The Political Uses Of Xenophobia In England, France And Germany
Over the world, economic recession has taken its toll and the world populace is feeling its impact. Despite having al countries experiencing the same, third world countries were affected many years ago and this have over time contributed to exodus of people from third world countries to more developed and advanced countries in terms of economy. Initially, developed countries have been taking advantage of the immigrants for they could employ the best brains in their country at a cheap price. The flow of expatriate and other form of cheap labor have in turn denied natives some placements in their own country. This has thus become a point of contention where the aliens are viewed as a threat to the locals as well as affecting the bargain power of locals since the employers can access cheap and quality labor force from these immigrants. This paper will thus look at the challenges that these immigrants are have faced in the foreign countries and which trend it night take.
For the recent few years, the influx of immigrants, some legally and others illegally has been in the rise. Though some prominent people have welcomed the move by upholding the human rights of freedom of movement, some have been and are still having a different opinion on this issue. It is alarming how immigrants and more so professionals have opted to leave their countries in search of greener pastures. These have made natives compete for the few employment opportunities that are currently available. Increase in population is believed to be one of the contributing factors to the current crises. On top of this, people have continued aspiring living a good life which comes along with change in life style as compared to our fore fathers. Globalization has been a contentious issues to many. It has been noted to limit a nation from its liberty and a good example is where globalization of import and export of expatriates of work force from third world countries has ruined Britain by causing unemployment to many citizens who would have been absorbed were it not for the immigrants ( Xenophobia 2).
Political xenophobia has been there for a number of years. In France for example, it dates back to 1981 elections. This was propagated by conservatives who had been in power since 1958 and since they didn’t have any popular issue, they used the issue of immigration to see whether they could secure a chance in the elections. Immigrants in most cases became the first target with politicians claiming they were not to be given equal rights like the locals leading to xenophobic wars (Xenophobia 1).
In Germany on the other hand, the issue was propagated by Bavarian CSU as well as the right wing of Christian democrats. Use of media and CDU politicians extended the campaigns against Turks and asylums. It was such serious with Hessian CDU advocating for legal law that was to drastically reduce the populations of immigrants by 1 million. Though in Baiden, Wurttemberg, CDU campaigned for foreign workers with aim of having young, fresh and guest workers to work for Germany, majority in the polls showed that they were against immigrants. This was very evident when Chancellor Helmut took a lot of pain introducing his stand on election rights for foreigners (Globalization).
England on its side, the issue against immigrants dates back in 1978 being spear headed by Margaret Thatcher. In a well prepared speech, she was against the swapping of Britain with many immigrants. The political parties appeared to sing in tune on the need of controlling the number of immigrants going in the country ( Xenophobia).
Looking at the countries, they managed to use issue of immigrants to sail them to power. Such hatred impacted badly to the immigrants where they could even at times be subjected to inhuman circumstances and violent to those who strongly perceived them as lesser being amongst them. It is evident the anti refugees campaign was in the rise and more so during campaigns with minority being used as the punching bag by the competing parties (Andres, 2004).
As mentioned earlier, this xenophobic politics can recur especially at this time of economic hard ships. It has even become more difficult for immigrants to asses visa to travel in some of these countries. The disregard of immigrants is rampant and even up-to date, they are regarded with lower dignity. Since this culture is passed from parents to children, the vice might take more time than we expect to come to an end. Advancement in technology is making people all over the world learn history and the cultures of other communities. With information available at the click of a button, more people can thus learn the miss-giving of such countries and hold grudges when once started, will be difficult to deal with and at long run can arouse world populace who can henceforth turn up against each other (Xenophobia 3).
In summary, any utterance of deflation and hatred against minorities is against human rights. Xenophobic politics can even be more devastating than the world wars that have been experienced. (Political). It then of paramount importance for leaders to be mentors and further more people of good morals who should work towards bringing sanity to people they lead rather that use hatred and animosity in their campaigns to achieve personal gains that are detrimental to others. With more economic crisis taking toll, this phenomenon can affect the whole world, which will further deteriorate economy which is already facing crisis. Politicians should thus practice mature politics that will benefit the country rather than subject it to jeopardy.
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