Immigrants will always be with us – we’d better get used to it
Gary Lineker was exaggerating when he compared the language used by Suella Braverman in reference to immigration to that of the Nazis in the 1930s. The home secretary – of Indian origin by way of Kenya and Mauritius – may express her views more harshly, or directly (take your pick), than many would wish, but she is no Joseph Göbbels.
She is not seeking to expel or expropriate the wealth of a racial minority that has lived in Britain for centuries, in the manner of the Nazis threatening Germany’s Jews. What she wants is an end to the arrival each morning of boatloads of foreigners, most of them young men who, overwhelmingly, are looking for a better life than is available in their own countries but who present themselves as asylum-seekers fleeing persecution.
Should Braverman call for the establishment of a Volkssturm to sink the little boats that turn up on the south coast each day from France, her approach to the question would certainly require reappraisal. But pending that, she has said nothing that her predecessors haven’t uttered ad nauseam in recent years, which is that Britain – more properly, England – has had enough of illegals and asylum-seekers and is desperate to take back control.
But therein lies the problem. Rishi Sunak – whose parents, of Indian descent, emigrated to England from East Africa in the 1960s – went to Paris last week to persuade President Macron to join him in pushing back the tide. What he got, in return for a promise to pay five-hundred-million pounds into the French Treasury over the next five years, was an undertaking to increase the policing of France’s Channel shoreline, with help from UK officers, and a commitment by Paris to build a detention centre inland from Calais that will not be operational until 2026.
Will such a strategy, even if conscientiously enforced by the French, end the current invasion, which each year, as things stand, adds some 50,000 people, most of whom do not even speak English, to the already densely packed population of the UK? It seems unlikely. At best, a percentage of those setting out, along with some of the gang members who organise the crossings, will be picked up and detained. How big a percentage it is difficult to say, but at a guess no more than one in five. The supply of would-be immigrants, including genuine asylum-seekers, is never-ending, and the trade is sufficiently lucrative to make it worthwhile for the smugglers.
Consider the world as it is. The global population is edging towards eight billion and is forecast to exceed ten billion by the end of the century. Most of the total live in the developing world, which for the majority means overcrowding and poverty, often accompanied by tyranny and injustice. To take just two examples, the population of Nigeria, Africa’s largest country, has risen from 50 million at the time of independence from Britain to a present total of 220 million. Egypt, which is mainly made up of sand, has seen numbers soar from 27 million in 1960 to an estimated 105 million today.
It is safe to say that many millions of Nigerians and Egyptians would rather live in London than in Lagos (population 16 million and rising) or Cairo (22 million). And the same applies to Afghans, Iranians, Syrians, Somalis, Ethiopians, Ugandans – Third World natives of every stripe – not to mention Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and, for some reason, Albanians.
It should be stressed that, contrary to rumour, London is not the only western destination of choice. Europe as a whole is under relentless pressure from unsought immigration, as are the US, Canada and Australia. Even Japan, committed as it is to ethnic homogeneity, is springing leaks. France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Ireland – all of them rich, with sophisticated systems of health care and benefits – are under siege. It is just that the UK, by which I mean London and the South East, has, for whatever reason, come to be regarded as the Shangri-la of illegal settlement.
The world, in short, has got the message and is on the move. It may be dangerous, and expensive, to attempt an overnight crossing from the Pas de Calais to Kent or Sussex, but for those who make it (which is most of them), the potential reward is considerable. Who, after all, would rather live in a tent in Libya or Anatolia when they could end up in a council flat in Hornsey (say), with a monthly allowance from the state and the realistic prospect of a job, free healthcare and a pension?
From the point of view of the “native” English (which these days includes many black and Asian citizens), the chaotic arrival of 50,000 illegals each year, all of them looking for work and somewhere to live, is, to say the least, not seen as positive. Whatever about the chronic skills shortages and lack of educational attainment in the UK, the competition for good jobs and social housing is already intense, and the newcomers are, understandably, resented.
This is not to say that the British have become, overnight, more racially intolerant than they were before. It is just that, as with hunger during a famine, the stakes are higher than they used to be. The economy is struggling, there is an acute housing shortage and, in general, there is less to go round than was the case even 10 years ago. Adding a thousand illegal immigrants each day only pours fuel on the fire.
So what is to be done? I have no idea. Brexit didn’t help. It just gave the kaleidoscope a new twist. Between them, the French and British governments, plus the European Union, can probably dial the crisis down a notch or two. They can introduce greater order into the process and sift out the claims of the worst candidates, some of whom will eventually be deported. But that is all. The global demand for entry is getting stronger by the minute, and though the supply is limited, those making the demand aren’t in the mood to take no for an answer.
In the end, perhaps 50 years from now, the global economy may have arrived at some sort of equilibrium, so that the (by then) 350 million people of Nigeria and 200 million Egyptians will be content to lead their lives in their countries of birth. But don’t count on it. Don’t imagine that a crackdown on the little boats or a knock on the door by immigration officials, or a promise that official immigration papers, filed overseas, can put the smugglers out of business, will somehow persuade the disadvantaged of the Earth to give up on their dream of a council flat in Essex.
England was once inhabited by Neanderthals. Some would say it still is. They were “replaced” by homo sapiens – us. In time, Britons became the majority, only, following the departure of the Legions, to be pushed back by the Jutes, Angles and Saxons, with subsequent admixtures of Danes, Normans, Dutch, Irish, Caribbeans, Africans and Asians. The UK is in a permanent state of flux and will remain so for as long as what we have here is better than what they have there.
Get used to it.
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