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In general, the 19th century was characterized by relatively
free migration movements and open frontiers. The English author Norman Angell
described his migration to the USA in the 1890s: “I had no passport, no exit
permit, no visa, no number on a quota, and none of those things was asked for
on my arrival in the United States.” In 1921
and 1924: The USA introduced quotas for immigration. Restricted immigration
measures were also applied in Australia and Canada. At the end of 1926 the
French government stopped all immigration of workers in response to an
unemployment crisis. The economic crisis of the 1930s was marked by general
hostility and exclusive policies: closed migration systems and extended
prohibition to employ foreigners (laws for the protection of national labour)
and the rise of virulent forms of nationalism – often with a strong ethnic
dimension. Growing xenophobia, and anti-alien feelings became acute with the
fear of the additional burden that refugees and immigrants would pose to the
already stricken economies and societies. In the 1980s and 90s we witnessed the
growth of anti-immigration parties in Europe and an explosion of political
discussion on asylum and immigration,
examples being Jobbik in Hungary, the Freedom Party in Austria, Northern League
in Italy, Golden Dawn in Greece, National Front in France, The Sweden Democrats,
in Norway, the populist Progress Party, Sweden’s Scandinavian neighbor to the
south, Denmark’s far right People’s Party and Britain’s UKIP. At the centre of
the programmes of all these parties is strong opposition to the EU driven by
racism and xenophobia fuelled by mass migration. The success of anti-immigrant
parties caused many mainstream political parties to adopt more hard-line
attitudes to asylum and immigration. The EU Commissioner for Justice, Franco
Frattini points out:
“In spite of the recent enlargement, which has pushed the
EU’s total population up to some 490 million, the number of people living in
the EU is set to decline in the next few decades. By 2050 a third of them will be over 65 years
of age. Labour and skills’ shortages are
already noticeable in a number of sectors and they will tend to increase. Eurostat’s long-term demographic projections
indicate that the total population is expected to decline by 2025 and the
working age population by 2011.”
Broadly speaking the percentage of over 65s in the total
population has doubled in France between 1901 and 2005 and nearly trebled in
the UK. Europe, the UK included, faces the "profound structural
challenge" of almost half its population (48.5%) being aged 50 or over by
2050, according to Eurostat. Dr Robin
Niblett, the director of agenda-setting think-tank Chatham House, said that
significant net migration is necessary to keep worker-dependency ratios across
the EU at their 2020 levels. In order to keep the workforce at its 2010 level,
total Europe-wide immigration of 25 million is required by 2020.
Workers are lured into migration by the promise of jobs, even
when it is as lowly as making hotel beds. During the first years of their stay
they live in an intense state of temporariness, mobility, invisibility and lack
of interaction with the state. They are employed at seasonal or short-term
jobs, they change frequently place of work and residence, employers and sector
of work, often moving from rural to urban areas and vice versa. They claim
living under stress, fear and insecurity related to lack of legal status,
insufficient knowledge of the language, distance from their relatives and
cohabitation with people they know very little and who are often old and sick. As
time goes by, their presence becomes more visible in the public space and are
created “meeting places”, markets and restaurants where they can socialize and
consume products coming from their country. Furthermore, they get to know the
language better and, especially women, prefer to leave their .hospitality
industry jobs. They rent accommodation and share it with fellow compatriots. All
these changes signify a qualitative transformation of the migrant’s presence. At
the same time, the transactions with the state are most of the times synonymous
to maltreatment, inefficiency and exploitation. To this perception contribute
the experiences with the public services, a contact which most of the times is
unfavorable to them. They refer to the long queues and to the waste of time in
front of the desks of the services, or to the inefficiency of the employees. They
all have faced difficulties to obtain the necessary documents for their
legalization procedures and they are shocked by the bureaucracy. Many migrants
believe for example that the health system they left was much better compared
with the new one. Nonetheless, many migrants believe that this kind of
treatment is not reserved to them specifically, but concerns the indigenous citizens
too. And although many declare themselves dissatisfied by the social services
they use them systematically. They even adopt some attitudes of the local
population.
The EU was established to regulate the European wide
interests of capitalism in the interests of capitalism. The EU is a capitalist
club with institutions and procedures designed specifically to promote the
interests of monopoly capitalism on a European level. In fact many of the
reforms over the years have been aimed at strengthening this reason for
existence. The EU is composed of
capitalist economies whose interests are reflected in the institutions of the
EU. The current institutions of the EU are undemocratic and even
anti-democratic in nature. Even the elected European Parliament is hardly a
shining example of a democratic body. It is clear that the current crisis in
the EU is in part because people increasingly do not buy into the vision of
European unity as currently constituted. The question we need to ask is who has
benefited most from this massive rise in European migration. The answer quite
clearly, is capital. As Fred Goldstein puts it in his book, “Low Wage
Capitalism”:
“Sections of the ruling class tolerate, encourage and take
advantage of this influx of immigrants, not only for the purpose of filling a
labor shortage or to settle territory, but also to artificially increase the
reserve army of labor, an army of vulnerable workers who are forced to work at
substandard wages. The principal aim of permitting and fostering immigration
under imperialism is to greatly increase competition among workers and keep
downward pressure on wages.”
