The Immigration Game

Immigration has long been a contentious divisive issue in the UK. I discuss some of the realities of this toxic issue, including from an Islamic perspective.

Jun 08, 2024

Immigration has long been a contentious issue in the UK. It was one of the main factors in the Brexit vote and it remains a divisive issue in the general election campaign of 2024. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party successfully exploits concerns felt by a significant proportion of people in Britain. This in turn has put pressure on the Conservative party, who have long boasted of their intent to be loyal to the Brexit decision and so control migration (which they have so far not succeeded in doing). It also puts pressure on Labour, whose traditional constituency of post-industrial communities - including the so-called ‘Red Wall’ constituencies - who often feel most affected by migration.

A Divisive Debate

The debate is distorted, often deliberately by politicians, to conflate many issues and confuse the average person. Legal migration and valid asylum claims are pooled together with illegal and invalid claims, to drive a particular narrative that focuses on the issue in a way that rarely sheds light in any meaningful way.

As a result, most discussion has been polarised between those who want more restrictions being seen as racist and heartless towards those seeking refuge from conflict - and those who try to express some nuance being seen as not caring about communities who are affected most by migration.

What are some of the Issues?

Some of the key issues can be summarised as follows:

Asylum seekers versus Economic Migrants:

Asylum seekers are a small proportion of those coming to the UK, yet the debate is totally distorted. In 2023 there were approximately 85 000 individuals seeking asylum. Two-thirds of these were granted protection at the initial stage - i.e. were considered legitimate asylum seekers fleeing persecution. Britain hosts around 350 000 people in total who have refugee status over many years. According to UNHCR there were approximately 6 million asylum seekers worldwide in the same time period (mid 2023, i.e. prior to the Gaza massacres) with a total of 36 million living as refugees across the world. Approximately 3.4 million are in each of Iran and Turkey, 2.5 million in Germany, and 2.1 million in Pakistan. To give some idea of comparison within Europe, the UK hosts around 1100 refugees per million inhabitants compared to Austria which hosts 12,135 per million inhabitants.

Legal Migration is when people apply for visas to live in the UK to study, work or to join family members who study and work in the UK. In 2023, there was net migration of 685 000 people - i.e eight times the number coming as asylum seekers. This migration is considered essential for the British economy. Universities rely on student income, and companies can recruit skills from overseas where there is a shortage in the UK market. Whether healthcare workers, those in IT, care workers, or Uber-Eats delivery personnel on mopeds - there is a deficit in the UK for many reasons that is being filled by these migrants. Around 250 000 alone have come from India.

Strain on Resources: The high rate of net migration in the UK every year places a strain on local resources: housing, school and health etc - as well as jobs, skills-training etc. Whilst big business might see the benefits of migration, many people in the UK have felt the system has failed them in respect of these matters. This has been even more pronounced given the rise of absolute poverty in the UK. In 2022-23, there was an increase of 600 000 more people in poverty, reaching a total of 12 million - meaning the rate of absolute poverty in the UK reached 18%. However all of this has exposed a failure of politicians to increase capacity to meet the demand and deal with the needs of their own populations.

Blaming the Wrong People: Politicians have focussed on the one third of the 85 000 applications that are not successful at the first stage, rather than the two-thirds that are, plus the 685 000 legal migrants and -more importantly - delivering services fit for the whole population. The endless rhetoric about ‘stopping the boats’, or sending asylum seekers to Rwanda as a deterrent, is clearly deflecting blame away from themselves and the systemic problems and onto asylum seekers.

To be sure, there is an element of ‘racism’ amongst some who do not like the fact that the racial demographic of the UK has changed in a globalised world. Also, it is true that the political class has used migration to further justify their muscular liberalism to pressure people to assimilate and conform to what the state expects, because they realise that many people have not and will not be convinced by secular liberal values merely by living in Britain.

But in the mail discussions about ‘solutions’ are focussed on how to stop people-trafficking; how to deter illegal asylum seekers; and how to control legal migration so that the numbers are politically sustainable whilst meeting economic needs.

However there are some matters that are insufficiently addressed that ought to be, which means in the current situation there is not likely to be any significant change.

