Thursday 17-06-2021 - 16:18

The Hostile Environment in the UK towards migrants 

A hostile environment towards migrants is something that has been built into British law since 2014. 

“The hostile environment includes measures to limit access to work, housing, health care, bank accounts and more. It is characterised by a system of citizen-on-citizen immigration checks. The majority of these proposals became law via the Immigration Act 2014, and have since been tightened or expanded under the Immigration Act 2016.” freemovement 

“In her interview in 2012 Theresa May set out the broad aims of the hostile environment: 

1. To discourage people from coming to the UK; 

2. To stop those who do come from overstaying; 

3. To stop irregular migrants being able to access the essentials of an ordinary life.” 

This approach to immigration has seen a stark rise in race-based hate crime, as it is an actively aggressive policy that encourages individuals to police each other, and creates a divide between UK residents and migrants. The “othering” of migrants has been an essential aspect of the Brexit campaign (we all remember that poster), the election of Trump, and the rise of the far-right. 

How Eric Kaufmann supports and promotes the Hostile Environment   

Professor Eric Kaufmann, politics lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, regularly feeds into this rhetoric of “othering”, and literally wrote a book on it. Professor Kaufmann puts the rise of the racist far-right down to immigration levels, and presents multi-culturalism and immigration as a threat to the white identity. “...white majority concern over immigration is the main cause of the rise of the populist right in the West. This is primarily explained by concern over identity, not economic threat.” (The White Shift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of the White Majority, E.Kaufmann)  

Kaufmann discusses in his 2018 book The Whiteshift the effect he believes immigration has on white identity, that it fans the flames of racism and should be significantly reduced to assuage the discomfort of white people. Yet he does not take into account the part that politicians and the media have played in creating the hostile environment for migrants. You cannot look at the attitudes on immigration without acknowledging the discourse that politicians and the majority of the media have been putting out there. For example, how the British media turned the Brexit campaign into an attack on immigration. The fact that Theresa May introduced a law to actively encourage a hostile environment towards migrants, and citizen-on-citizen immigration checks, is substantial proof that a hostile attitude towards migrants is a right-wing goal. The press and it’s reporting on immigration rose to the challenge.  

This rhetoric is harmful; we know the dangers that scapegoating and “othering” propaganda can have. These ideas being presented as academic thought at Birkbeck is troublesome.  

“Kaufmann says that “politicians should set [immigration] levels that respect the cultural comfort zone of the median voter,” and he is open to the possibility of long-term refugee camps and a border wall to placate native majorities.” New Yorker 

Birkbeck prides itself as anti-hostile environment institution  

Birkbeck College, University of London is a widening participation University, established in 1823 to educate the working class people of London. It has recently been awarded the Sanctuary Award, with the College saying “Birkbeck is proud to be awarded the title of University of Sanctuary by the City of Sanctuary charity, recognising its significant work with the Compass Project, an award-winning initiative launched in 2016 to break down barriers and support students from a forced migrant background to navigate the process of applying to higher education study.” (BBK News) 

Since its founding, the College has prided itself on welcoming and educating those that had previously been excluded from Higher Education. This year, a total of 2806 international, including EU, students enrolled into the College, accounting for 23% of the overall student population, 20% of whom are in Kaufmann’s own School. (Birkbeck International Digest) 

In 2020, Birkbeck released a statement committing to anti-racism, saying ““We are committed to addressing racism and challenging injustice in all that we do, including in our educational programmes, our research and our other activities.” 

And Yet…  

Birkbeck has yet to to call out the contentious and problematic views of one of its politics lecturers in Eric Kaufmann; an academic who openly advocates for zero immigration, likens Black Lives Matter protesters to cows, and uses ‘academic freedoms’ to excuse racism. Birkbeck Students’ Anti-Racism Network and the Students’ Union, along with all students and staff that have signed the open letter, believe these views have no place at our University. As Birkbeck College actively seeks to accept migrants, we believe their learning experience and University environment should be free from the hostile environment towards migrants that prevails the UK.  

