In Britain and Elsewhere Helping Migrants is the Right Thing to Do!
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
Migrants in England currently face harassment and even deportation. Many people in Britain complain about generally feeling lonely and abandoned. Threatening the migrants does not seem to make anyone feel happy. In the US, former President Donald Trump promises mass deportation of migrants. People in other countries show their disappointment in their governments by leaving their homeland. There is a growing malaise among peoples of many nations. Dissatisfaction, sadness, fear, are commonplace. Great conflict is growing among huge numbers of migrants.
Is there a way to help?
Volunteering to aid migrants and refugees enriches rather than impoverishes local communities. In contrast, fostering a hostile environment for illegal migrants sows counter-productive conflict, cruelty, and animosity between sides and among people in general.
At this very moment in time, there are raids underway in the United Kingdom. Under the name Operation Vector, the Home Office are raiding homes to remove refugees to be put into special holding centers to await deportation to Rwanda. Those raids have already caused a lot of fear and sense of powerlessness. Refugees feel completely entrapped. The sense of impotence can feel overwhelming. They ask themselves 'When will my persecution ever end?'
Much of this harassment in Britain was inspired by the concept of 'a hostile environment'. The term was coined by the then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2012. She made a speech where doctors, teachers and employers would cooperate with immigration officers in creating an intolerable atmosphere for illegal migrants where they would have virtually nobody to turn to for any aid. She stated, “The aim is to create here, in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigration.”
However, May was not the first politician to propose those policies. The former labor immigration minister in May 2007 made a speech stating, “We are trying to create a much more hostile environment in this country if you are here illegally.” A grotesque manifestation of such a policy surfaced in 2013 where vans in London were driven around with the words 'Go home or face arrest!'
Rachel Taylor, a specialist in geography summed up the approach by stating, “In the hostile environment, control reaches beyond the hostile institutional spaces typical of the asylum journey {i.e. detention centers, dispersal accommodation, deporting centers}. It is felt and encountered in everyday life, in the streets and urban public spaces and as a form of 'affective border violence,' an ever-present sense of shame, discomfort and fear {Mayblin et al., 2020; Meier, 2020. {See also Rachel Taylor's article “Ten Years of the Hostile Environment,” in Refuge and the Role of Cities in the Asylum Journey, London: Kings College, 17 June 2022}.
Illegal migrants are refused hospital treatment unless they can show valid documents. Children are refused enrollment at local schools. Potentially hard-working migrants are turned away by would be employers who are afraid of being heavily fined for employing them.
The enforcement of a hostile environment hasn't worked. It has backfired into a terrible fiasco which hurt not only illegal migrants but British citizens themselves. British citizens who could not find their documents on time were detained and deported to foreign countries. People who had lived their whole lives legally in Britain found themselves losing their livelihood and being made homeless in countries abroad. In a word, they lost everything. Their lives were devastated. They are still trying to recover from having their lives turned upside down. They are still fighting to obtain just compensation.
The amount of pain, misery, and anxiety caused by such policies is just beyond estimation. This is not to mention the role in stoking up racist abuse directed at anyone who happens to speak with a foreign accent or has a different color of skin. Such a policy stirs up illegal rather than legal actions. A hostile environment gives a green light to racists. It encourages racists to go around abusing and assaulting people in the streets. They reason that if it is okay for the legal authorities to abuse different people, then why can't we? So politicians set a bad example.
It is not difficult to see why the results of this policy are counter-productive. Who wants to live in a negative atmosphere of distrust, suspicion and paranoia? Who wants a society where doctors, teachers and employers are asked to become the eyes and ears of the state… ready to report anyone who fails to submit the required documents? Who wants to live in a society where “Passports decide everything?”
One argument against the hostile environment is that it is myopic in perceiving illegal migrants as some kind of threat which undermines the economy. Why do so many people presume that migrants are a threat to them? On the contrary, we urgently need them to help us! Migrants stimulate rather than damage the economy. One of reasons why the British economy is in a deep crisis is due to a huge shortage of labor.
Following Brexit, many foreign workers have deserted Britain and have no great desire to return there. Who would want to return to a country which is hostile to their presence? The result is that hospitals in Britain don't have enough staff to look after patients. As many as 1.9 million patients who suffer from mental health problems can't obtain access to urgent treatment. They remain on waiting lists.
Of course, creating such a hostile environment also boosts the level of mental illness as people feel less and less valued when people tell them they are unwanted or an economic liability.
The facts are that migrants boost the development of an economy. Despite claims that migrants are work-shy or lazy and only want to claim free benefits, the vast majority desperately want to work and tend to be the hardest workers in any economy. They are a huge plus, not a minus.
Migration not only boosts economic growth. It helps cultures to flourish. One of the factors for the renaissance in writing in Britain is the children of migrants. It suffices to mention Monica Ali, the author of “Brick Lane,” and Salman Rushdie. Diversity is not a dirty word! Diversity acts as a catalyst to economic, cultural and psychological development.
Volunteering to help migrants not only assists them but the helpers themselves. For instance, helping migrants to learn English gives volunteers a purpose and aim in life.
Volunteers can learn some skills, also. For example, they can also get the opportunity to either practice their Spanish or French other languages… or try and learn a little. They can learn to become acquainted with the fascinating culture of the migrant.
This unrest and unhappiness is not only happening in Britain, however. We hear politicians with their own agenda, are either advocating or enforcing an on -going crack down on illegal migrants. For instance, in America Trump is threatening what he terms an unprecedented mass deportation of 11 million illegal migrants by deploying military and police units to work with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to round up and detain them in vast detention camps {should he come to power}.
One of the open secrets of how to become happier is to help other people. Many people in Britain complain about feeling lonely and abandoned. There is a great epidemic of loneliness in the United Kingdom. The government even appointed a minister of Loneliness.
Why just wait for potential friends to drop out of the sky to knock at your door? Why not go out and help migrants and refugees? It might lessen loneliness, and who knows, maybe you might just make one or two friends! Both the volunteers and migrants make each other feel better.
So you have a win-win situation rather than a lose -in situation suggested by those who scapegoat anyone who is different. Let's try and build a much more caring, compassionate and improved society. Use rhetoric to heal rather than harm others!