“It's not racist to impose limits on immigration.” This catch-all election slogan from the Conservative party can, conveniently, be interpreted in several ways. As can Labour's rather ambiguous “our country's borders protected”. What are they talking about?
Apart from being grammatically challenged, both manage to say everything and nothing in one vague non-sentence. So ask the questions: why do we need to impose limits on immigration and who do our borders need protecting from anyway?
Set against a backdrop of economic and social poverty, some communities will need little persuading of the “rightness” of these cheap slogans. But scratch the surface, and both statements can easily be decoded: there is a tradition of “respectable racism” within the Conservative party; and the Labour government has exposed itself as one of the most authoritarian in recent history; protecting “our” borders means ID cards and more forcible returns of asylum seekers.
Refugees welcome here?
During the election campaign the waters of migration and asylum have been seriously muddied. But this debate should be opened up. Doing so would shine some light on the underlying causes of both. People flee to other countries during conflict, or from repressive regimes, in order to seek refuge; migration is a consequence of global capitalism. Free trade - but what about freedom of movement? Let's talk about it, not reduce it to a set of empty slogans.
How can we refuse refugees fleeing war when Britain heavily engages in arms trading? And how can we refuse those seeking persecution when each and every one of us knows that if the roles were reversed we would hope for such sanctuary and support.
No-one is illegal
In April an inquest into the suicide of a young gay Iranian heard that he was terrified of being returned to Iran where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death. His application for asylum in the UK was rejected and two weeks later, rather than be returned, Hussein Nasseri shot himself.
When Tony Blair smugly asserts that the number of people being removed from the UK is now half of all failed applicants (up from one in five!), he is talking about people like Hussein Nasseri.
First they came for the Roma...
Mainstream politicians and the right-wing media must bear significant responsibility for encouraging the deep-seated fear of “otherness” that lurks in most of us.
It is easy to attack Roma and other travelling communities, asylum seekers and bored “criminal” teenagers. And it can be politically profitable to create set piece “us and them” situations. However, in these scenarios, no-one but the politicians gain, and the real issues - poverty, culture, class, race, conflict - are further obscured amidst the shallow, reactionary, fear-mongering rhetoric.
A vital task
In order to construct more peaceful communities, the peace movement must engage with these broader issues.
Practically supporting those fleeing war and persecution, challenging the racist and nationalistic attitudes in our society, and publicly refusing to give support to the politicians who encourage these attitudes are vital tasks for all those who work for peace.