“Immigration, Integration and the New World Order ’’

Being a paper presented by Joel Oghide at the National Association of Seadogs (Netherlands Chapter) Seminar and Lectures on 25th June 2005 at Kerkcentrum, De Nieuwe Stad in  Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PREAMBLE

These phrases were part of the emotional thoughts that welled up in me at the Paulus Kerk in Rotterdam during an evening of campaigning for the repressed asylum seekers and so-called “illegal”  immigrants in The Netherlands. The CARAVAN campaign was part of a week long manifestation and activities by some humanitarian and Christian organizations through major cities including Den Haag, Amsterdam, Heerlen,  Eindhoven and   ‘s Hertogenbosch, amongst others, in 1997.

Back then, the issues around immigration and integration were just as contentious as they still are today. Remarkably, the issues often attain fever pitch dimensions in the periods just preceding  the national elections in various Western European countries. Over the years, I have watched with some disbelieve as populist politicians and journalists hinge all the problems of the world on immigration and integration whilst diverting the voter’s attention from the real reasons for either the failings in their respective societies or the collective culpabilities of the same western governments in the world happenings that consequently result in the mass exodus of humans from their birth places either in search of  socio-political or economic freedoms that eluded them. In the gruelling political campaignes, immigrants and asylum seekers often become the pawns in a growing political chess game in which only the negative side of the coin is portrayed.

My speech today will not be so much just a focus on data of immigrants and integration in western societies but rather aim to draw the publics’  attention to the other side of the coin – to the causes of immigration, the ‘reasons’ and the ‘why’ behind failures (if any) in the integration of  immigrants as well as proffer some form of simple solutions to immigration and integration. While attempting to do this, I shall draw on my own personal experiences as an integrating immigrant in The Netherlands having been forced to flee political repression in Nigeria in 1995 following the political imbroglio that was a consequence of that Nation’s umpteenth failed attempts at democratisation in 1993.

WHO & WHAT  IS  IRESPONSIBLE  FOR  IMMIGRATION?

a. The moral and  spiritual thesis

In other to shed some light on the answer to this question, permit me to proffer my own rather esoteric en bigger picture of who an immigrant is.

I believe that this earth is like the school of life for all human beings that incarnate on it as well as all life forms that develop on it.  In other words, all men are but guests on this blue planet earth as experiences of past centuries would have thought us by now.  The reality is that just as we come, so we are also compelled to leave at some point during our temporary residence on earth. I believe too that all humans of all races have but one spiritual goal which is,  to develop and uplift the self and the natural environment to the highest possible spiritual heights that he/she can take them far beyond the boundaries of the material.  Our sort in creation needed to sojourn in much cooler regions of the world of matter like the earth in order to be able to gradually develop all it's spiritual potentials of LOVE, PURITY, PEACE &  GOODNESS to the maximum posible and neccessary for its harmonious and eternal exixtence in higher and more luminous spiritual realms to which they, like successful spiritual graduates, should ultimately return at the heights of their spiritual home whence they came.

Here, as in most things that are left to the absolute FREE WILL of man, mankind often drags everything to the basest levels of that which they can perceive and measure in tangible terms often at the expense of the ultimate, spiritual and more luminous goal of mankind.  This thesis (which I myself see as a FACT) presupposes therefore that mankind irrespective of race, colour  or creed  has a common spiritual goal which lies beyond this earth.  The latter is nothing other than an earthly school from which all should graduate to the ultimate spiritual heights and REAL HOME of humans. This presupposes also that all HUMANS without exception are nothing but guests or immigrants on this earth. With this as basis for thinking, the persistent hullabaloo about immigration would begin to, as it should, resound notes of positivism rather than negativism. Europe’s populist politicians should rather see and exploit the potentials of immigrants than sow seeds of fear around immigration with a view to scoring political points. Is it not said of one of the greatest nations in the world today – America,  that it was largely built by immigrants? In this respect Europe will need to borrow a leaf from the United States of America and harness rather than fizzle out  the potentials of immigration.

