How To Save… Asylum
Why is it worth saving?
All of our ancestors came here seeking something or fleeing someone. Abandon that openness to people in need and we don’t just lose our humanity – we lose our future.
So, where did it all go wrong?
Immigration is a key part of Britain’s success story. Without it, none of us would be here, literally. There’s scant evidence that any of the first human cultures on these islands survived, so it’s reasonable to conclude that all the people we have left – yes, including Celts – are here as a result of inward migration.
It’s easy to forget after a while, though. Your correspondent, dear reader, has a nose which declares Norman heritage rather plainly, but has largely got away without constant assault by vexed Saxons through the time-honoured trick of hiding in plain sight. Give it a few generations, and people largely get over the 'othering' of the new kid on the block. Viewed from places like Leicester, where this piece was originally drafted, mixing and integration might even be said to be something we’re really rather good at.
But such fortunate histories can all too easily become obscured when ostensibly ‘populist’ demagogues realise that their main policy platform has become distinctly un-popular. Then a recourse to racism is all too tempting, the dog-whistle is readily to hand, and with a depressing predictability the failed statesman hits the bigot button. It doesn’t work, of course – but the culprits are probably only interested in the appearance of efficacy.
What might work
The suggestion that 'there is no viable alternative' to the daft non-solution currently under consideration is a whopper of a porky. Self-evidently, absurdist pranks like trying to send desperate refugees to an African country best known for government-sponsored genocide will never achieve anything useful, and a responsible administration will have no need of such stunts. But there is scope for wiser policy-making through considering human behaviour. Attempting to cross the Channel in perilously flimsy craft appeals only to the truly desperate, and there are two forms of despair at work; existential, and economic.
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Those who flee in fear of their lives have a claim upon our consciences, and all the more so when they have worked for the UK and anticipate retribution from our enemies as a result. Seeking to deter them from making that claim is worse than futile; it’s actively counter-productive.?Once we give up on fruitless deterrents we can stop wasting money and spend it on what works instead; housing, training and access to employment. Obviously there has to be a safe and legal system for commencing asylum claims, but that’s not as difficult to deliver as the isolationists suggest – indeed, it’s literally what a network of embassies and consulates is for.
Economic migrants, too, are rational actors – not criminals. There is no point treating people who wish to feed their families as felons; your approval or opprobrium just isn’t their top priority. We don’t have to take in everyone who tries to enter the UK, but we could be a lot more creative in addressing the circumstances which lead to attempts at economic migration. For instance, there are plenty of migrants who are simply moving in search of an income; often, we could return them home safely enough, but they are much more likely to stay there (or not set out in the first place) with a modest investment in economic regeneration. In a relatively small economy like Albania's, for instance, an effective long-term input would possibly be no more expensive than the ineffective drones and gendarmes we have impotently thrown money at in recent years. We might even win some new friends and allies into the bargain.
If we were to look seriously at why people seek to come here and respond like responsible adults, we could get back to being a country conceivably worth an arduous to journey to reach. Now there's a thought.
What won’t work
Chances of salvation
The shipping forecast for 2024; poor, maybe good later.