JUST imagine the furore there would be if British migrants to India were told that they would have to be conversant in Hindi, be well acquainted with Indian history or customs, and be fully and unquestioningly in support of all of the Indian government’s military adventures, to acquire Indian citizenship.
There would no doubt be screams of ‘state dictatorship’ and ‘shocking racism’.
Only the imperialist powers are allowed to act in this barbarous fashion.
And this is exactly what the British Labour government is doing by launching its latest racist campaign. This is no doubt an attempt to try to win votes, for an already hated government, in the rapidly approaching general election, by seeking to ‘out BNP’ the BNP – in a further development of the theme, thought up by Gordon Brown, of ‘British jobs for British workers’.
Minister Phil Woolas says that immigrants will have to ‘earn’ citizenship, or else remain temporary migrants liable to be expelled from the country when the government decrees that their time is up.
The Immigration minister says a temporary migrant who wants to become a citizen will have to speak English and be fully in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is really sick and racist, since the majority of British citizens do not support these wars, and hope that Blair gets his come-uppance in the future inquiry into the Iraq war. If the same test was applied to all Brits then the vast majority would have to be reduced to a status of British non-citizens without rights.
Woolas is seeking one rule for migrants who want to be British citizens, which does not apply to British citizens, and does not apply to the mainly white citizens of the EU who decide to settle here!
As well, its logic is that a migrant, who becomes a British citizen and out of conscience finds he or she cannot support an imperialist war, has his citizenship removed and is dumped out of the country along with his kith and kin.
It will not be long before the likes of Woolas demand that something has to be done to prove that the migrant is sincere in his love for all things British.
This will usher in the US solution to this problem where green card holders who seek citizenship and permanent residency are told that it will be theirs if they serve for a number of years in Iraq or Afghanistan!
Woolas yesterday said that his proposals are intended to ‘break the link between temporary migration and permanent citizenship’. Qualifying for citizenship will become harder, and applicants will be judged by various factors, including their ability to speak English.
We repeat that if this is allowed it will rapidly be developed into the need to provide a proof of patriotism through undergoing military service.
This can be seen in the contradictions in Woolas’ statement of yesterday. On BBC Radio Four he was told that demonstrating against what a person thought was a bad law or an evil war was not illegal.
He replied ‘We think it’s right to say if we are asking the new citizen, as incidentally other countries around the world do, to have an oath of allegiance to that country, that it’s right to try to define in some objective terms what that means. And clearly an acceptance of the democratic rule of law and the principle behind that we think is important and we think it’s fair to ask that.’ What better way to ‘define allegiance’ than to serve, as in the US, where they have citizenship services in Iraq at the end of a tour of duty. Vice-President Biden recently presided over one during his last visit there.
Labour wants to introduce two types of citizenship: one for home-grown Brits and the other for mostly black and brown migrants. It is thoroughly reactionary and racist. It must be dumped at once into the nearest bin.
