different, & their prejudices are fuelled by tabloid (& some broadsheet) journalism.
I could go on, for ages. But I have a dentist appointment in 3/4 hr and must go clean my teeth. So let's try thinking a little more clearly about the whole issue. Y'all have a good, thoughtful & hopefully less prejudiced, day now!