In 2003 the GDP (Gross Domestic Production) of Britain was higher than that of most  continental European countries. I got an inkling into the reason for this when I visited Britain in 2004.  The Labour offices were full of job vacancies   particularly in the production sectors. I also came across a  lot of immigrants including those with the Dutch citizenship who confided in me of their new found air of acceptability and opportunities in Britain having often been jobless and lost in the buraucratic maze of rigidity in Holland for years.  While immigrants are often seen as the problem in The Netherlands, legal immigrants are still today welcomed with open arms in America despite stricter immigration regulations following the September 11 terror attacks there. The Mayor of the Big Apple (New York City) once emphasised  the immigration-friendly attitude of his state when he asserted that anyone who is legally in America and who is employed and have a means of livelihood was welcome.

There is no understating the fact that a majority of the odd jobs that are often shunned by indigenes of host countries are filled by  tax-paying, hard working and law abiding immigrants. If fact one can safely say that the economy and productivity in some of these countries may not hold its own against  other economies of the world should  the immigrant population be eliminated. One can therefore conclude with a modicum of certainty that an unabated anti -immigration posture can only serve to weaken the economic competitiveness of most  so-called developed Western societies.

Furthermore, the oneness of man’s spiritual purpose beholds men to make a good job of being each other’s keepers as the consequences of inhumanely rebuffing a needy and insecure fellow human being may be the reciprocal experiencing of being rebuffed tomorrow (The speaker is open for further exchange of views on the issue of reincarnation upon which this reasoning is based) While the birth condition of the needy and insecure cannot be blamed on the rebuffing host, the latter nevertheless  does open a negative spiritual chapter for itself and only the painful experiencing of being rebuffed could yet serve to teach him/her of the pivotal need for human compassion as a prerequisite for high spiritual and material attainments.  As with individuals so too with Nations.

However,  and since there is no injustice or accidents in nature, it stands to reason that everyone (immigrants and anti-immigrants alike) are solely responsible for their present birth conditions and circumstances. The victim of despotic leaders and dictators may themselves have been dictators or contributed to repressed life at some point in their  previous existence. His/her particular bitter experiencing now are a reflection of nothing other than the reciprocal after effects of past personal threads and weavings of fate which in the justice of life are meant to awaken a sense of nausea for such baseness in him/her with the hope of laying better spiritual and material threads for him/herself in the future. Conversely, the one who is born into relatively secure socio-political and economic conditions of life today may just be plucking the spiritual fruits that were planted before. The present positive yields  are however meant to   serve him/her to build on that success by contributing more to the advancement of himself and his fellow human beings. Any stagnation or retrogression on his part will invariably lead to retrogression in the future.

b. The socio – economic and political  thesis

Now let’s look at the collective responsibility that the impoverished nations as well as the rich western countries  bear for the causes of poverty, wars, deceases and political turmoil all of which are at the hub of this never-ending immigration phenomena. Because it is innately inherent in man to strive for that which is better, the depraved and repressed who him/herself hitherto was a depriver and repressor according to my theory, will in recognising the painful effects of deprivations and repression  naturally struggle to get out of his sordid condition and migrate to better pastures.  Immigration is therefore a natural drive which has flourished through the ages and will probably continue to do so.

The main reason for this is the ever growing socio-political and economic imbalance between all strata of human societies. If nations were to be fair and honest and compassionate in their  dealings with each other,  there will be no reason for the great abyss that still exist today in terms of development between nations and continents.  As a Nigerian, I have grown to learn much about the chequered history of enslavement, colonisation and economic castration of my Nation by other stronger empires and nations who prayed on the vulnerability and gullibility of Nigerians just as everywhere else in the world to better their own stead. The reality, even after political power was purportedly granted to some of these so-called “sovereign” nations is that they were promptly made into perpetual milking cows for feeding the socio-economic base of their respective colonial master. A case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.  And since it stands to reason that he who pays the piper dictates the tune, Nigeria has, perhaps until recently, neither really known the feeling of being politically nor economically independent.

