Immigration – recently the word on everyone’s lips. Every newspaper, politician and Joe Bloggs has a view, whether it is compassionate or disparaging. Yet even among the most progressive, there are hesitations, reservations and questions about these foreigners’ motives. Many people believe Britain is swarming with migrants, teeming and broken by their excessive NHS use and benefit borrowing. Yet many more people fail to remember that a whopping 35% of the NHS is comprised of immigrants. Our economy relies on these people.
Unfortunately, the skepticism is not confined to economic migrants. The lack of compassion for refugees is depressing. The slight increase in kindness only emerges when the true horror of their situation is plainly, almost crudely, shoved in our face. The myth of refugees flocking to Britain is also alarming, with Britain only accepting 143 Syrian refugees in 2014 in comparison to Germany’s 100,000.
The alarming fact is that the media dictates what we think: our opinions and expectations of immigrants and refugees. How can they defend themselves against the likes of the Daily Mail, who print inconsiderate headlines such as “We kept out Hitler, why can’t our feeble leaders stop a few thousand exhausted migrants?”? It is shocking that the Daily Mail, one of the most influential newspapers in British society, so similarly compares these two different groups of people. The tyrants of the media world will slate people when it benefits them. Helping strangers or showing some sympathy appears to rarely be a worthy cause.
My conclusion is that politicians and the tabloids want us, even need us, to believe there is a ‘crisis’ of immigrants. They want us to forget the inequality, the disparity in wealth and the disgraceful tax evasion. They want us to close our mind, put on our blinkers and direct our discontent at the most vulnerable people they can imagine. It is whether we close off our minds, borders and compassion or throw open our arms and gates, welcoming those in need.