Listen to the opponents of immigration and you find that their arguments are couched in terms of it being a zero sum game. "Immigrants are taking our jobs". "Immigrants are a drain on our society". Refugees and asylum seekers receive the worst of it being labelled "bogus" or associated with terrorism and disease. At worst these people are treated in dehumanising, unfair and inhumane ways.
The truth is that very rarely is it a zero sum game. However, this belief that there are finite resources and finite opportunities appears to be deeply ingrained and may be blamed for the rise of the likes of UKIP and for the outcome of the Brexit referendum.
How do we change these attitudes? It is certainly not easy - just telling people that immigrants are not taking vital resources appears simply to backfire in many cases, reinforcing deeply embedded antipathy. (After all, the people have "had enough of experts", haven't they?).
Immigration and asylum-seeking are not going away so we need to find some means of lessening these tensions. Countries that integrate immigrants successfully are less likely to be subject to inter-group tension (stating the bleedin' obvious, that) and much more likely to reap the benefits. Slamming shut the door ain't going to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment