On his way to an international airport near Darlington in north England, British Asian Harraj Mann requested his cabbie to play on his cab stereo ‘London Calling by the Clash’. ‘London calling to the underworld/ come out of the cupboard/ you boys and girls…’ was voted the greatest record of the Eighties by Rolling Stone magazine.
The cabbie alerted the cops after Mann requested Led Zeppelin’s chartbuster, ‘Immigrant Song’. (‘We come from the land of ice and snow…/ to fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla I’m coming!’) The young businessman missed his flight as securitymen swooped on him as soon as he entered the airport, according to an AP report from London. Following some questioning, the agency quoted Mann telling a British daily, “I really do forget I’m Asian…” Strictly speaking, Mann is not an ‘alien’, the common British expression for immigrants. He is among millions of punk-rock-appreciating descendants of immigrants who improved their lot while fuelling Britain’s fast growth in the last century.
Most cabbies, cops or customs officials wouldn’t readily admit that today’s European mega cities owe a part of their stature to the ‘guest’ workers who were once encouraged to stay back. Immigration is a drab, legal expression with no hint of the emotions involved. But the human beings bring their unique stories, cultures and ambitions. Their mores help make a mega city cosmopolitan and the world a global village. Or that is what we have learnt from the success stories of the world’s leading metros. Without this convergence, cities from London to Sydney to New York wouldn’t be the melting pots that they are today.
The mega cities’ economies still need immigrants, but the post-9/11 politics prefers human beings without their cultural baggage. The EU recognises Europe’s economic and demographic need for immigrants. But, paradoxically, more and more legal immigrants are facing discrimination almost everywhere. The victims of cultural exclusion range from airline passengers with valid travel documents to fourth generation Sikh or Muslim kids not allowed to wear pagris or scarves in French schools.
EU politicians have failed to address issues of racial profiling and discrimination, despite overwhelming evidence that this leads to radicalisation of youth. The writing was on the wall after it turned out that local boys had participated in the London metro massacre and the Spanish train tragedy. British authorities did prevent a potential backlash by exonerating the minorities for the attacks, but did little politically to change things around.
Many European countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Britain, are broadening their grounds for deportation of immigrants. France has expelled at least six Muslim clerics since 2004 while Italy has deported five maulvis in the last three years. Bavaria province of Germany is using a national law to deport legal residents on grounds of disharmony potential. In the US, singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) was among hundreds of airline passengers subjected to harassment without charges or opportunity to explain their case. So far, no significant party or politician has come forward with political intervention against prejudicial profiling of immigrants.
The worst sufferers are ordinary people, routinely deported on mere suspicion. Summary expulsion on political grounds prevents them from getting legal help. Most European countries have laws against racial or religious discrimination but often, these don’t apply to immigrants. According to the US Immigrant Network, national security grounds make it easy for democratic systems to deny immigrants basic human rights such as the right to be heard. European politicians are finding it handy to rake up economic and political issues that hinge on branding immigrants as an economic burden or social nuisance. Many advocate a go-slow approach on minorities’ rights. The global war against terrorism has added a paranoid dimension of distrust against all immigrants, particularly those of racial minorities.
Politicians are consciously ignoring the fact that migrants benefit both the host and native countries. The World Migration Report 2005 illustrates that migration can bring more benefits than costs. “In the UK... in 1999-2000, migrants contributed $ 4 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits. In the US, the National Research Council estimated that national income had expanded by $ 8 billion in 1997 because of immigration,” the report notes.
Clearly, Western political parties are destroying the very liberal values they espouse. They preach globalisation but reinforce the stereotype that the flow of immigrants is a one-way street. The truth is that for every four persons coming to the US, one American emigrates elsewhere and for every three persons entering Germany and Australia, two of their own move out. The Gulf, Asia and the Pacific have burgeoning expatriate communities.
With global migration set to grow at over 20 per cent every 10-15 years, Western chauvinists can no longer wish away immigration. Obviously, the Western liberals have to pitch in proactively to save cosmopolitan values. If they stand for globalisation, they’ll have to fight institutionalised biases against culturally diverse folks known as immigrants.
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