Of course, another way of looking at this is to ask the
question; what did we expect? Of course business wanted cheaper labour and even
better non-union so they did their best to pit one against one. Upon leaving
your home country for another, you become less unruly by default. Less likely
to rebel against the adopted nation if they engage in wrongdoing, as no support
network, no cultural ties, no family etc. In one sense, exporting the
unemployed youth prevents revolution.
If people feel that the level of immigration is too high,
that it is putting too much pressure on services and infrastructure, and that
it is leading to a downward push on wages, then they should not be angry with
the immigrants. Instead, they should place the blame upon capitalism and the 1
percent the system serves.
We should not, however, make the mistake that the
immigration problem is only an European or North American problem. South Africa
has many newcomers from surrounding countries and from far further away which
has resulted in xenophobia and scape-goating.
In Malaysia immigrants are also at risk of exploitation, abuse - even
caning. Harassed by police and pushed into the shadows, they are the 150,000
asylum seekers and refugees who have fled their homeland for Malaysia. In
Malaysia, refugees have no legal protection because the country has not signed
the UN Convention recognising refugees. This means they can be arrested at any
time and taken to one of the country's detention centres. Kuala Lumpur has one
of the world's largest urban populations of refugees and asylum seekers, with
about 150,000. Life is a constant struggle for many refugees, particularly the
sick and elderly. Refugees often struggle to get by because they are not
legally allowed to work in Malaysia. Many refugees take poorly paid jobs where
they are vulnerable to exploitation. Refugees in Malaysia often live in squalid
conditions, with many families crammed into tiny apartments. With their parents
struggling to make ends meet, it is a tough childhood for the youngest refugees.
In Malaysia, refugee children are not allowed to attend school.
Human rights violations in Eritrea - arbitrary arrests,
torture of prisoners, forced military service with appalling conditions -
highlights why almost 5 percent of Eritrea's population has fled the country in
the past decade. The UN refugee agency estimates in the past year nearly 4,000
Eritreans left the country every month. During their journey from Eritrea, many
refugees experience traumatic abuse at the hands of traffickers who hold them
captive and torture them to elicit a ransom from their families. In 2014, Human
Rights Watch released a report documenting that since 2010, Egyptian
traffickers tortured Eritrean migrants in the Sina peninsula with rape,
burning, and mutilation. Some are killed upon payment of ransom; others die
from injuries. The Sinai Bedouins put them in shackles and give them phones.
They force them to call their families while they are being tortured. This is a
way to apply pressure on their families to pay the ransom. Why do we not hear
of the world leaders combatting this type of terrorism?
The Socialist Party as long ago as 1905 was debunking the
arguments against immigration that have not altered too much and are again being
repeated nowadays:
“admitting the futility of expecting either Conservative or Liberals will solve the problem, I think that the promised legislation on the alien question will help."
"In what way?"
"Well, if aliens come over here and drive our own men away and deprive them of work, don't you think the Government should prohibit alien immigration?"
"You and I are clerks. A few years ago all clerks were males. But women have entered the field against us. In many departments they have not only lowered men's wages, but have driven out male labour altogether. Would you ask the Government to prohibit women and girls entering into competition with clerks and other workmen?"
"Ah! but then they are our own flesh and blood; the others are foreigners."
"But the effect is the same!"
"Still, we must look after our own flesh and blood."
"Is it the rule of the employers to consider 'flesh and blood,' or are they not usually willing to employ any person, irrespective of nationality or creed, who will answer their purpose?"
"But if the aliens were kept out things would be better."
"I cannot see it. The unemployed problem confronts us because of the increasing power of producing wealth which man, aided by machinery, is securing, a power which is increased every day by the improvement of old methods and machines, and the introduction of new. This would continue, even if we had no aliens. All that is urged against these victims of "man's inhumanity to man" could be met by strict enforcement of the Sanitary and Housing Acts, and by the enactment of laws fixing a maximum working week and a minimum wage, equal for both sexes when equal work is done."
"Isn't that a big order?"
"Not if the alien problem is as important as you urge."
"You say that even if all aliens were excluded we should still have an unemployed problem. In that case we have our colonies."
"Where you already have an unemployed problem."
"But not so intense as here."
"But you propose to make it so by sending more men to them."
"Ah! but that's where Chamberlain's scheme comes in. Give our colonies more of our trade."
"That might help for a time; but do not forget there is no cessation of the development of the machine industry, in your colonies as elsewhere. In the near future your colonies will be manufacturing all that they require, and will not them need manufactured goods from Britain. They will be independent of us, as the Continental nations have become. Moreover, by giving your trade to your colonies you take it away from other countries and intensify the unemployed problem in those."
"Oh, that's their business."
"You admit them, that these proposals cannot solve the problem, that at best they would merely improve matters in some parts of the world, and make things worse in others."
"I quite see now that the problem is an international one."
"And can only be solved by international action on the part of the wealth-producers. The present demands of the unemployed are unsound."
"In what way?"
"They are asking for 'work' when already far too much 'work' is done. What is required is something which involves a change in the basis and organisation of society—the redistribution of work."
"The redistribution of work!"
"Yes. Let everybody work. Let each do his share of the work before enjoying any of the results of labour."
"Why, that means—"
"ALL CHANGE!"
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