|
Confessions Of An Immigrant
By Uche Nworah
This is an indictment of the United
Kingdom (UK) and other governments as much as it is a
confession. Some of these western governments have
allowed the nationalists and far rightists in their
midst to dominate public discourse lately, and have in
so doing subjected immigrants like me to every type of
ridicule and shame. We are now public enemy number 1,
and are portrayed to be responsible for every crime
committed in their lands, as if prison and other lock-up
facilities did not exist in these countries before we
came.
In emphasizing on the negatives, it
appears that our major contributions to economic growth
in these countries are now being overlooked, but before
wielding the big stick the governments of some of these
countries should spare a thought for the millions of
undocumented immigrants that work underground in the
black economy, as factory hands, office complex
cleaners, construction workers, fast food restaurant
workers etc.
These people are also human beings
and labour sometimes for 14 hours a day at below the
minimum wage, their services are essential in helping to
sustain the economic well being of the west; definitely
the citizens of these countries would never touch these
menial jobs. Such exploitation and poor work conditions
of immigrants were brought to the fore in 2004 by the
death of the Chinese cocklers who did back breaking
work and were paid only £1
a day.
Focusing more closely on the UK where
I live, it appears that Prime Minister Tony Blair has
fallen hostage to anti-immigration citizens including
the
British National Party (BNP), whose scare tactics in
the British press can only be compared to the antics of
the
Ku Klux Klan in America. While agreeing that it is
the right of the UK and other governments to control
migration in their countries (Nigeria
expelled Ghanaians in 1982), globalization however
dictates that these countries should also in passing
national laws and policies, take into consideration
social injustices in the world, as migration derives
from them, for example wars, poverty, political
instability, etc. If we are to believe that the world is
now a global village, this also means that we should be
our brothers’ keepers and that means also accommodating
people who may have been displaced for the reasons
earlier mentioned.
The UK’s Home Office is in a mess,
poor judgments by past officials led to the release
of thousands of criminals who should have been deported,
but why should the law-abiding immigrants be made to
suffer such incompetence? Every day in the British
press, news stories involving immigrants are twisted in
the name of political correctness, such
sensationalisation of news
involving Africans and other immigrants only goes to
create a psychological wedge between UK citizens and
immigrants, because the two sides now view each other
with suspicion.
These stereotypes of the
immigrant as criminal should not be sustained in the
long term because of its damaging effects. It may lead
to the immigrant developing a low sense of pride,
leading to his withdrawing into a shell thus encouraging
and breeding an in-group mentality. It may also lead to
the immigrant being denied opportunities to apply his
skills in specialized sectors for the betterment of the
UK society and economy. The British society may be worse
off because in the longer term its ability to compete in
the global economy may be undermined, because xenophobia
has prevented it from taking advantage of the skills
that immigrants possess.
People leave their countries for
several reasons, today’s immigrants to the UK are
different from first generation immigrants who first
arrived to work in the coal mines, and to help build the
British underground system, some others who arrived
early exploited the close colonial links at the time and
arrived to acquire UK education. While majority of the
immigrants today including me may be economic migrants,
it is still not bad because of the skills that we bring.
The UK government somewhat recognizes the contribution
that immigrants can make to their economy and have
introduced schemes such as the
highly skilled migrant programme (HSMP),
working holiday visa and others, but for some
reasons, the government has repeatedly failed to come to
the defence of such schemes and immigrants as a whole by
debunking some of the stories in the press concerning
the role of the immigrant in the UK society. By not
doing so, the UK government may have become its own
worst enemy and also the number one enemy of UK
immigrants.
It is the liberal nature (to some
extent) of the UK society that has seen it attract more
immigrants to the country, compared to other EU
countries such as Germany, Italy and France, but there
is a danger that if current campaign against immigrants
in the UK press are not reversed, then the UK may end up
like the countries mentioned and be regarded as an
unfriendly society too, its reputation as the America of
Europe in terms of individual freedom and liberty may be
jeopardized. Such a situation will be catastrophic, the
National Health Service (NHS) that is run mainly by
Nigerian doctors and nurses, the education sector and
other key sectors run by immigrant skills may well
collapse. Not forgetting also the billions of pounds
that the UK government earns from taxes and national
insurance contributions from illegal immigrants paid on
their behalf by their employers, or is the government
claiming that it does not receive such payments?
