There are refugees and there are migrants.
- There are refugees fleeing from war, violence and devastation.
- There are migrants fleeing from poverty, oppression and lack of opportunity
However you label them, they have one thing in common: they are people in search of a dream of a better life, who have found themselves stuck in a nightmare.
After university, I worked as an expatriate in Africa, to improve my work prospects and put cash in the bank. That’s on a different scale from what today’s economic migrants are doing, but it’s the same in principle. The difference today is in the direction of the flow, and the scale of the human traffic
Migration on a massive scale is a problem that is not going to go away. By Christmas, there will be roughly ten thousand, mostly African, migrants in Calais. They have crossed the Sahara to reach Libya before making the perilous crossing to Italy.
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| Burial of migrant in the desert |
Thousands of their compatriots have perished on the way, dying from thirst, hunger and exhaustion in the desert or drowned at sea.
They reach France and sleep on pavements in Paris and along the embankments of the Seine. Others head to Calais and blend into the shanty town known as The Jungle. Some are rounded up by the French authorities and relocated to detention centres. The authorities show very little humanity towards these desperate nomads, mostly men, who seek only to escape the grinding poverty and persecution of life in Africa. They have risked their lives and racked up massive debts to fund their migration. They are desperate, and desperate people will take extreme risks to achieve their objective.
Migrants who reach Greece are mainly refugees from civil wars and terrorist activities in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. While the migrants in France are mainly young men, the refugees in Greece are mostly family groups and unaccompanied children. In order to protect its tourist industry, the Greek government has taken great steps to hide the 57,000 refugees that are scattered across the islands and the mainland.
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| Refugee accommodation at a detention centre in Northern Greece |
There has been an extensive clean-up campaign in which refugees have been herded into detention centres, administered by the military: anything from tents in fields to crowded accommodation in disused warehouses or large marquees.
In some centres, there are volunteer groups, who strive valiantly to create some sort of infrastructure and activities with playgroups, schooling, language classes and women’s groups. The government’s contribution is to manage the establishments in the style of prison camps, with little more concern than a farmer might have for livestock.
These are real people, real lives, real histories and real futures.
From my own experience, I know that many of these refugees are highly qualified, professional individuals whose homes and livelihoods have been bombed to rubble. They cannot “Go Home,” – because home no longer exists, and will not be rebuilt in a generation.
Here in Northern Europe, it is pointless to imagine that the immigrant crisis is going to fade away like an English summer. These are real people, real lives, real histories and real futures. So, how will we cope with the inevitable invasion that will happen when the refugees and migrants finally cross borders and become part of our community?
I support various organisations under the banner: “Refugees Welcome Here!”
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| Asian exiles land at London Stansted after being expelled from Uganda by President Idi Amin in 1972 |
Part of my motivation stems from having seen the regeneration of the English Midlands that resulted from the mass immigration of Indian-origin Asians from East Africa at the time of Uganda’s president Idi Amin.
That influx changed the face of Britain with an explosion of entrepreneurial flair across many industries – to say nothing of the rejuvenation of convenience stores and the salvation of many rural post offices.
Today, we see the children of that generation in senior positions in our health service, in the City financial sector and in the legal system.
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| Winners of the UK Asian Professional Awards in 2015 |
We now have to choose not only how we face the challenge that faces us from the pavements of Paris and the mud of the Calais camps; we have to decide how we will handle this as it continues through the rest of this century. We are all going to have to step outside our comfort zone and interact with an ongoing influx.
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| Love changes everything |
This will only be achieved through a Hearts and Minds campaign. You can legislate against discrimination and incitement to violence, but you cannot change legislate to change attitudes.
There are seeds of hope in some statistics. The UK census in 2011 established that 10% of all live-in relationships cross ethnic boundaries, and there is every reason to predict that this proportion has increased since then and will continue into the future.
Most of the next generation has far less racial prejudice than its parents and grandparents, partly encouraged by the multi-ethnic nature of popular culture.
Today, Britain is an island in name only.
We have the choice between living in the resentment and divisiveness of the past, or welcoming and integrating people who want to create a better life for themselves and their offspring, and will both contribute and enrich our society.
We have the choice between living in the European dream or living in permanent fear of an imaginary nightmare.
The invasion will happen . . .
The reality will not change: the invasion will happen over the next few years. The only realistic response is positivity, compassion and love, and what we project will determine what we receive in return.
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| The sign on a structure in The Jungle in Calais reads “We are searching for a better life.” |
