Limpeh & the complexities of the immigration debate in the West

Hello & happy new year! I would like to respond to some of the remarks I have seen on Facebook in response to my last post about getting the facts right when it comes to praising the PAP.  In that post, I made a comment about how there are strict controls on immigration in the West, hence it is very difficult for unskilled labour from Asia to find their way to the West under the 'points-based' immigration system. Thus Asian immigrants who do get a work permit under this system have proved their worth, often in niche industries where there is a massive shortage in skilled professionals. Within that context, people in the West are far less worried about Asian immigrants coming to "steal their jobs" by doing it cheaper than the locals, simply because the system is managed a lot better in the West. I did not claim that the West is free from xenophobia, there's plenty of that here but is it targeted at someone like me?

Limpeh has been working in Angmohland all my adult life

Are there still right wing parties who are anti-immigrant and downright racist towards Asian immigrants? Yes there are - but in today's piece, I am going to explore the situation in a bit more detail so you can understand how it is not quite the kind of racism most Singaporeans imagine it to be. For the purpose of this piece, I will focus primarily on the UK though I will make references to other European countries as well. This is a fairly complex issues and I fear my Singaporean readers don't take the time to understand the finer details but often just default to this "oh all Angmohs hate anyone who isn't white and non-European" - that couldn't be further from the truth as white Eastern Europeans with blonde hair and blue eyes bear the brunt of xenophobia in the UK today.

All this stems from the fact that since 2004, Eastern Europeans from much poorer EU countries have free access to the UK job market - hence we've seen a huge influx of economic migrants from places like Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia etc since 2004 looking for work. The economic meltdown in southern Europe has also sent a second wave of migrants from places like Greece, Italy and Spain to the UK. The fact that the UK has staged a robust recovery from the recession has made it a very attractive destination for these economic migrants escaping low wages and unemployment in their countries and as citizens of all EU member states have free access to work in the UK. Migrants from outside the EU, however, do face very strict barriers to entry if they want to work and settle here.

Trying to work in the UK? It's harder than you think.

Firstly, the mainstream parties in the UK are not anti-immigration: they do however, believe that immigration needs to be managed in a sensible way. Whilst no party believes in a open door policy where anyone and everyone can come, even UKIP (the UK Independence Party), the most anti-immigration party of them all, doesn't believe in a no-immigrants approach, but rather they believe that far stricter controls need to be applied to prevent immigrants from poorer Eastern European countries from finding jobs in the UK. Now what you have to understand is that whilst UKIP wants to get the UK out of European Union to stop the uncontrolled immigration from poorer Eastern European countries, they really have nothing against skilled Asian migrants who do meet the strict criteria for skilled migrants! Allow me to cut and paste their manifesto from the UKIP website:

• Regain control of our borders and of immigration - only possible by leaving the EU.

• Immigrants must financially support themselves and their dependents for 5 years. This means private health insurance (except emergency medical care), private education and private housing - they should pay into the pot before they take out of it.

• A points-based visa system and time-limited work permits.

• Proof of private health insurance must be a precondition for immigrants and tourists to enter the UK.
Taken from http://www.ukip.org/issues

Brits are mostly concerned about immigration from within the EU.

So as you can see, they are advocating a points-based immigration system which would gladly welcome a highly skilled migrant like a doctor from Singapore or an engineer from Malaysia but would effectively slam the door shut to a builder from Poland or a waiter from Romania. So you see, the biggest threat from immigration so far has been the influx of Eastern Europeans from poorer EU countries, not skilled Asian immigrants from places like Singapore and Malaysia. UKIP merely wants to apply the same points-based (similar to the Australian system) universally, so that a Polish or Bulgarian immigrant would be subject to the same rules as a Chinese or Indian immigrant.