Have
they ever questioned the sources of the funds especially
when such surplus income can easily get flagged up, or
is it just a case of use ‘em and dump ‘em? These
immigrants despite their various contributions obviously
have no access to social welfare and services, and are
also never considered eligible for unemployment and
other benefits, eventual deportations means also that
the immigrants never ever get to claim their pension
which they have contributed as part of the national
insurance contributions while they were working, if this
is not injustice, then I wonder what else is.
Since I arrived from Nigeria on this
migrant journey, which has taken me across many
countries, just like most immigrants, I have been
through the motions, done and seen it all starting with
torture at the hands of the Nigerian military which
caught me while trying to escape from Nigeria with fake
papers. I have paraded the streets of Cairo (Egypt)
while searching for passage to the west, lost some
acquaintances while on transit in Turkey en route Greece
through a boat mishap which capsized during a midnight
run and crossing, was penniless and trapped between the
borders of Turkey and Bulgaria on a cold winter night,
lived in a concentration cum asylum camp in Blankenburg
– Germany, worked as a factory hand loading clothes into
containers.
I have been a door-to-door salesman, washed
dishes in a hotel and restaurant ‘setting world records’
in dish washing at each of the stops during my tour of
duty, worked as a security guard by night and studied as
a student by day, sold fashion goods on the streets and
later from the trunk of my car, cleaned offices and
factories, once working for 3 months without pay in a
factory, only to be threatened eventually by the white
lady who was our supervisor at the time that if I dared
show up again, she would call the police and tell them
that I was an illegal immigrant. When she hired me she
knew that I was an illegal immigrant but she and many
like her, that feast on the sweat and toil of other
immigrant labourers can only get richer and fatter by
such inhuman acts.
Since then a lot has also happened to
me, I have since become a legal migrant and documented
worker and now find my self teaching undergraduate and
graduate students, some of whom are also in my earlier
situations. Anytime the media attacks on immigrants
resurface, I share my story with them, the aim being to
let them know that they should remain focused, and not
mind all the lies. I try in my own way to be the face of
the immigrant, why should I bow my head in shame? Every
immigrant should share his or her story as a way of
helping others coming after, and also letting the white
establishment know that it is not all immigrants that
are criminals, we also have our uses. Our united and
collective voices can indeed make a difference, as
demonstrated during the recent
immigrants’ one-day strike in America, as part of
the ‘a day without immigrants’ campaign.
Some people have argued that
immigration should be seen as a form of reparation of
the wealth of African counties pillaged during the
colonial days, such people usually fall into the trap of
thinking that the end justifies the means, they would
stop at nothing including criminal activities to make
it, sad as it is, it may be such people and their “get
rich quick or die trying” mentality that are giving bad
name to the other law abiding immigrants who simply want
to utilize their God given talents and skills and take
advantage of the opportunities available in the western
societies both for personal, family and even sometimes
for the benefits of their countries of origin.
This school of thought is flawed
because it fails to take into consideration present day
realities, just like the other school of thought that
chastises immigrants who may have escaped from the harsh
economic realities of their home countries, thus willing
them to go back to their home countries in order to
escape rising nationalist interests in their host
counties. Sympathy for the latter argument can only be
justified by a renewed move by some of these African and
other governments to introduce better policies aimed at
restructuring their countries, and increasing
socio-economic opportunities for her citizens. The
latter may be ideal because of the popular adage which
says that east or west, home is the best.
Not surprisingly, articles like these
never get published or picked up by mainline UK media
for obvious reasons, it’s not like people like us don’t
try to be heard and read by them over matters like
these, but they prefer to maintain the status quo. Take
for instance this email from a major UK newspaper (name
withheld on purpose) which I had contacted to publish
this article.
Dear Mr Nworah
I passed your proposal (below) to Andrew (Comment Editor). Andrew has asked me to let you know that unfortunately
it's not for us. Thank you for thinking of the....
Kind regards
Liz W (Features editor)
|
May 2006. Uche Nworah is a
lecturer and brand scholar. He can be reached at
info@uchenworah.com
posted 30 May 2006 |