For example, under the notorious self-styled president and dictator Babangida, Nigerians voted en mass against borrowing 3 billion Dollars, with all its excruciating and strangulating conditionality from the IIMF, World Bank and The Paris Club, and chose instead for SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme.)  Despite this, the IMF and other such bodies ended up extending more than 5 billion Dollars to those juntas anyway from which, just like the windfalls from oil sales during the first Golf War, nothing was ever really accounted for in terms of  educational, medical, social, industrial or economic investments.  Instead Nigerians were saddled  with the extra burden of increased external debts and political unrests following the squandering of billions of Naira in an eight-year political transition programme that ended up in unilateral annulments. The international community having been party to the impoverishment of Nigeria, has abandoned the Nation today to its own fate and forced her to perpetually service these illegal and inhuman external debts plus the accruing interest there from with huge sums of her overstressed  national resources at the expense of  developmental programmes. Unemployment in Nigeria is at its zenith and the average standard of living teeters on the brink of debilitating poverty and yet Nigeria is not included in the first batch of poor countries to benefit from the debt relief efforts.

Again, I saw how multinationals like SHELL and other oil exploitants became so strong in the body polity of Nigeria as to even work themselves into positions strong enough to influence and endorse successive Military dictators in fostering their respective economic profiteering strategies at the expense of Nigerians and with wanton abandonment of any environmental and international laws. The squalid socio-economic conditions and pathetic quality of life in the oil-rich  Benin Delta, Rivers, Cross Rivers  and south-eastern parts of Nigeria are living testaments to the inhumane and collective responsibilities that the multinational companies and their respective Governments and peoples bear in festering the causes of immigration.

Also, how else does one explain the fact that there are still many Westerners who today still fall  victims of the so-called Advance Fee Fraud or 419 despite international exposure of these criminal practice s and campaigns against it worldwide . It all points to the same old habits of unfairness, dishonesty, moral bankruptcies, greed  and man’s inhumanity to man. In this as with all situations highlighted before now,  the giver of a bribe is just as guilty as the taker.  A recent CNN broadcast featuring the current indomitable and progressive Nigerian Finance Minister underlines the collective moral guilt and responsibility of corrupt  Nigerians and their corrupting external agents and multinationals in this matter.

C. Integration –  My Netherlands Experience

Let me start by saying that I am all in for a proper regulation of immigration procedures based on justice, fairness and humanity.

Having gone through the excruciating mills of political asylum seeking here in the Netherlands and somewhat survived it, it has left some indelible traces of distrust of the system in me. In consonance with my thesis above, the realization that the established system functioned at some levels based on outright injustices,  inaccuracy and arbitrariness came to me as a sort of cultural shock.  While the image of a very tolerant and safe haven Netherlands was painted to the outside world, the reality was that asylum seekers and immigrants were left to wallow in endless years of further insecurities, mental and emotional tortures and procedures that lacked genuineness of purpose and just treatment of the cases.

The very criteria for granting political status to deserving refugees and immigrants w ere often left to the whims and caprices of inexperienced and uninformed Ministry officers and interpreters or based on very subjective assumptions of whether, for example, a country was at war or the showing of a physical evidence of torture rather than thorough investigation that every individual case demanded. These were often in brazen violation of the UNHCR definition of what should make a refugee. By so doing, the system overtly or covertly encouraged dishonesty as Nigerians who were genuinely facing political prosecution back home  were compelled to lie and claim false nationalities e.g. Liberian, Sierra Leone, Sudan etc.

The integration policies applied to the lucky few that survived the bureaucratic bottleneck of immigration and political asylum seeking  were just as fraught with the same maze of  bureaucratic inconsistencies.

In the Netherlands there is an invisible outer wall analogous to the Great Wall of China which was once used in the warding off of external forces. This outer wall is the unique DUTCH language.  Any immigrant with the intention of staying  for a long period of time in  The Netherlands is well advised to scale this wall by  mastering the DUTCH language. I had the vision and was fortunate enough to have taken advantage of a few available support systems from the ersthwhile "Paars"  Cabinet in scaling the Great Dutch wall.  I do not understand therefore  why some immigrants are oblivious of the pivotal role that the Dutch language plays in integration in this society.

Recently however, the move of the Cabinet  in eliminating subsidies for language studies have only served to further derogate  the process of integration of willing and law abiding immigrants.

