Good Immigrant, Bad Immigrant. Racial politics in Cameron’s Britain?

Prime Minister David Cameron is currently in India, reportedly ‘winning over’ Indian students and attracting Indian businesses towards the UK. Accompanied by ten UK Parliamentarians of Indian heritage, Cameron has recognised India’s economic ascent – soon to be the world’s third biggest economy and ‘hopes’ that Britain will be its preferred trading partner.

Cameron also wants more Indian students to come to the UK and there is talk of same day visas for Indians. I believe that the PM’s trip is not only about attracting Indian students and businesses; it is also about attracting British Indian voters towards the Conservative Party.

A few weeks ago, Treasury Minister Sajid Javid MP warned that ‘Enoch Powell’s legacy still stains the Conservative Party’. However, it was also argued that British Indians ‘naturally’ identified with Conservative values and could prove pivotal in the 2015 election, but that they might be ‘put off’ voting for the Conservative Party because of concerns of the party’s attitudes towards race. This trip is part of an attempt to build ‘new’ bridges with the British Indian community, which is a good thing if it means the Conservative Party embraces ‘ethnic and racial diversity’.

However, I believe that the context of Mr Cameron’s message is paradoxical in light of his party’s attitude to the question of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants. An image has been created in which Indian immigrants are projected as hard-working, resourceful and infatuated with British culture and values. Indians (Hindus) assimilate into the British way of life, speak English and are seen as religious ‘moderates’. If we juxtapose this image of the ‘industrious’ Indian immigrant with that of the Romanian and Bulgarian immigrant, we see a more disturbing picture emerging.

Romanians and Bulgarians are projected as ‘thieves, jobless scroungers and criminals’, in his new book The End of Tolerance, Arun Kundani argues that your ability to integrate into Britain today depends less on ‘your looks’ and more on if your deemed ‘culturally compatible’. However, this new system adopts a lot of the same racism that the old system held with only silent variations. Kundani argues that Romanians and Bulgarians have become ‘the new wretches of the earth’. Therefore, what does this mean for race relations and inter-communal relations in Cameron’s Britain?

The media as well as the Conservatives rightfully celebrate the achievements of the Indian community in Britain. However, when looking at the Conservative's whole approach to immigration, this celebration appears rather dubious. In fact some have argued that by lambasting East Europeans and praising Indians, the old colonial dictum of divide and rule is alive and kicking. In other words, instead of trying to remove the racial hierarchy pyramid, we could be moving bricks at the bottom of the pyramid further up to better support the structure. At the top of this pyramid is upper-class white Britons and what is below them depends which immigrant is flavour of the month.

‘Divide and rule’ pits one minority group against another. What we should demand is a consistent language towards immigration, one that is based upon fairness and above all equality.

Usman Butt