Post by Carl LaFong on Aug 19, 2023 8:54:37 GMT
www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2023/08/18/the-united-kingdom-s-immigration-dead-end_6097774_23.html
While the British government is hardening its stance on migration and demonizing migrants, debates on immigration are in urgent need of candor, especially in light of labor shortages.
Many politicians see firmness and even intolerance towards immigration as essential keys to gaining popularity. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the leader of the Conservative party to which the polls promise a crushing defeat in the 2024 elections, seems to be convinced of this. He declared the second week of August "small boats week," promising his policy aiming to stop migrants crossing the English Channel on inflatable boats would finally show its full potential.
Before going on vacation to California, Sunak recorded a triumphant video on this subject, while the vice-president of his party told migrants to "fuck off back to France." But the Bibby Stockholm barge, a new 500-place floating accommodation for migrants, moored in the south of the country and described by firefighters as a "death trap," had to be closed due to traces of legionella bacteria in its water supply. This occurred just three days after its much-publicized opening. The week ended tragically with the death of at least six Afghans in a shipwreck in the English Channel.
The aim of British policy in this area is clear: to multiply hostile signals towards migrants who, by the dozens every day, risk their lives attempting to reach English shores. A law passed in July prohibits anyone who has entered the UK illegally from claiming asylum − a true affront to this right. The plan to send migrants to Rwanda to claim asylum there, blocked by the courts, is in the same spirit, as are the provocative statements made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
While the effect of this long-standing policy on the Conservatives' popularity is slow to emerge, its effectiveness in terms of migration flows is dubious. The dead end Britain finds itself in is clear. The sealing off of the port of Calais and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, with the help of French police, has only fueled increasingly perilous sea crossings − 45,700 in 2022 compared with 300 in 2018 − and led to a proliferation of tragedies.
Trivializing xenophobia
The reality is that no amount of hostile rhetoric or legislation can dissuade people whose lives are sometimes at risk in their own countries, and who are prepared to risk them yet again by crossing the Channel on makeshift boats, from trying their luck. Declarations demonizing migrants undoubtedly mobilize part of the electorate, but at the cost of a spiral of hatred and the trivialization of xenophobia, which leads to violence.
In the UK, as in other countries such as France, debates on immigration are in urgent need of candor, especially in light of labor shortages. The UK, far from being "overrun," as Braverman claims, registers far fewer asylum seekers than France or Germany. London suffers from a lack of efficiency in processing applications, 166,000 of which are pending. Brexit has led the British to deprive themselves of European coordination tools, and to a policy that favors migrants from distant countries over Europeans.
As for the real ways of managing migration, they mainly involve improving European cooperation policies and our relations with the countries of origin. Unless they have the courage to speak the truth, the leaders of developed countries risk continuing to put on, like Sunak, a pernicious show of powerlessness.
While the British government is hardening its stance on migration and demonizing migrants, debates on immigration are in urgent need of candor, especially in light of labor shortages.
Many politicians see firmness and even intolerance towards immigration as essential keys to gaining popularity. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the leader of the Conservative party to which the polls promise a crushing defeat in the 2024 elections, seems to be convinced of this. He declared the second week of August "small boats week," promising his policy aiming to stop migrants crossing the English Channel on inflatable boats would finally show its full potential.
Before going on vacation to California, Sunak recorded a triumphant video on this subject, while the vice-president of his party told migrants to "fuck off back to France." But the Bibby Stockholm barge, a new 500-place floating accommodation for migrants, moored in the south of the country and described by firefighters as a "death trap," had to be closed due to traces of legionella bacteria in its water supply. This occurred just three days after its much-publicized opening. The week ended tragically with the death of at least six Afghans in a shipwreck in the English Channel.
The aim of British policy in this area is clear: to multiply hostile signals towards migrants who, by the dozens every day, risk their lives attempting to reach English shores. A law passed in July prohibits anyone who has entered the UK illegally from claiming asylum − a true affront to this right. The plan to send migrants to Rwanda to claim asylum there, blocked by the courts, is in the same spirit, as are the provocative statements made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
While the effect of this long-standing policy on the Conservatives' popularity is slow to emerge, its effectiveness in terms of migration flows is dubious. The dead end Britain finds itself in is clear. The sealing off of the port of Calais and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, with the help of French police, has only fueled increasingly perilous sea crossings − 45,700 in 2022 compared with 300 in 2018 − and led to a proliferation of tragedies.
Trivializing xenophobia
The reality is that no amount of hostile rhetoric or legislation can dissuade people whose lives are sometimes at risk in their own countries, and who are prepared to risk them yet again by crossing the Channel on makeshift boats, from trying their luck. Declarations demonizing migrants undoubtedly mobilize part of the electorate, but at the cost of a spiral of hatred and the trivialization of xenophobia, which leads to violence.
In the UK, as in other countries such as France, debates on immigration are in urgent need of candor, especially in light of labor shortages. The UK, far from being "overrun," as Braverman claims, registers far fewer asylum seekers than France or Germany. London suffers from a lack of efficiency in processing applications, 166,000 of which are pending. Brexit has led the British to deprive themselves of European coordination tools, and to a policy that favors migrants from distant countries over Europeans.
As for the real ways of managing migration, they mainly involve improving European cooperation policies and our relations with the countries of origin. Unless they have the courage to speak the truth, the leaders of developed countries risk continuing to put on, like Sunak, a pernicious show of powerlessness.