The second inner and equally opaque  wall of the integration process in The Netherlands is called Discrimination on grounds of race, religion, creed or sex.  Having managed to have scaled the first  wall myself, I am currently on the path of finding my way through the  maze of the second wall of integration.  Immigrants should not loose their courage on this account  because thankfully Netherlands as a country of law and order does have some inbuilt checks and balances that regulate,to some measure, the problems of discrimination and racism

 D. The Alternative Approach

The Host

From the above analysis, I have tried to temper the increasing anti-immigrant sentiments particularly in Europe at this time by drawing the publics attention to the other side of the coin as well as redirecting the people’s focus on the collective responsibility we all, covertly or overtly, bear in festering conditions elsewhere that invariably generate worldwide immigration. I have also insinuated that perhaps a changing of attitudes towards immigrants  will  prevent the high jacking of this natural product of causes and effect by self–serving, opportunist politicians whose parochial  goals never really serve the progressive goals of  human ideals.

The host do not need to tolerate the immigrant . The host  should be open to the law abiding immigrants and accept  them as  potential contributors  to the socio-cultural, political, economic, and  in some ways, spiritual  progress rather than to be seen as parasites. To tolerate a person or situation is to accept them even though you do not actually like or desire them.

The common use of the word “Tolerant  or Tolerantie “  in The Netherlands, serves only to exacerbate the anti-immigrant stance amongst the host population on the one hand and reinforces the feeling of segregation and isolation in immigrants on the other hand .  Either way, the National interest of the host countries are in no way  better served.

It should be noted that my plea here does not apply to criminally minded and lawless immigrants. These should be isolated as chaff from healthy grains and dealt with accordingly.

The anti-immigrant should counsel him/herself against rebuffing a fellow human being who desires to better himself/herself. By rebuffing and discriminating against our fellow human beings, one is sowing far reaching spiritual seeds that will one day ripen their unpleasant fruits for one to taste.

The Immigrant

The common parlance that states that,  “when in Rome behave as a Roman”  should serve as the norm for every immigrant. More than ever before, immigrants should see themselves as the best ambassadors of their respective native lands. This  is one of the effective ways for diffusing the anti-immigration movements in Europe.

There is nothing that is rigid in culture. In fact, culture is dynamic and susceptible to change. The wrong old ways can be easily replaced by better new ways of thinking, saying and doing things whilst retaining the good parts of the old. The ability to discriminate between what is basically right or wrong is freely given to all men. 

To the immigrant  I will proffer  these words of high knowledge: –  Learn the positive ways of your host country and also teach them your positive ones. You only become a better human being by so doing.  Believe in the will of God who in His Infinite Wisdom and Love created all men with the same gift of life and Free Will. However, remember that the same Grace which allows men to freely chose also imposes an irreversible and just responsibility upon them so that men always have to REAP what they have SOWN. Therein lies the Justice, Love and Perfection of  life.  The differences even at birth lies in the individual choices that were made at an earlier time and for which the reciprocal effects now fall irrevocably back on the chooser. The thought that a new born baby is nothing but an innocent  clean spiritual slate or entity is shattered by this simple yet logical explanation of the seemingly unjustness in life. Not even the slightest shred of our thoughts, words or deeds is ever lost in the irrevocable justice and law of nature. So  ponder these position objectively and ask yourselves the following questions:-

• Whither the men who fought tirelessly to colonize or hold their fellow men as slaves?

• Where are those extremists and racists of yester years who thought Europe was only for Europeans or that Africa was only for Africans? They are gone and none could take a piece of the land for which they tirelessly fought and defended against external invasion with them when they died.

• What has become or will yet become of every artificial boundaries and wall erected for keeping particular groups of people abbey?

• What in all certainty is going to be the fate of all those who are still fighting today to repress, dominate and limit the boundless will and spirit of their fellow men? 

In finding the answers to these questions I am sure your objective minds will probably come to the same conclusion as I often do namely;  that all these attempts at anti-immigration and misuse of human potentials amount to nothing more than an exercise in self vilification

E. Conclusion

The will of the human spirit is stronger than any  material or physical barriers.  The earlier all nations and individuals begin to work together for the common good of mankind everywhere the sooner we will get to the PROMISED LAND.

So, when after today you still consider the inequalities that exist on earth as someone else’s problem,  pause awhile and think:  The least you can do is to ensure that you do not overtly or covertly contribute to or render support to any effort that causes injustice and inequality anywhere on the globe. Every part on it should become assessable, conducive to life and free to all as we strive individually and severally towards the collective (spiritual and material) development of the self, the human society and the environment. Do not become a cog in the wheel of  human progress!!!

Joel Oghide