Together we are stronger

The political shift to nationalism is a dead end.  Effectively the message is usually that the local capitalist class can guarantee a type of paradise in one country in contrast to the austerity attacks in the rest of the world. This is clearly an illusion. The viability of state is predicated on the provision of a competitive tax system and flexible labour market in an attempt to attract investment and an inevitable race to the bottom. The rise of nationalism stems from an inability to grasp the nature of capitalism and an abandonment of the socialist belief in the political agency of the working class.  As socialists, the only independence we should advocate is the independence of the working class. Supporting the nation-building of a new capitalist state, results in the subjugation in the name of ‘national interest’ – of the interests of workers to the capitalist class. We should reject nationalism in all its forms, whether the it i the separatism of the SNP or the insularism of UKIP and work to overcome the division sown by nationalism, fight for the political independence of the working class across the world and commit to the unity of the working class across national borders. Nationalism is a short-cut up a blind alley.

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Britain is ‘swamped’ by immigrants and any evidence to the contrary is casually dismissed by many. If 100 people in Britain were picked at random, how many of them will be immigrants? The average guess of how many people per 100 are immigrants was 24, when in reality it is only 13. People think the UK has twice as many immigrants as it really does. Yet, historian, Professor Robert Tombs, who wrote The English and Their History, which delves back over the past 1,300 years, told The Independent that “immigration is as much part of our history as thatched cottages and cream teas because of the long period with which England has interacted with both its near neighbours and more distant parts of the world”. The historian said: “Political extremism, alienation, cynicism, xenophobia - all feed off pessimism, the idea of England in decline, drifting out of control. Our history shows us that we have been a lucky and successful country. We are not a country in decline.” The past “should remind us that our fortunes have always been made by openness to the world”. He then went on to say  “...politicians don’t read books, especially not big books, but I hope they would learn to panic less and to a bit more serene about the future, and to realise that England, although it has its own distinct identity, for nearly all of its history has been part of some larger entity.”

Tory ministers are preparing plans to bar job-seekers from the European Union from receiving all out-of-work benefits, according to the Guardian. Ministers have already said they would like to restrict access to child benefit even though it will remain outside universal credit. Ministers could either prevent the benefit being claimed for children that did not live in the UK or require that the benefit is paid at the equivalent rate paid in the migrant’s home country. Ministers have already introduced time restrictions and qualification periods for access to the income-based jobseekers’ allowance. Recent studies estimate that migrants since 2000 have been 43% less likely to get state benefits or tax credits compared with the UK-born labour force, and 7% less likely to live in social housing. These figures are borne out by the latest Department for Work and Pensions statistics, which show that only 113,000 out of the 4.2 million people claiming key out-of-work benefits in Britain are European migrants.

The prevailing populist view is that asylum seekers who put themselves into harms way to reach the UK do so to claim £50 a week allowance and not the reality of bloody civil wars, draconian dictatorships and dire economic circumstances brought about by climate change.  Most migrants who cross the Mediterranean are refugees from nationalities that UNHCR considers to be in need of some form of protection under the terms of the Geneva Convention.  But in order to obtain this, they have to reach Europe first and undergo all the risks that these journeys entail.

The Independent reminds us that the same day the Czech government applauded by the UK media was honouring the good deeds of a Sir Nicholas Winton for assisting in the safe passage of Jewish children, the British government chose to allow others fleeing for their lives and liberties to die at sea.

Today there are more forced migrants (51.2 million) than at any point since World War II, according to UNHCR - the majority from Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia. Half of them are children. The NGO Coalition on Migration estimates one million migrant children are affected by detention globally.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2013 declared detaining migrant children is "never in [children's] best interests and is not justifiable" and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it should be conducted with an "ethic of care - and not enforcement". However, according to a June 2014 article in The Lancet, more than 60 countries detain migrant children, which causes "deleterious effects on children's mental, developmental, and physical health". Human Rights Watch (HRW) argued: "a wide variety of research studies link immigration detention with mental health consequences for children, including harm that lasts beyond the period of detention." A 2014 study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found that the majority of a representative sample of the country's paediatricians "consider mandatory detention a form of child abuse". Even among the 18 percent of respondents who "strongly approved" of detention of children in general, 92 percent said "detention of asylum-seeker children and their families is a form of child abuse." The Royal Australasian College of Physicians said in June 2014 that removing children from immigration detention was "the only way to protect their health".

Many appeal to the rationalisation that capitalists have a vested interest in migration as it helps to accrue their profits and wealth. Readily forgotten is that the capitalist class does little or nothing for the ‘native’ people, whether immigration is high or low.  We have to live in a dog eat dog world. We have to survive in the circumstances we find ourselves, that is why it is the ruling class to blame, not migrants. Workers from different countries being played off against each other like pawns. Migration is caused by capitalism playing one population off against another.