So whilst there are some anti-immigrant feelings in the UK, this has got to be qualified: it is not a blunt feeling of xenophobia that rejects anyone who isn't born in the UK or a blunt form of racism against anyone who isn't white. Rather, this is a very targeted sentiment at white, Eastern Europeans who are perceived to have come to the UK from much poorer countries to take the jobs of British folks by working harder and accepting lower pay for the same jobs. So whilst there are some anti-immigrant feelings in the UK, it is primarily targeted at Eastern Europeans and not Asians for a simple reason: you walk down the high street in any British city and you feel the presence of the Eastern Europeans, Polish has become the unofficial second language in England & Wales - the Eastern Europeans have made an impact here with their numbers. For all the talk about China or India being the next world's economic superpower, the Asian immigrants have not made the same impact simply because of the much higher barriers to entry for them. It is one set of rules for those coming from within the EU and a different, much stricter set of rules for those from outside the EU and currently, most of the migrants to the UK are in fact coming from within the EU.

What kind of migrants do you want in your country? Good ones or bad ones?

I have lived in the UK since 1997 - that was years before 2004 when the EU has this huge expansion to include many countries in Eastern Europe. Before 2004, there wasn't a prominent presence of Eastern Europeans in the streets of the UK - they needed work permits if they wanted to work in the UK and thus that kept their numbers very low. But came the 1st January 2004 and suddenly, they could come and find work in the UK - no questions asked, no controls, no limits, the doors were flung wide open to Eastern Europeans in the EU to come to the UK to seek their fortunes. There was a panic in the UK at that time: will there be a flood of Eastern Europeans from very poor countries rushing here to undercut the wages in the British labour market? Would we all experience a fall in wages because of these Eastern Europeans who will work harder for far less money? Some of these fears were based on real economics, others based on paranoia about people from poorer countries.

Bearing in mind that salaries in the UK are much higher than these poorer Eastern European countries, they came in their thousands and many established themselves here in the UK, settling here with no intention to return to their home countries. So in a space of a few years after 2004, there was a huge influx of Eastern Europeans: they arrived in their thousands and made their presence felt. And they too, have a say about the situation in the UK - may I refer you to the BBC interview below which summarizes up the situation very well. (Do you remember the Cheeky Girls?)

There was a mixed reaction towards this influx - quite by coincidence, I bought a new flat in July 2004 and was looking for builders to renovate the flat before moving in. Every single builder I used was Polish and I was stunned at just how efficient they were - many British people who were in my position welcomed this influx of hardworking and efficient Eastern Europeans to do the jobs that British people had become too lazy to do efficiently. I couldn't have been happier with my Polish builders and Hungarian plumber; if I had choice, I would definitely use an Eastern European over a local British counterpart simply because of the common perception that you're always going to get better value from an Eastern European. However, if you were a local British plumber, electrician or builder, you would feel very threatened by this Eastern European influx.

In 2014, the UK feels like a very different place compared to 1997 when I first arrived as a student at university. You walk down the street in London and you hear a range of languages spoken, many of them Eastern European. I walk into my local supermarket and there is a whole section dedicated to Eastern European imported foods. If you had a child in a British school, s/he would have Eastern European classmates and possibly an Eastern European teacher. I have lost count of the number of Eastern European colleagues I have worked with since 2004, they are here in such large numbers. It has been ten years and I have gotten used to their presence here in the UK, especially in London where we have whole neighbourhoods which have turned into Eastern European enclaves. The East London neighbourhood of Leytonstone has been nicknamed Leytongrad because it is so full of Eastern European shops.

Limpeh visiting Poland in 2013

I lived through this big change that started in 2004 and I merely accepted it as I saw it mostly as positive: these Eastern Europeans were here to work hard and make money, I loved their work ethic especially after having worked alongside many of them. Sure there were winners and losers in this wave of Eastern Europeans settling in the UK but the majority of the British public benefited from this change and only a minority in certain professions found themselves being undercut by new competition from Eastern Europe. As the UK has a long history with the Commonwealth and the former British empire, there are already plenty of ethnic minorities in the UK already: there are black and Asian people in the UK who have arrived here over the decades from former British colonies to work here, so it is not like the British people are not used to seeing a non-white person walking down the street. Certainly in bigger British cities, it is very ethnically mixed - you can get on a train in London and sit next to a black or Asian person, a woman with an Islamic head veil or a Rastafarian with dreadlocks and nobody bats an eyelid.

