WE MAKE THE CHOICE

On the pages of the newspapers, on different countries’ television and in the mouth of almost everyone, we, read, watched and head that ‘we are one’. Government of countries and institutions have also introduced strong penal codes to directly deal with those who look, talk or treat others divisively base on racial or gender reasons. Yet, the foundation is never strong enough especially when the issue at stake affects immigrants, be it in Nigeria, Sweden, USA or Britain.
Almost every year or periodically government of countries roll out new immigrations rules whose purpose are often not centered on legal immigrants but with maximum emphasis on illegal immigrants. Of course, laws are made to guard against crimes but the intention behind every good law is more for the protection and improvement of the lives of the citizens than it is for punishment of law breakers, and I believe that if immigration rules are primarily for the well being of immigrants instead of what awaits illegal immigrants, there is no doubt that even when illegal immigrants are mistreated, the legal immigrants will share understanding with the host country. To understand what I’m talking about, on 18th June 2008, the EU countries under the Schengen agreement passed an immigration law, which they designated as ‘a standardized policy on deporting illegal immigrants, part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration to the EU’. No doubt, they have the territorial rights to do that but the language of the law displays the major concern as being almost anti immigrants even though it is played down, because while the emphasis is strictly centered on penalties to be meted on illegal immigrants, no condition is either discussed or highlighted as to be the standard of treatment to the almost 3 million legal immigrants. For the sake of doubt, the laws read thus:
• EU member states may detain illegal immigrants for up to 18 months in specialized detention centers while deportation procedures are processed.
• EU member states may impose a reentry ban of up to five years on expelled immigrants who do not cooperate or are deemed a threat.
• EU member states must place illegal immigrants in specialized detention centers, not in prisons with convicted criminals.
One of the major critiques of the laws is Bolivian President Evo Morales who ‘issued a statement comparing the EU’s detention centers to “concentration camps” for detainees’ . There are many other criticisms against these new laws but they are already there. And even more unfortunately, there are about 224 such detention camps scattered all over Europe with an inmate capacity of 30000 people, who are made up of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Funny enough, they called it ‘solution to illegal immigration’.
No one has the right judgment on why Europeans and Americans are free to travel to wherever they want without having to be denied visa severally before the do so and why the case is not the same to majority of other nationalities from other continents. In a way, it still portrays a master servant world and not a global community because communities share free movement within and around its constituting members’ zones.
It is really hard to understand how we are one when as an immigrant, you will sometimes be asked to know the language before you can sweep even the floor leaving you to wonder if you are going to talk to the floor or simply clean it. Of course, language is the quickest avenue of integration but emancipation which is what the people need is achievable irrespective of what we speak or understand. If we can buy food from your stores, why can’t we work in your factories? It’s a question of being human, in a way being realistic too.
This is not to say that it is only in Europe and America that there are immigrants, or immigrants are treated with lower embrace than the citizens. Recently, Nigerias MasterWeb published news from an eminent Nigerian about the taking over of Nigerian jobs by Indians. I tell you he never went free because he was tong-lashed by lots of Nigerians both home and abroad. It is never safe anywhere and it will never be safe unless we understand that anyone can be an immigrant whether in a short term or long term.