What’s not said but ought to be:

Demographic deficit: ‘Developed’ countries need an average birth rate of 2.1 children per woman to increase or maintain (or ‘replace’) their population. Yet there has been a steady decline across these countries to rates that do not allow their populations to be ‘replaced’.

The most recent figures in the UK suggest a rate of 1.49 children per woman. The UK’s increasingly ageing population will retire and require pensions, health and care services that all need to be sustained by a shrinking younger population. Hence, most politicians across the political spectrum realise that some degree of migration is essential. The rapid influx of young people and their families does not easily allow for expanding capacity in schools and healthcare. Had there been a sufficiently sustained birth rate, such services could be expanded gradually over a period of time.

This demographic deficit is rarely discussed as part of the immigration debate. The capitalist economic system, coupled with social norms that encourage individualism and liberal relationships, have conspired to create this situation. South Korea and Japan have the lowest rates due to these systemic matters. (along with China, which is suffering from its historical ‘one-child’ policy). Capitalist societies did not expect this problem, coupled with overreaction to Malthusian theories of population, which are often described as a demographic ‘time bomb’. Some thought they could be offset by technology and optimistic views about free movement of labour. Yet the lack of acknowledgment of these systemic matters means that people are not honestly informed about why some economic migration is necessary. It would mean admitting a massive systemic flaw.

The impact on the countries of origin: Whilst it is acknowledged that there is a ‘brain drain’ in the countries from which many professional and skilled workers who migrate to the UK originate from, some of the problems associated with this are not appreciated. Certainly there has been a reduction in the numbers of doctors, nurses and others - who were trained in their home countries. But there is an associated problem of the demographic imbalance this creates in those countries of origin. Often older family members remain behind, initially in good health. However as the years progress and the younger generation become settled in their new homes, there are fewer family members to support the older population - which is especially problematic in traditional societies where family is more important than the state in terms of being the first line of support for the vulnerable.

Push factors: I have rarely, if ever, heard the push-factors being discussed regarding immigration and asylum. The reasons why people feel they need to migrate are economic or dysfunctional societies - or else they seek asylum from oppression, conflict and harm.

Some of this is linked to economic subjugation that affects much of the global south due to the global system keeping rich countries disproportionately rich. Some are due to countries being destabilised by conflict.

The greatest number of refugees in the past two decades have been from Syria (6.5 million), Afghanistan (6.1 million) and Ukraine (5.9 million). Each of these regions represents problems that do not originate from the region alone.

Syria’s crisis was triggered by the Arab Spring, following decades of repressive rule by a regime supported by external powers including the United States. The regime came into power after successive coups sponsored variously by the UK, France and the USA, following the occupation of the Levant in World War One and the dismembering and abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate. The Middle East has remained in perpetual crisis since then, with client rulers in artificial states who use oppression to maintain their rule.

Afghanistan’s crisis was created most recently by the US led occupation - but this in turn followed decades of problems following the Soviet occupation and subsequent civil wars between different factions vying for power.

Ukraine’s crisis is of course due to Putin’s desire to dominate a region that is strategically vital to Russia - but it is also due to American and European interference in Ukraine which has made Russia feel increasingly threatened from the area that has historically been the route through invaders came from Europe.

So many of the push factors are rooted in Western colonial foreign policy - as well as power games by big regional powers like Russia and China.

This is something rarely discussed in these debates. It is rarely asked why do these countries keep interfering in other parts of the world? Destabilising them and making them places that are so unfit for habitation for some, that they’d rather risk being trafficked across oceans and continents at risk to themselves and their families.

Establishing stability and security within the Muslim world, restoring a civilisation that successfully underpinned the region for centuries for all its people, and establishing an economic system that circulates wealth and considers people as a great asset, would help solve many of these push factors.

Attitudes: Leaders can shape attitudes. When they use vulnerable groups as a punch bag for their political shortcomings, they reinforce the worst of human nature. Whilst there are some people in the UK who are racist, there are many others for whom their views are motivated by legitimate concerns about services and jobs. Yet, even these people can be stoked into backing tribal narratives about migration. Most recently we heard shameless comments like those of the deputy leader of Reform UK who suggested not rescuing people in the English Channel if they scupper their small boats as they should “suffer the consequences of their actions”! Yet this is not new - we’ve heard anti-immigrant rhetoric from Conservative politicians in the past - and even from Labour politicians when discussing the lack of assimilation, so ‘othering’ huge swathes of the UK population.

