Why India must understand Britain's fear of immigration

Tanuj Kumar

Forty-five years ago, a group of British Conservative politicians assembled in a hotel in Birmingham, UK, to hear a radical Tory party colleague, Enoch Powell.

He kept his address a secret till the last minute. Nobody could have reckoned he would be making the most controversial speech in modern British history. His hard-hitting speech, garbed in a racially-charged language, attacked the government's immigration policies.

He demanded an immediate reduction in immigration. "In this country in 15 years' time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man," he stated alarmingly. According to him, the annual inflow of some 50,000 immigrants was tantamount to "watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre".

The incendiary speech later acquired the title, "rivers of blood". The address caused much alarm, suspicion and fear. It led to an outburst of racial bigotry right across the British society. What he had done was put a match to a tinderbox.

It was Powell's firm belief that mass migration would lead to segregation and ultimately disastrous racial and religious division. The letters of support he received from many Britons far outnumbered the ones chiding him for the speech.

Many events have occurred since then to makes his speech sound uncannily prescient for at least some Britons. For instance, 2005 terror attacks carried out by four suicide bombers raised in a multicultural Britain, the 1995 Brixton riots, the 2011 riots and the recent Woolwich murder. The speech tapped into the prevailing fear of many Britons over loss of national identity.

But there's a bigger aspect. Illegal immigration in England is eating into the country's resources and welfare plans. The pressure on housing industry continues to build up and prices have soared unimaginably in the last few years.

Moreover, critics rue over loss of identity and often presage that soon the English will become a minority in their own country.

This deep-seated paranoia, which perhaps exists at a subconscious level, might explain the recent plans to introduce a £3,000 migrant bond for high-risk nations, of which India is one.

As the news was released from Britain's home office, Indians did what they do best. They baulked and bawled. Without understanding what was being proposed, we were outraged. But what was supposed to be said was lost in the din. Or, perhaps, it wasn't said at all. The fact is that India is the origin of a large proportion of illegal immigrants to the UK. We go there and abuse their welfare system.

The recent announcement that is altogether too shameful for India,is occasion for us to introspect rather than pointing fingers at the UK government.

I am not condoning or condemning UK's proposed plans. I am merely concerned with the fact that India's name cropped up in the list drawn up by Britain's home office.

The Indian government needs to target illegal immigration rackets. Immigration of this sort inevitably puts pressure on the British system and that, in turn, leads to a strong sense of discomfort amongst the British population. That invariably leads to schemes and plans being introduced that seem hostile to us. But we, Indians, don't understand the root cause of such actions.

It's unskilled and/or illegal immigration that jeopardises the genuine cases of high-skilled migration. Although Britain must think of better ways to curtail immigration than willy-nilly introducing such hefty monetary bonds, the announcement should nevertheless serve as a wake-up call for Indian government: we should take action against immigration fraud at home.

Powell wasn't right. Britain has become a vibrant multicultural society. But India needs to do some soul-searching.



The writer is pursuing a degree at King's College London