The Place of Migrants/Immigrants of Colour in the West
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Colonialism is about exploitation of resources - it’s about the establishment of a power in an external location through the appropriation of Indigenous land and labour. Capitalism is a system that thrives under colonial systems because of the division of the population into 2 distinct classes - the colonizer who exploits and the colonized who are exploited. When colonial European countries (especially Britain) experienced labour shortages after the War, they had to loosen up immigration laws to allow for migrant labour. They had two options, either to allow migrants from other less developed parts of Europe, or from colonies and ex-colonies of the British empire. It is this increase in free market demand for labour that inevitably led Britain to loosen its immigration laws. Thus immigration rose in times of economic expansion and declined in times of recession. Capitalism weaponized both race and class to exploit workers. Racialized workers were prevented from organizing with their white working class brethren due racism in unions - this prevented workers from building a unified front against the capitalists. Therefore in the periods after the 2 world wars, colonialism, the free market, immigration and race are very much connected - as racialised people from former colonies were allowed into the UK to fill up unskilled positions in light of a labour shortage. In Sivanandan’s piece, he remarks how immigrants of colour were called to fill up low status and unskilled jobs, that white workers were unwilling to do. They were also given the worst housing in the country, often overcrowded and unmaintained. This led to the ghettoization of their communities, showing that although they were being economically integrated, they were still socially rejected by the majority.
This made me think about a different although less acknowledged reality mentioned in the reading by Bald. How early South Asian migrants to the US integrated themselves into the culture of the communities they settled in, living interdependently with African American, Puerto Rican and Creole people in places such as Harlem and New Orleans, showing us the immense strength and power of communities of colour in looking out for each other and showing solidarity and support. This is a stark contrast to the geographic and social isolation experienced by immigrants of colour in the UK.
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