Stories
Told & Stories Lived
Social Constructionists like Barnett Pearce like to use the
concept of 'Stories told and Stories lived'. Stories lived are events and
interactions etc., which are played out – they are reality; they are what
actually occurs. Stories told are how we make sense of those events and and
interactions. Together stories lived and stories told provide a useful matrix,
within which current issues around immigration can be understood.
Put another way, there is what is in REALITY happening with
regard to immigration and there is the NARRATIVE, which we have developed (or
more accurately, which has been developed for us) to explain and understand
immigration.
The
Brexiters realized early on in the referendum campaign that immigration could
be 'weaponised' to their advantage, if they could control the narrative. This
was not a particularly difficult task as the right wing of the Tory party,
aided and abetted by the Daily Mail, UKIP and a placatory, supine Prime
Minister had more or less done the job already. Theresa May had been the main
storm-trooper in the Government's plan to poison the atmosphere in respect of
immigrants. It was she who sent vans around London carrying a stark message of
'Go Home' to unwanted immigrants. She seems to have had little difficulty in
reconciling this and other anti-immigrant actions with her
stated
'christian' values and beliefs.
A
recent article in the Observer (May 7th,2017) highlighted how the
anti-democratic organization Cambridge Analytica courted the friendship of
Farage and helped Brexiters to construct messages and target these at undecided
voters. Immigration was seen as an issue ripe for exploitation. Messages were
constructed, which, would directly feed into the popular narrative on
immigration and secure votes for Brexit.
By
juxtaposing narrative and reality in this article, we seek to
highlight the gap between what we are encouraged to believe is going on and
what actually is going on:
Narrative:
We are being overrun by immigrants as
a result of Free Movement in the EU.
Reality:
1.
Net migration to UK in 2015 was 330,000 an increase of 156,000
from 2012
2.
43% of total were from EU; 67% were from elsewhere
3.
192,000 of the total were Students from overseas, who had come to
study on courses of 1 year or more duration
Comment:
1. The Coalition
Government seriously breached its own targets on immigration
2. Opting out of
EU movement will only give back limited control over immigration. EU movement
is just a convenient smokescreen to distract from the fact that the Government
either has no idea how to control immigration or does not really wish to do so.
“It is very hard to implement in
practice. We have always had power to control movement of people from outside
the EU and yet that has not come down to tens of thousands. “ Lord
Willetts ex- Tory Minister in Evening Standard 16.5.2017
3. No priority is
given to tracking the pattern of student movements; what information there is
suggests that most return to their country of origin shortly after completing
their studies – there is little evidence to support the view that bogus courses
are used as means of accessing entry to UK
4. There has been
a drop of 41,000 students coming to UK since Brexit
Narrative:
We do not need to concern ourselves with emigration it is immigration that
matters
Reality:
315,000 UK nationals emigrated in 2015. The
majority go for better job opportunities; most of those leaving for work are
skilled, professional and managerial classes.
Comment:
1. The UK
should show greater concern for the continuing loss of skilled, professional
and managerial workers
Narrative:
Immigrants are taking our jobs;
creating unemployment and driving down wages
Reality:
1. Research shows
that 'there is no significant impact of immigration on unemployment in UK'
2. Immigration has a
small impact on average wages of
existing workers; wage effects are likely to be greatest for resident workers
who are immigrants themselves
3. As well as
expanding labour supply, immigration can increase demand for labour by
1. increasing
consumer demand for goods and services
2. stimulating more
investment
Comment:
The widely held (and encouraged) view that migrants
either take jobs from UK workers or drive down wages is not substantiated.
Employers routinely find that there are jobs (usually low skill/ low paid) that
UK workers will not do or will not do for the low wages on offer. Migrants plug
a gap in the labour force. The real problem is that UK has chosen increasingly
to be a low wage/low skills service-based economy
Narrative:
Immigrants are causing a housing
crisis; immigrants get preferential treatment when it
comes to social housing.
(N.B - In a speech in December 2012, Theresa May claimed
that more than a third of all new housing demand in Britain was caused by
immigration. “And there is evidence that without the demand caused by mass
immigration, house prices could be 10% lower over a 20-year period,”)
Reality:
1. 74% of recent migrants (those who have been in the UK for five years or less)
were in the private rented sector in the first quarter of 2015
2. they are twice as likely to be renters
compared with the total migrant population
3. 39% of the total foreign-born
population were in the private rented sector, and just 14% of the UK born
population (Guardian 25.1.16)
4. 9% of all social housing goes to
people born abroad. 91% of all social tenancies are taken up by UK born
citizens.
5. The impact of immigration on housing is mixed, and
geographically specific.
Comment:
The idea
that the housing crisis is caused by mass migration, and that without
migration, Britain would have no need for more housing is not substantiated.
