In many places around the world, particularly in developed nations, immigration has become a very contentious political battlefield. As a result, of the high levels of immigration towards the developing world over the last decade, anti-immigration sentiments has been on the rise. Across Europe and America especially, we have seen immigration becoming on of the most contentious issues debated by politicians.
Last week, the United Kingdom had been at the forefront of this debate after violent anti-immigration protests happened around the country. The protests had kicked off after a knife attack on a group of school children by a UK citizen of Rwandan heritage. It had been reported that misinformation spread on social media about the identity of the attacker, claiming that he had been an Islamic asylum seeker who had recently entered the UK.
What started off as anti-immigration protests quickly morphed into violent far-right rioting, targeted at asylum centres especially. While the protests and riots had been kicked off as a result of misinformation on social media, it is clearly the case that this sort of anger around immigration has been growing in the United Kingdom especially. This is because the United Kingdom has over the last decade seen a large number of migrants entering into the country.
To put into context the number of people that have entered the UK in recent times, according to the University of Oxford Migration Observatory, foreign born persons make up around 14% of the UK’s population. They also report that net migration into the UK was unusually high last year, in 2023, at around 685,000 people. This large number of migrants entering the UK is despite the fact that the conservative party, who are seen as being harder on migration, had been in power for over decade.
The argument could be (and has been) made that immigration played a big role in the recent electoral defeat of the conservative party that we witnessed in the last UK general election. Many conservative party voters, disillusioned with the Tory party, switched over to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, whose message to voters is almost entirely centred around stopping the large numbers of migration into the UK.
In fact, if the United Kingdom had a more proportional system of government, the Reform party would have won a large number of seats within the UK parliament as they had won around 14% of the votes in the general election. However, despite winning 14% of the vote, Reform only received 1% of the seats. In contrast, Labour, who had only won around 34% of the vote, received around 65% of the seats in parliament. In a more representative form of election, the make-up of the UK government would likely have been very different.
So to just dismiss the riots seen around the UK as just being an issue only the far-right are angry about would be wrong. There is clearly a lot of anger around the UK with regard to the high levels of migration that has been seen over the last few decades. In many ways, that is the reason we saw the UK vote to leave the European Union in the first place, because of the issue of migration. BREXIT voters had hoped to see the levels go down, after the UK had left the EU, however, based on last year’s 2023 reports, the opposite has happened.
And it’s not just the UK only. All across Europe, we have seen anti-immigration parties becoming more and more popular. Such as the AFD in Germany, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, Geert Wilder’s Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, or the National Rally in France. And these are just a few examples. All across the European Union, anti-immigration sentiment has been on the rise.
In the United States, Donald Trump had managed to tap into Americans’ grievances about migration to win the presidency. His infamous “Build The Wall” chants had been a major part of his campaign to win over voters. In this year’s presidential election, he has continued to stoke fears about migration throughout his campaign. He has consistently described the large number of asylum seekers arriving at the US southern border as an “invasion,” and claimed that larger numbers of drugs and terrorists have been arriving into the United States.
Anti-immigration sentiment is even present here on the African continent. As thousands of migrants seek to arrive in Europe, on their way they have to pass through North African nations. And in recent years we have seen growing anti-migrant sentiments in North African nations. We have even seen multiple human rights groups raise concern about racism directed towards non-Arab migrants in North African states. While writing, the infamous line from the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, who claimed there was an attempt to make Tunisia more “African” comes to mind.
Even in South Africa, we have over the years seen anti-immigrant tensions rising, even to the point of xenophobic attacks against other Africans. In fact, in recent times, xenophobic rhetoric seems to only be becoming even more widespread on social media sites.
The unfortunate reality is that across the African continent, corruption and economic mismanagement have taken root in so many of our governments. This has meant that so many people lack any kind of economic opportunities at home, so they look outside their nations in search of a better life. It is difficult for me to judge someone seeking to enter Europe, who is fleeing war or persecution or even in search of better economic opportunities to provide for their families.
At the same time, it is understandable that citizens in developed countries would want greater control over the flow of immigration into their nations. After all, it is not like it is only far-right people who are concerned about immigration in Europe or America, this is something that affects everyone in their countries.
However, the thing that will always bother me is the high levels of desperation felt by so many. So much so, they are willing to even put their lives at risk in order to make the journey towards a developed nation. Every year, thousand of people make the incredibly dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, in order to make it to Europe. And over the years, we have seen thousands of people dying as a result. However, many still take that risk in search of a better life.
I think a major issue is that most Africans have is the idea that they can always just leave as things continue to deteriorate around them. In Nigeria, we even have the term “Japa” for the high number of Nigerians who move abroad in search of better opportunities. Even in Namibia, throughout my time in school, all we ever talked about is how we would attempt to move abroad in one way or the other.
However, the reality is that we cannot all leave Africa. There are literally hundreds of millions of us, we cannot all leave, it is not feasible. We must improve the continent from within. We cannot allow corrupt government officials to continue to rob our countries blind, like they have been for the many decades since many of our countries gained independence. Our countries are our homes. They are where are ancestors come from. They are where our communities are. We have already seen so many African cultures and languages have been eroded over the years, high levels of migration only exasperate this trend.
The answer is not for all of us to just pack up our bags and attempt to make our way into countries that are becoming less and less welcoming to migrants. The answer should be for us to take back control of our nations and provide better opportunities for our peoples, and more importantly for the next generations to come.