Migrants Organise members at a Strangers Into Citizens march. Beth Crosland. All rights reserved.
Over the last few weeks we have witnessed yet another expression of hostile immigration policies – this time directed at Windrush immigrants, citizens who have spent decades living and working in this country. The majority were British subjects when they arrived, and now they are being told they no longer belong. Repatriation – once considered a fascists’ ‘wet dream’, and excused by freedom of speech, apparently including hate speech – is now becoming the stark reality of deportation for thousands of people declared to be ‘illegal’.
‘Illegal immigrants’, are the most dehumanised population in the construction of the narrative of ‘fear’ and its associated propaganda. The use and abuse of undocumented people and the myths generated around them has had serious consequences for democratic societies from Brexit to the US presidential election. On a daily basis we are told that there are hundreds of thousands of ‘illegals’ and we should all be afraid for our jobs, houses, and hospital beds as they are coming here to take them.
