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With Trump’s attitude to immigration ignoring the irony of his own past, there is a great risk that there could be implications for attitudes towards immigration in general. We are no angels either, as I have discussed in previous blogs. Rising visa and appeal prices (and U-turns); increases in salary requirements; guesses on what the EU migration policy will be post-Brexit; all bubbling up tension for what might be coming over the next two years. British Citizenship is looking even more precious than before.
In the past we have rubbed shoulders closely with the US quite significantly on many world issues, not least the whole Blair/Bush affair. Some still blame the current climate of terror on that earlier intervention back in 2001 onwards. The “War On Terror” – as it was named – is still rippling and rumbling, and there are many different opinions on what to do. Exactly how we deal with the Trump issues is a different matter altogether.
The Scramble for British Citizenship
Exactly how much Trump will be able to force through all his ideas is another matter. The problem the US – and indeed the rest of the world – has is that Obama was calm, collected, steady and everything that Trump is not. Obama with popular, and that made listening to him and believing him a lot easier. Trump appears to see himself as a kind of anti-establishment guru, determined to shake up the politics of his country. But if Obama could not even get Congress to change gun laws in the US, does Trump have any real hope of getting some of his wackiest ideas into workable ideas?
If Trump roams around the world, fumbling international relations, continuing his openly anti-Islamic stance, we will need to be extremely careful how we treat him. The UK cannot afford to be “closest allies” with a leader who is so erratic. We have our own daemons when it comes to immigration. Brexit has left even EU residents uncomfortable, and there is a kind of last minute, hurried scramble. especially for applications for British Citizenship, already starting with relation to Brexit.
What about Population Growth?
The population of the world has grown rapidly since the 1950s. This will be due to many factors, from industry to improved medical treatments, technology aiding research, and so on. Whatever the main reasons are, we need to be realistic that our planet is getting busier and busier, more densely populated, and much faster moving. We can travel at astonishing speed between nations, and we do so for business and pleasure. Developed countries have increasingly ageing populations as people are living longer. Programmes of international aid and humanitarian missions are saving the lives of millions. Take the Ebola virus of West Africa in 2014-16 as an example. The WHO recorded a total 28,616 recorded cases and 11,310 deaths as of May 2016. Just think what that outbreak would have done back in the 1800s or 1900s.
As populations grow, the need for migration, and the desire for migration growths with it. And yet here we are, in 2017, with two of the most powerful nations in the entire world wanting to literally build walls, control borders, own land with ferocity – and even use stirring rhetoric and propaganda to achieve that. Two of the most powerful nations have used political elections and propaganda, under the guise of democracy, to espouse xenophobic or even racist attitudes that have fuelled substantial social unrest.
History has shown us time and time again what this leads to. If we do no heed its warnings, we will repeat its mistakes.
Brexit and British Citizenship – a compatibility Crisis?
As we move closer to Brexit and concerns are flying around about how it will effect EU migrants, applications for British Citizenship are occurring from panicked applicants who have been living in the UK for many years. But the severity in treatment has even seen people with twenty, thirty or more years of living in the UK being told they must pass tests to get their British Citizenship status.
The risk of with showing such unfair treatment is that it only serves to fuel the serious hate-mob. Parties and groups like the BNP, EDL and UKIP – who still pride themselves with a strange kind of victory over Brexit. As the population of the UK grows we are going to need to seriously consider how valuable migration is to the make-up of our country.
This means we will need to be more open to those coming IN as well as those wanting to move out. It also means that those wanting to settle need to be allowed to do so. Granted, with physically less land mass we cannot take the same number of people, but as the world’s population grows, trying to be so precious over British Citizenship is not going to do us much good over future years.
Colin Ward
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