Of course, just to confuse the xenophobic Brits even more, it is very hard to spot an Eastern European given how they look completely white and usually speak English fluently. And even if they have an accent, it is not always obvious where they are from. I once dined at a restaurant in Mayfair where the waiter had what I thought was a hint of a Nordic accent, I thought he could have been Dutch, German or Danish but it wasn't strong enough to point me one way or another. It turns out that he was Polish but as he had arrived in the UK ten years ago, his English is so perfect that it is hard to even pick up any trace of a foreign accent. Certainly, there was nothing about his name or his appearance that suggested that he was of Eastern European origin. And of course, the British have nothing against 'rich' Europeans from places like Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland etc - as these countries are as rich if not richer than the UK and so they do not pose a threat in any way to your average Brit. By the same token, the Brits feel less threatened by rich Asian migrants from places like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore than poor Asian migrants from places like India, Thailand, Philippines and China. It's all about the money: are you rich or poor?

Are you a rich migrant or a poor migrant? Where are you from?

Furthermore, there is another form of xenophobia in Europe that does not affect me directly: Islamophobia. The current wave of Islamophobia started with the 911 attacks in 2001 and it got far worse after the horrific 2005 London terrorist attack which claimed 52 lives and injured over 700 people. There have been a number of lower profile terrorist attacks linked with extremist Islam recently as well, coupled with the rise of Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East with their horrific executions of Western hostages, there has been an uneasy tension with the Muslim minority in the UK for many years already. It is a difficult topic to even talk about as nobody wants to be seen as anti-Islam or bigoted in any way - yet it is evident from the public reaction each time there is an atrocity carried out in the name of Islam, that there is definitely an undercurrent of Islamophobia in British society. I don't believe that British people are racist or are Islamophobic - they do however, fear Islamic extremists who are radicalized and have a terrorist agenda. I have loads of friends who are moderate Muslims - I hang out with them, I socialize with them, they are extremely well integrated into British society and they completely condemn any kind of Islamic extremist agenda. They too feel uneasy and nervous when confronted with Muslims who sympathize with IS's extremist agenda.

On the other side of the equation, you have the extreme right wing who galvanize this collective Islamophobia and they pick on examples which most British people would find unsettling, such as Muslims who refuse to integrate and reject the authority of the British state, Muslims who do not learn English and have no intention to integrate with British society and Muslims who deliberately segregate themselves from non-Muslims despite living in the UK, who pursue a form of radical extremist Islamic doctrine. Even as a very moderate, left-wing liberal, I do find some of those things on that list disturbing - but ultimately we're talking about the behaviour of a very tiny minority of Muslims in the UK and this is being picked on by the extreme right wing in the UK. But do note that even in this case, this is not just a blunt "we hate all foreigners" xenophobia: the extreme right are actually quite clear what they are protesting against.

Furthermore, the British system does discriminate against poorer migrants and favours rich migrants. In the past, one would have assumed that marrying a Brit would automatically grant you the right to reside in the UK as a spouse - not anymore! Your British spouse would have to earn a minimum of £18,600 a year (that figure rises to £22,400 if you have a child) or have at least £62,500 in savings - this figure is set as such to ensure that the British spouse earns enough to support the foreign spouse should s/he be unable to work (the foreign spouse is not allowed any access to public funds but has the right to work in the UK). It seems a bit harsh of course, especially since most foreign spouses are perfectly capable of working and supporting themselves and this rule does look at a worst case scenario whereby they cannot find any work at all. Now this figure isn't a problem at all for those Brits who are middle class and rich, but if they earn less than £18,600 a year, well, they can forget about bringing their foreign spouses into the UK, even if they have children. Tough shit, you're poor and the government doesn't care.

