Why do we put up with this? pt. 2

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do a sequel to my last post with this title, at least for a while. But this morning I heard about the launch of the government's campaign against benefits for EU migrants. I guess the attack on the minorities has begun. 

When I speak about this issue, I think I fall into a strange category. I suppose I am an immigrant myself. I didn't grow up here. But I have a British passport. I don't have white skin, or blonde hair, or blue eyes. I wasn't born here. I am Chinese and I identify myself as Chinese. But because my father, born and bred Hong Kong, lived and worked here for 14 years, my brother I have British passports, citizenship and right to abode. 

I suppose this excludes us from UKIP rhetoric. I could exclude myself from this debate, believing myself to be safe. But it's not that simple.

I am trying to be calm and level headed here, because the truth is that I am shaking with anger at this whole thing, its divisiveness, thinly veiled racism and hate-mongering. 

But let's start slowly.

BENEFIT TOURISM

I don't know how many of you have read the PM's article, published in the carefully chosen Sun newspaper. Showing its characteristically gracious and inclusive flair, the article opens, "David Cameron today vows in The Sun to crack down on immigrants sponging off the taxpayer."

From the PM's speech, you would be forgiven in thinking there is a massive problem with immigrants claiming benefits illegitimately. Problems that justify an all-guns-blazing, tough talk crackdown on jobseekers' allowance, social housing and free NHS treatment for EU immigrants.

After all, the PM did reference in a speech in Ipswich "concerns, deeply held, that some people might be able to come and take advantage of our generosity without making a proper contribution to our country."

And if it's true that benefit tourism is a huge problem in the UK, and we are facing unprecedented numbers of immigrants moving into the country and crippling taxpayers by illegitimate benefit scrounging, then we need to put an end to it - right?

Wrong. 

Wrong because we aren't facing this problem. Wrong because once again, the government's anti-migrant rhetoric isn't based on facts but right-leaning ideology.

MYTHS ABOUT EU MIGRANTS

BBC News notes, "No 10 was unable to give any figures on the scale, cost and numbers of so-called benefit tourists, although DWP figures suggest 17% of working-age UK nationals claim a benefit, compared with 7% of working age non-UK nationals."

Okay. How interesting.

Let's have a look at some facts and figures about EU immigration and benefits, provided by the European Commission in the UK. Maybe the facts will shed some light on the issue?

There is no evidence that the UK suffers significantly from benefit tourism. Neither do EU migrants represent a disproportionate number of benefit claimants – rather the reverse. 

As an example, the Department for Work and Pensions’ figures show that of 1.44m people (or very roughly 2.4% of the UK population) claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) in Feb 2011, under 38 000 were from other EU countries. This represents about 2.6% of total JSA claimants, which is broadly in line with the estimated percentage of the UK population – also around 2.6%, or about 1.6 million people – who are nationals of other EU countries. 

However, given that a significantly greater proportion of the EU migrant population is of working age than is the case for the general population, this means that the percentage of working-age EU migrants claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance is lower than the proportion of the general labour force claiming this benefit. The DWP document (see link above) shows that the picture is similar for other benefits.

The comparison is even more marked when looking at EU migrants from Poland and the other seven Member States which joined the EU in 2004. Under 13 000 JSA claimants (0.9% of total claimants) in February 2011 were from those Member States which joined the EU in 2004. These included for instance 6 390 claimants from Poland – or just over 1% of the estimated number of Polish nationals residing in the UK – compared to an overall figure of 2.4% of the UK population claiming JSA. 

The level of EU migration into the UK is itself also often overestimated. In fact, according to Oxford University, net (arrivals minus departures) migration of non-British EU citizens into the UK in 2011 was 82 000, compared to 204 000 net arrivals from other parts of the world. So EU migration accounted for around 28.7 % of net migration into the UK in 2011.

(Highlights mine) 

I would really recommend reading this article on EU migrant myths. It provides evidence which strongly challenges the recurring myths the government seems so intent on propagandising: that EU law give all EU citizens an unconditional right to reside freely in the UK, that EU law means EU migrants are automatically entitled to claim benefits, and that EU rules encourage so-called benefit tourism.

So hold on. If benefit tourism isn't a problem, and an overwhelming majority of EU immigrants make a greater contribution to this country than they are a burden on the taxpayer, then what is all this about?

COMMODITIES NOT PEOPLE 

I am worried about what this government rhetoric is all about. I am deeply disturbed and angered about the way in which minority groups are increasingly being marginalised and talked about with the language of blame and unwelcome. I sense increasing levels of xenophobia, and I am afraid. I had hoped that this was a trait of fringe groups like UKIP, the BNP and the Sun readership, but not the government.

It begins with dehumanising language. With language that talks about immigrants - all of them as a general and nondescript lump - not as people, individuals with sacred life burning in them, but commodities. 

"We benefit from new countries joining the EU," the PM says. "They'll buy more things from us and jobs will be created. But as a government we have to make sure people come for the right reasons."

I want you to read those sentences again. 

They'll buy more things from us. We have to make sure they come for the right reasons - to buy things from us and create jobs. 

It's insulting.

The way immigrants are spoken about shows how the government sees them. Commodities, not people. Resources, bags of money, not individuals to be valued and cared for in their own right.

"We cannot have a culture of something for nothing," he says. "New migrants should not expect to be given a home on arrival."

And why not? Because they don't deserve to be provided for - no matter what horrific circumstances they may have come from, what hopes and dreams they might have, what struggles they are escaping - unless they give you something in return?

Their money? Their labour? Their investment? 

Would you say that of a British-born citizen? A new born child? A disabled old man? Well, maybe you would say that of a disabled old man.

And on investment, the government is clear in its policies. If you are a wealthy foreign investor, you are an exception. You can have lots of leniency when it comes to immigration and taxes, because the UK wants your money. Doesn't matter if you're corrupt or indulge in questionable practices. As long as you've got the dough.

"We should be clear that what we have is a free National Health Service, not a free International Health Service."

And what we have are racist soundbites from a people-pleasing, right-leaning government. What we have is a free health service - a gem in a world of profiteering and cruelty and illness and death - which you are ripping to shreds because of ignorant fear-mongering. Because of emerging xenophobia.

I have had enough of this.

ALL THIS MATTERS

I say all this not just as a Jesus follower who cares about the justice that my Lord came to bring, but as someone who has been on the receiving end of this rhetoric in personal quarters. I have been told by a then close friend, following a racist incident that I had witnessed, that the reason why people like me, who came to this country as students, can stay in this country is because of the money we have contributed to the economy. It was dehumanising. I have never really recovered from it.

All this rhetoric is a lie that we should be up in arms about. Not only is it not based on fact, and therefore bad practice in any sector, but it is deeply and morally wrong. It cuts to the core of what it means to be human. 

If we are so easily manipulated by lies and hatred of people who we think are different - people who laugh and cry and bleed just as we do, who work and play and sleep and dream just as we can - then what do we have left?