A questionable answer

In the past month the political world has flipped into Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker universe. Instead of the usual process of questions seeking answers, debate is dominated by an answer that seems unsure of its question. From both sides, we’re told that the answer is tougher border controls. But what’s the question?

At one point it seemed the question was about asylum seekers. But with the reductions in asylum claims over the last couple of years both parties have moved away from majoring on refugees.

I think at times I’m being told it’s about “economic migrants” being a drain on our welfare system; or that immigrant workers are responsible for UK unemployment. But figures are easily produced showing the net contribution made by migrants to the economy, and the necessity of bringing more young adults into the UK to maintain economic life in an ageing society.

A variation on the theme lies in the hints that people coming to work or live here from overseas are motivated by the desire to receive free treatment for conditions such as HIV/Aids. Behind this approach, is the inference that an influx of disease-ridden foreigners is going to infect us all. You might call it the economic argument with plague attached. It is a fear with no base in evidence. Even where particular diseases are more common in newer entrants to the UK there is little to indicate that significant numbers of the longer-term population are infected.

Housing Today readers may be particularly intrigued by the re-emergence of the “argument from resources”. Historically this couched itself in claims that incomers to Britain were responsible for huge queues for council housing. Now this line is back with a green tinge to it.

I heard during a recent radio programme the claim that new arrivals in the UK are responsible for the vast majority of the need for additional housebuilding over the next decades. Never mind longer life expectancy, smaller households, or the need to have homes within reach of our jobs, it’s immigration that is to blame for the concreting of the South-east.

Occasionally the “argument from culture” rears its head. At its most benign this is the view that those coming to live in Britain should know about our civic society and traditions, and perhaps our language; and that they should commit themselves to the wellbeing and security of our nation. But it rarely comes without overtones that foreigners should do things our way in “our” country. It’s an argument noticeably lacking in reciprocity – I can’t ever recollect its proponents condemning the exporting of aspects of UK culture to all corners of the globe. It also implies the existence of some static well-formed culture that is now being put under threat, when we all know that the UK is a shifting society.

Although the answer remains the same, the questions shift and reform because none of them are anything more than proxies for the real question – the question that dare not speak its name. Let me do it a favour and call it what it is – race.

Human beings are awfully good at believing things they think it is in their interest to believe. When we accept spurious or shallow arguments about immigration, whether they are based on economics, health, limited resources or culture, we do so because part of us wants to believe the racists’ myths. I’m not just pointing sticks at others. Neither can I as an individual nor the Christian Church that I publicly represent pretend to be immune. But awareness is the first step to redressing things. And if this article helps both me and you in that, it’s done its job.