What about the other end of the spectrum then? Well, if you have £2 million (S$4.13 million) to invest in the UK, the great - you're entitled to a tier 1 investor visa: you and your dependents can waltz into the UK as long as you follow through with the investment. Loads of rich Russians and Chinese have secured their residency in the UK through this visa as £2 million is but spare change for them. If you're that rich, it's so easy to settle in the UK! Heck, it's not like you're buying residency for £2 million - you're merely obliged to invest that money into the British economy. In short, this is a visa designed to attract rich millionaires and billionaires to come and settle in the UK. And yes, if you are a Singaporean or Malaysian with £2 million to invest, the UK will roll out the same red carpet for you to move to the UK.

Do you have £2 million to invest? The UK welcomes you to settle here!

Thus this leads us to the very politically incorrect label: there are groups which are considered "good immigrants" and those which are considered "bad immigrants". It seems like a very loaded, very un-PC way to talk about the issue of immigration but such is the situation. Certainly, no sensible person would treat all immigrants as if they were a monolithic entity - how can you lump so many people into the same category when there is such a vast array of people with different social backgrounds; ranging from Russian billionaires to Syrian asylum seekers? Those who are considered "bad immigrants" are guilty of one or more of the following issues:

- undercutting locals in the job market by doing the same job for less money
- refusing to integrate with the locals where they live
- refusing to learn how to speak the local language (English)
- pursuing a form of religious ideology that is considered extremist and dangerous
- refusing to work and claiming benefits, living off the state
- indulging in criminal activities

This is a far more complex issue than racism or xenophobia.

As for myself, I am from Singapore, I am ethnically mostly Chinese (technically speaking I am mixed, click here for more details) and when I came to the UK as a student, I was welcomed as a scholar at one of the top universities in the county. When I got a job upon graduation, I worked alongside other locals for the same pay - I wasn't treated any differently just because I was born in Singapore. I became fully assimilated and integrated into British society. I'm in fact from a country richer than the UK and I am not a poor migrant trying to take advantage of higher wages here. Modesty aside, I'm pretty darn rich compared to your average Brit. In short, I am what they consider a 'good immigrant'. I didn't get my job by undercutting anyone in terms of the wages I would accept, I speak English as a first language and I do not belong to a religion which makes the locals feel uneasy (heck, I am an atheist). I pay my taxes and I do not claim benefits. In short, I do not come across as a threat to British people who have a very complex menu of things they like and dislike when it comes to the immigrants who come to this country.

So the situation here in the UK is far more complicated than a lot of Singaporeans imagine: the issue is complex, there is a wide range of reactions from different British people on the issue of migrants: there are certain aspects of immigration which the British public find troubling, such as EU nationals who come to the UK looking to exploit the benefits system instead of working. But you Singaporeans need to understand that these are very specific issues that need to be addressed, it is not a "we hate all foreigners" kind of xenophobia or racism. But the one issue that we can all agree on is that it is something that needs to be carefully managed by the government - that is something all the mainstream parties in the UK have pledged to work towards and a complex issue like this requires a comprehensive solution rather than just a knee-jerk anti-foreigner xenophobic response. After all, many sectors are heavily reliant on skilled foreign labour - such as the NHS (national health service) which would totally collapse if you were to ban foreigners from working in our hospitals. Hence kicking out all the foreigners working in the UK simply isn't an option for anyone either.

Some migrants are good, others are bad.

So that's it from me on this issue - I am merely touching the tip of the iceberg here given how complex it is, but at the very least, I hope I have given you some insight into some of the genuine concerns that British people have about the issue of immigration and how that is not quite the same thing as blatant racism or "we hate all foreigners" xenophobia. Oh no, it is such a complex issue with so many different factors, so please let's try to do it justice. Please feel free to leave me your thoughts on the issue in the comments section below. Many thanks for reading and happy new year.