How Kaufmann excuses racism by ignoring social context  

“The question with school segregation is, again, how much is that is down to an individual decision about where to live. It’s not people having their windows broken and kept out of white areas. I think that I would see this as individual choices about where to live, and, yes, there is, I’m sure, white avoidance of diverse areas and we know that exists, but this is a sort of ethnic preference.” Kaufmann, NY 

Despite evidence of institutional racism seeping through school systems, Kaufmann believes it is down to individual decisions that ethnic groups tend to live together in certain areas. While this may well be true as a factor in some cases, (especially in recent years with Brexit, the rise of right-wing populism and race-based hate crime – would you feel safe moving into a predominantly white area?) it completely ignores the nuance and intersectional issues that affect people’s choice on where to live. Education – are there private or public school in the area? Are they decent public schools, or underfunded? Housing market – is anything even affordable, or am I priced out of this respected area? Jobs, transport links, family, friends, crime rates, local services, access – there are so many factors to consider, and they are intrinsically linked.  

For instance, areas with well-funded comprehensive schools tend to also have incredibly high house prices. Britain and the US have a history of “redlining” and segregating people of color into slums and poorer areas, accentuating the cycle of underfunded areas leading to underfunding education, which leads to only being able to afford homes in underfunded areas.... the cycle goes on, by design to keep people of color in the poorest groups of society. To ignore these societal trends and influences, and explain it away as “individual choice” is concerning, misleading and narrow-minded.  

Apologist attitude toward racism 

Kaufmann identifies immigration and cultural diversity as a cause for racism, and the rise of right-wing populism encompassing the west.  

“Consider Kaufmann’s discussion of 19th-century Irish immigration into Britain. The influx, Kaufmann writes, created a “cultural demography” that was “fertile soil for the growth of anti-Catholicism”. What this misses is that anti-Catholicism was well established long before Irish immigration. Its roots lie in 17th-century power struggles. Anti-Catholic bigotry was institutionalised in a series of laws enacted after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which denied Catholics jobs, votes and rights. It was shaped, too, by Britain’s annexation of Ireland. It’s not demography but that history of bigotry and occupation that helps make sense of the response to Irish immigration.” Guardian 

Kaufmann appears to cherry-pick facts and figures that back his beliefs – for example, this tweet about Churchill he posted without irony. This was in response to the BLM protests last year highlighting Churchill’s deeply racist actions – something which is widely ignored and excluded from British education, in lieu of his achievements. When Churchill has been heralded as a war hero for decades with no accountability to his problematic actions – the public are simply trying to ensure that the person who orchestrated the Bengal Famine is no longer hero-worshipped. Additionally, Kaufmann flat-out denies race played any part in the events that sparked the Black Lives Matter movements’ growth in 2020. 

He who demands white identity issues are heard chooses to not listen to the black community's outcry. He seems to advocate for one rule for non-migrants, and another for everyone else. Yet it is ironic and arrogant that we are being asked to care about white identity at all. For centuries, white British colonisers imposed their own identity and way of life on to 46 countries across the globe, stating that anyone not like us were ‘savages’. In more recent years, Britain prided itself on being a welcoming multi-cultural country and encouraged migrants to come to the UK. It is hard to feel sympathy for a white identity that once permeated across the largest Empire in the world, that now feels threatened because Farid and his family from Aleppo moved in next door. 

ULTIMATELY, Kaufmann excuses, normalizes, and legitimizes violence of the far-right and the Hostile Environment 

Kaufmann encourages marginalised communities to stay silent on their oppression, for fear of inciting more oppression and discrimination – this is yet another argument where the responsibility for the protection of a group is put on the group itself, rather than the perpetrators of violence or discrimination. That is the essence of Kaufmann’s book, The White Shift. He argues that we need to be mindful of whiteness and the white identity, as otherwise, white people will become racist and violent.  

“Kaufmann wants to normalise attachment to “white identity”. Historically, such identity has been the means through which to promote racism. Today, many on the far right use it as a way of rebranding their bigotry.” Guardian 

Protecting Birkbeck from the Hostile Environment

Despite student and staff complaints, Kaufmann remains in his academic post and remains free to reproduce racist and anti-migrant discourse under the guise of academia, scholarship and free speech. We want Birkbeck College, University of London to live up to the title of a sanctuary insitution, and protect Birkbeck students from the hostile environment towards migrants. We call for Birkbeck management to fully investigate Professor Eric Kaufmann, his activities, and make public its findings and take necessary action.  

Calling out Kaufmann has resulted in the students of Birkbeck Students’ Anti-Racism Network being attacked viscously online by right-wing supporters and the ‘anti-woke’ brigade, accused of participating in ‘cancel culture’. The reality is they are asking for accountability and due process from their institution.