Why the left needs to make a positive case for immigration.
The issue driving the nationalist right is immigration and the reasons why are obvious. The mainstream right can no longer defend its economic principles on its own terms because free trade and trickle down economics have not enriched the lives of ordinary people. A rising tide sinks most boats and an unregulated market means debt slavery.
The right can't become progressives and blame the bosses so they need to scapegoat others, particularly others who are not like us.
Immigration is blamed for everything: low wages for working class people, strained public services, crime etc. This disguises the fact that (UK context) wages stagnated long before the biggest immigrant wave and that government has defunded public services as deliberate policy.
Being anti-immigration seems to have an outsider chic which is utterly undeserved. 'Nobody is allowed to talk about immigration' even though virtually everyone does. The mainstream media give tacit acceptance to anti immigrant views as 'genuine concerns' as do plenty of mainstream politicians. The white working class is talked of as a distinct minority group when non white members of the working class share the same hopes, dreams and material conditions. Blaming immigrants is punching down and also dividing people.
Owen Jones makes some good points about the economic benefits that overseas people bring. He also says that human stories matter and I agree. The most pro immigration places in my country are those with the most immigrants. If a person of colour is your doctor, your shopkeeper or your friend then you are not gonna take Daily Mail scare stories that seriously.
It's a powerful and popular narrative but compromising with it just makes things worse. Liberal politicians can never outdo the populist right on this issue and will never be taken as the real deal by people they are trying to impress. All the time, this strengthens the frame of the far-right and allows the Overton window to move further into dangerous territory.
So make the case for immigration. To win this battle, we first have to fight it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/20/immigration-force-for-good-labour-migrants
The right can't become progressives and blame the bosses so they need to scapegoat others, particularly others who are not like us.
Immigration is blamed for everything: low wages for working class people, strained public services, crime etc. This disguises the fact that (UK context) wages stagnated long before the biggest immigrant wave and that government has defunded public services as deliberate policy.
Being anti-immigration seems to have an outsider chic which is utterly undeserved. 'Nobody is allowed to talk about immigration' even though virtually everyone does. The mainstream media give tacit acceptance to anti immigrant views as 'genuine concerns' as do plenty of mainstream politicians. The white working class is talked of as a distinct minority group when non white members of the working class share the same hopes, dreams and material conditions. Blaming immigrants is punching down and also dividing people.
Owen Jones makes some good points about the economic benefits that overseas people bring. He also says that human stories matter and I agree. The most pro immigration places in my country are those with the most immigrants. If a person of colour is your doctor, your shopkeeper or your friend then you are not gonna take Daily Mail scare stories that seriously.
It's a powerful and popular narrative but compromising with it just makes things worse. Liberal politicians can never outdo the populist right on this issue and will never be taken as the real deal by people they are trying to impress. All the time, this strengthens the frame of the far-right and allows the Overton window to move further into dangerous territory.
So make the case for immigration. To win this battle, we first have to fight it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/20/immigration-force-for-good-labour-migrants
41-45, M
