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Prejudice and immigration
DEAR EDITOR,
Dr. Randy Persaud (KN June 1) penned an excellent synopsis explaining attacks against immigrant groups. As he correctly argued, nativist attacks on foreigners are indeed a worldwide phenomenon and are not confined to any racial group or religion or ideology or nationality. However, very often foreigners are attacked out of prejudice and ignorance of peoples’ customs.
“Foreigners” (often defined as not from your own group) are often not wanted in a country or community out of pure hate for that group, for whatever reasons.
Economics (competition for jobs or resources or services) is often a prime reason for resentment of foreigners. In almost every case of anti-immigrant bashing, the government of the country is trying to grapple with the fallout from the global economic crisis, and in some cases, try to deflect it onto immigrants. But immigrants are not responsible for, and have nothing to do with, the global recession or the economic crisis in each individual country. The immigrants are hard-working, and contribute enormously to local economies.
Prejudice is often the underlying reason for anti-immigrant hysteria and even socialist or communist countries are not immune from prejudice against foreigners. The resentment of foreigners is at its worst during times of economic distress, with the immigrants (out of prejudice by the locals) being blamed for virtually all problems in a country when they are not the cause of any, as I have found in experiences in traveling around New York, New Jersey, Long Island, and other places in the U.S.
The Latin immigrants on Long Island do not bother anyone and do not affect the lifestyle of the local Whites, but they are blamed for many of the problems on the island.
In another example of prejudice, before the Soviet Union collapsed, the New York Times reported how South Asian students were physically attacked in Moscow and at the Patrice Lumumba University by Whites. When I visited Moscow in 1991, I met South Asian students who recounted their horrible experience with some of them suffering severe bodily harm.
About ten years ago, the New York Times also reported how African students were beaten up in Beijing, because the Chinese students felt the Africans were given special privileges and money to spend, while they were denied similar benefits.
I visited Beijing a few times and had discussions with students from Africa and Latin America. They complained about ethnic prejudices and fear of moving around in the nights.
I think, however, such fear has been removed in recent years as major cities in China have undergone transformation and the government has cracked down on anti-immigrant behaviour. A wave of anti-immigrant attacks has put the Australian government on the defensive, forcing it to apologize last week to the Indian government for recent attacks on Indian students in Australia.
The New York Times also reported that Italy is grappling with anti-immigrant hysteria, especially against North Africans.
The authorities close their eyes to European immigrants flouting traveling restrictions, but crackdown on the North Africans. The same is true of Greece which, like Italy, is also cracking down on North Africans.
Indo-Guyanese are also resented throughout much of the West Indies, and one can sense such prejudice in the language used by locals such as “they will change the culture” of the islands.
The ongoing debate in the US on immigration reform also takes on a ethnic prejudice hue.
The flood of Mexicans, other Hispanics, Haitians and other Blacks from the Caribbean and Africa, and even Indo-Guyanese “can be traced to a mix of racism, chauvinism and worry about jobs” as a writer recently penned in a Caribbean paper, and as several other scholars have argued. There is no place for prejudice in the world. Governments should look at immigration from a humanitarian perspective. Caribbean governments should stop targeting immigrants and making them the source of domestic problems. There should be compassion for immigrants.
Vishnu Bisram
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