Truly said, every coin has two sides. But when it comes to policies and politics, a random toss can be really catastrophic. The same can be said for globalisation. Of course, globalisation came with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand where it made the world a melting pot, then on the other it also became the reason for the cracks on that very pot – making it fragile and susceptible.
With the advent of globalisation, the concept of nation-state – or rather, shall I say nationalism – gradually started diminishing! The world-order started getting governed more by knowledge and communication technologies. Along with knowledge and technology, the ease of mobility acted as catalyst to make the world smaller, more congested and heterogeneous. So when migration and cross-culture relationships were augmenting each other, in some other part of the world national identities were getting lost. That said, nationalism has the ability to enhance solidarity, but if not channelized under controlled conditions, then it can backfire as hostility and increase xenophobia. December 18 was International Migrants Day, a day when the United Nation’s officially exhorted people and governments to end xenophobia and to support migrant communities. But that’s easier said than done.
Recently, a nation famous for its stringent civilian rules and regulations and subsequently also for its benchmark target of zero crime, saw globalisation and xenophobia at loggerheads in the most unexpected manner, especially given the social history of that nation. A few days ago, hundreds of foreign residents in Singapore resorted to violence, vandalism and even attacked the police in one of the worst riots in the last four decades of Singaporean history, after a bus (evidently accidentally) killed an Indian migrant worker near Little India, a region that typifies India and is populated significantly by Indian migrants. The riots occurred despite the fact that Singapore has one of the most stringent laws for rioters. Without an iota of doubt, accidents are uncommon in Singapore where laws are followed religiously, literally and verbatim. But then, this one incident acted as a trigger to the suppressed animosity that foreign workers were carrying in their minds and hearts since long, due to their perception of being xenophobically (if one could call it that) targeted since long by the Singaporean nationals. This riot seemed more of a frustration emitting exercise by local Asians residing in Little India who are still not treated as par with permanent residents of the island nation.
The Second Minister for Home Affairs in Singapore, S. Iswaran, told BBC that there was no room for xenophobia in Singapore and social tension wasn’t the reason the outburst happened. That’s clearly a very diplomatic statement. Migrants still suffer from lower pay, less vacations, unfair treatment, bad working conditions, discriminatory access to public services and general discrimination in the society. If one remembers, just last year, in a xenophobic protest, several local permanent residents had come out on the streets with slogans like “Singapore for Singaporeans.” Even this time, after the riots (something that cannot be justified at all, irrespective of the reason), the evidence of racist anti-foreigner sentiments seething within the domestic community was quite evident from the way people (apparently Singaporean nationals) reacted on social media forums after the riots.
There are signs of xenophobia (or racial/nationalistic/ethnic discrimination, if you wish to call it that) all across the world. According to the Ministry of Justice, UK, the discrimination between races in the ‘stop and search’ procedures by UK police has increased phenomenally in recent years. The numbers of blacks and Asians stopped by the police increased by 70 per cent from 2005 to 2009. As per official estimates, more than 310,000 blacks and Asian people were searched in 2008-09, in comparison to 178,000 in 2004-05. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that black people were 29 times more likely to be stopped by the police, compared to their non-black counterparts.
Cross over to the US and the situation is as bad. New York Civil Liberties Union revealed that in the first three quarters of 2013, the police stopped New Yorkers 179,063 times. 89% of people stopped were totally innocent. An overwhelming 56% people stopped were blacks; and 29% were latinos. If the argument is that that happens across the world because blacks, latinos and Asians, if you may, commit more crimes, then that is a xenophobic self-fulfilling prophecy. If one keeps repeatedly questioning the alleged criminal antecedents of people from specific races/religions/nationalities, or keeps discriminating against them, then these communities would erupt in unison against the powers that be at the first tipping point chance they get – which is what I believe occurred in Singapore, or France (the annual car torching episodes by disenfranchised communities on the advent of every New Year), or China (the Uyghur riots of 2009)…
…or in Russia. On October 13, 2013, in this story from the other side, a mob of nationalists vandalised their own capital city destroying property and shops after a murder of a Russian local by a Caucasian migrant. The streets were filled with locals shouting slogans like “Russia for Russians”. It’s no secret that the Russian government never treated its migrant communities warmly and largely lacked a structured migration strategy and services. There have been numerous cases of corruption in the migration process, visas, employment benefits and housing. This has propelled even the borderline Russian nationalist to become xenophobic. This unchecked nationalism coupled with the mistreatment of migrants has, since long, been increasing the friction between different classes/nationalities in Russia. The Russian Federal Migration Service Chief Konstantin Romodanovsky confirmed this in a December 2013 meeting with the Russian Human Rights Commissioner by mentioning, “Unfortunately, more cases of intolerance and xenophobia can be observed, which eventually leads to an escalation of inter-ethnic disputes”. Without understanding the true reasons, he put the whole blame for the recent tensions on the behaviour of foreigners.
EU is another burning example of xenophobia in the era of globalisation. EU is today synonymous with unemployment, riots, inhuman working conditions and deteriorating lifestyles – all thanks to availability of cheap labour that is ready to work under any given condition. This was precisely the reason why France rejected the EU Constitution. The influx of Polish, who are giving competition to French nationals in employment (by agreeing at lower wages), is one of the main reasons why xenophobia is increasing amongst the French.
Then where is the solution? It starts with governments and global institutions realising that one cannot mindlessly praise the positive effects of globalisation, and be blind to the subsequent issue of xenophobia, which goes hand in hand with civil unrest (whether from the nationalists or from the migrants). Little India is just one crying example. Governments opening up their economies have to deeply study and balance the effects that such opening up can have. Giving relatively equal rights to an individual, irrespective of his/her nationality, can be a solution only if the domestic communities do not end up perceiving a situation of being significantly disadvantaged. And vice versa too, where prejudice against migrant communities will only work to destroy the social fabric of the nation. I’ll go as far as to say that the current form of globalisation is less globalisation and more fascism. If this has to be changed, then governments have to understand that globalisation cannot be viewed only through the economic lens, but has to be considered through the social, cultural and nationalism lenses too.
(SMS your views with your name and topic to
0-9818101234)
Connect with the author
at www.facebook.com/dr.arindamchaudhuri
or tweet him at https://twitter.com/DrArindam_IIPM
or follow his articles at http://drarindamchaudhuri.blogspot.com