Government simply needs to build more homes, which are truly affordable
LSE
report points out, 66% of housing demand
is created not by net migration figures being higher than in previous years,
but by a lack of social housing stock, an increase in life expectancy, and more
households delaying marriage or forgoing cohabitation resulting in an increased
number of smaller households.
Narrative: Immigrants
are a drain on our Services and economy
Reality:
1. 2000 -2011 EU migrants contributed £20 billion to
UK public finances
2. University
College London researchers reveal that EU migrants contributed 64% more
in taxes than received in benefits
3. International
students contributed £25 billion to the economy 2014/15
4. It is difficult
to find figures either on cost annually to NHS or who are the so-called 'health
tourists' One estimate (unclear how reliable) is that HT costs NHS 0.3% of its budget annually. Proposed schemes to
recoup cost proved to be more costly than retrieved income they were likely to
generate
Comment:
EU migrants are neither scroungers nor health
tourists.
The fall in international student numbers will have a
negative effect on the economy
Narrative:
Immigrants come to UK to access welfare benefits
Reality:
1. Most non-EU nationals who are subject to immigration control are
not allowed access to "public funds" (such as jobseekers' allowance
or tax credits), although they can use public services like the NHS and
education.
2. EU citizens who are working have similar access to the benefits as
UK citizens. For jobseekers or people not working, the rules for determining
eligibility can be complex and vary depending on the type of benefit in
question.
3. The current government has introduced various restrictions on
European Economic Area (EEA) citizens' access to benefits. Their impacts on
total welfare spending are hard to quantify but are not likely to be large.
4.
Foreign born people are
less likely to be receiving key Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
out-of-work benefits than the UK born, but more likely to be receiving tax
credits because they are working in low paid jobs.
Contradictions
The above evidences the fact that the
current narrative (story told) of immigration consistently contradicts the
reality (story lived) of immigration; as is evident in the following
binaries:
·
numbers of immigrants a problem v numbers of immigrants not a
problem
·
immigrants' negative impact on workforce and jobs v immigrants'
positive impact on workforce and jobs
·
immigrants a drain on economy v immigrants as net contributors
·
immigrants a drain on services v immigrants (through tax take)
contributors to services
·
immigrants given priority in housing v immigrants not given preferential
treatment
·
immigrants threaten cultural identity v immigrants enhance and
enrich culture
Why
is this so?
The
explanation for this phenomenon is that immigration has become a proxy for
wider dissatisfaction amongst the people. Real concerns are about the erosion
of living standards since 2008 crash; insecurity of employment; growth of the
so-called 'gig economy' and zero hours contracts; increase in poverty,
particularly child poverty; and the steady increase in inequality during the
last two parliaments.
There
is a long and inglorious history of vilifying and persecuting immigrants at
times of hardship. This Government seems content to foster and encourage
anti-immigrant feeling. It wrings its hands at the violence, which has been
unleashed against those perceived as non-British since Brexit but does nothing.
No doubt that is because it is easier to blame and divert attention onto others
rather than to take responsibility for the structural problems, which exist in
the economy and do something about them. It is an immoral and dangerous game
because once the genie of hatred is released from the bottle, the stopper
cannot easily be replaced.
Will
the Prime Minister, who seems to have styled herself as the moral conscience of
an increasingly right wing Tory party, have the guts to set the record straight
on immigration? Not if her performance as Home Secretary is anything to go by.
As her cleric father may have preached:
“By their fruits shall ye know them” Matthew 7.20
Stop Press: BBC shared information ((unconfirmed) that 80% of May’s cabinet
disagree with proposed policy on immigration
Book at Bedtime
told to you by Robert
Goodwill MP, Minister of State for Immigration
Rupert & the Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers
Down Primrose Hill
Bill Badger runs
“It's over in Syree Wood
D'you hear the guns?”
For Syreean Badgers
There's no place to hide
The mad Syreenistas'
plan is genocide
Refugee badger cubs
scattered everywhere
Yet Nutwood citizens
don't seem to care
Times past in Nutwood
Folks felt compassion
Now caring for others
is no longer in fashion
“Come on” says Rupert
I'll find my dad
to stand and do nothing
is both criminal and mad
They meet Growler
and Pug
along the way
Constable Growler touches his helmet
to say 'good day'
They tell their story;
Growler gets quite cross
“Badgers can't expect us
to make good their loss
There are too many here
already, is what I say,
if they cross our borders
I'll just send them away”
Algie Pug pipes up
“300 young badgers
we did agree
those badgers are lucky
we took even 3
Send them off to Deutschewald
they're a soft touch
more badgers in Nutwood
it's just too much
From behind a bush
the voice of Wise Old Goat
'Pug Growler and co
You may well gloat
Time will come when
WE are in need
There's more to life
than avarice and greed
Once I was proud
To hail from Nutwood.
Shame on you for destroying
All that was good.'
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