All of this can be compounded by two other systemic problems that exist. One is defining oneself through national identities - where there is a protectionist attitude that encourages tribal loyalties over human bond. The other is that capitalist economic philosophy dwells on the scarcity of commodities rather than addressing how we better share the resources we have.

Problematic attitudes are not unique to the UK. Shamefully they exist in Muslim countries, afflicted by the disease of nationalism and brainwashed about capitalist economic ideas.

Since the crisis in Syria, Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have found themselves the subject of nationalistic anti-immigrant opinions, even though they were only divided from each other by an artificial border established after World War One. In many cases it cannot even be said to be ‘racist’ as they are people of the same race!

In 2024, the government of Pakistan ordered the expulsion of 1.7 million ‘Afghani’ refugees - i.e. originally from the other side of an artificial border called the Durrant Line, drawn by the British when they withdrew from their occupation of the region.

All of this is worse than what we hear in Britain and Europe. Why? Because Islam came to establish such attitudes - to build bonds of faith and humanity that superseded the base tribal bonds that can lead to nationalism and populist policies.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made his final sermon given in this very month, the month of the Hajj pilgrimage. He ﷺ said:

“All humankind is from Adam a.s and Hawa (Eve) a.s. An Arab has no superiority over a non- Arab, nor does a non-Arab have superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white - except by piety and good action."

He ﷺ migrated from his home town of Makkah to Al Madinah with one hundred or so migrants - known famously as Al Muhājirūn - a title of respect, literally meaning “the Immigrants”. When he ﷺ arrived, he paired a Muhājir with an established resident of Al Madinah - know as the Ansār (or “Helpers”), who were expected to share their wealth and lives with the newcomers, as a bond of brotherhood, until they were successfully established to maintain themselves.

The Islamic land became known as Dār al-Hijrah i.e. the Land of Migration, because so many people wanted to come there. Even when as part of one treaty he agreed to temporarily restrict migration, it was not at his request. Rather his enemies demanded this restriction to stop people leaving their land and migrating towards the city of the Prophet, which was something he ﷺ wanted.

This positive tradition towards migrants and asylum seekers was maintained in Islamic societies for centuries. In the fifteenth century of the common era, Jewish people fleeing persecution in the Iberian peninsula were given refuge by the Ottoman Caliph - seen as a welcome asset. Similarly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the declining Ottoman Caliphate gave them sanctuary from persecution in Europe and Russia.

To see the ugly face of nationalism in Muslim countries is far worse than seeing it in the West - because it should be utterly alien to Islamic tradition and is a measure of how the Muslim world has been affected by the dominant political ideas of today.

Conclusion: In truth it is not a matter of what’s wrong with immigration - but what’s wrong with the current state of the world - its political and economic systems and the existing global order, which push people to migrate - and which create the problems that agitate ordinary people, who become victims of base nationalist attitudes, usually stoked by politicians to cover their own failings, and those of the system. Mass migration and asylum seeking is a symptom of the world we are in, which needs an alternative civilisation to show a way forward for humanity.

Abdul Wahid has been active in Muslim affairs in the UK for over 25 years. He has been published on the websites of 5 Pillars, Islam21c, Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AbdulWahid_X.

LINKS

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/3/staggering-social-change-from-low-birth-rate-in-west-scientists-warn#:~:text=As%20fewer%20babies%20are%20born,challenges%20in%20the%20decades%20ahead.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/whats-wrong-the-silence-of-pakistanis-on-expulsion-of-afghan-refugees

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/pakistan-government-must-halt-deportation-of-afghan-refugees/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72p2vgd21no#:~:text=Yet%20the%20latest%20figures%20for,which%20record%20their%20data%20separately.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-26938565

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48785695#:~:text=Just%20over%201.2%20million%20people,of%20a%20new%20downward%20trend%22.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68625344#:~:text=The%20figure%20jumped%20to%2012,when%20describing%20the%20government's%20record.

https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/2217/eng#:~:text=In%201480%20the%20Inquisition%20began,they%20were%20received%20with%20enthusiasm.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/

https://journals.openedition.org/osb/1355

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/top-10-facts-about-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/#