tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4272338004487187087.post6628075764855768242..comments2013-01-06T01:01:22.643-08:00Comments on Equatorial: Immigration is a Four Letter WordAliasetanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14591718715720759530noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4272338004487187087.post-11531140731875523972010-09-25T18:00:48.018-07:002010-09-25T18:00:48.018-07:00As the father in question, I too, as is suggested,...As the father in question, I too, as is suggested, could write at<br />length on the absurdities and iniquities of the “immigration” regimes<br />prevailing in Indonesia and elsewhere, but I have only one simple<br />point to make, which is that this is looking at the subject the wrong<br />way round.<br /><br />What is at issue is LIBERTY. Not only the travails of the many<br />different groups who get entangled by any particular country's<br />legislation and malfunctioning administration, but everybody,<br />everywhere. I would like to be a free man, not just a free Scotsman,<br />Briton, European, or Indonesian resident. Liberty is the most basic of<br />human rights, and the most basic form of liberty is freedom of<br />movement.<br /><br />Long-term hope is expressed in the verses of “Auld Lang Syne”, by<br />Burns. They are universally known and translated into many languages,<br />including (I am told) Indonesian and Javanese. In the original they<br />read:<br /><br /> It's coming yet, for a' that,<br /> That man to man, the world o'er<br /> Shall brothers be, for a' that.<br /><br />I must hasten to add, that by the linguistic conventions of Burns's<br />time, “man” referred to humankind, and “brothers”, in this connection,<br />undoubtedly included sisters.<br /><br />From this point of view, it is a relatively trifling matter that you<br />are, say, a European minding his own business in Asia, or vice versa,<br />confronted by ridiculous and oppressive bureaucracy. Far too little<br />attention is paid to more serious phenomena, which are causing what is<br />really murder, on a large scale. One news item, which has not had the<br />attention it deserves, is that the morgues of Arizona were full to<br />capacity this last summer, because it was an unusually hot one, and<br />the deserts were littered with the corpses of would be “illegal<br />immigrants”. And many more die at sea each year between Senegal or<br />Morocco and Spain, Libya and Italy, Ethiopia or Eritrea and Yemen, as<br />well as relatively small numbers between Cuba or Haiti and the USA, or<br />trying to reach Australia via Indonesia.<br /><br />Singapore is a curious case. It wants to increase its population, but<br />evidently not by allowing free entry to (poor) Indonesians. The more<br />general case is typified, albeit in an extreme form, by the USA, where<br />the so-called “nativists” want to curtail, eliminate, or even reverse<br />immigration, from Africa and Latin America. The great bulk of the<br />country's inhabitants are, of course, descended from recent immigrants<br />(plus the slaves who were not included in the “all men are equal”<br />declaration). It scarcely needs saying that one factor that causes<br />trouble is racism and colour prejudice, against which all thinking<br />people must resolutely set themselves. And now, every opportunity is<br />taken to stir up the religious question, which similarly is just not<br />right as a basis for political action. Liberty must include freedom to<br />practice different religions.<br /><br />As to the practicalities, it is most unlikely that change will come<br />rapidly, and that there will be a stampede from the poor countries to<br />the rich ones. You could say that even if it did happen, why not, if<br />all people really have rights? But in any case, it has happened to<br />some extent already, in such examples as the very large numbers of<br />Algerians now living, however unhappily, in France, “Latinos” in the<br />USA, or on a smaller scale Poles (legal and unstoppable within the EU)<br />in western Europe. Nobody seems all that much the worse for it, while<br />many have benefited, and it will all sort itself out with the passage<br />of time, under the constraints of the economic realities.Bill Finlayson Seniorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04124428256028004203noreply@blogger.com