On 1 January restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants working in Britain were lifted. Previously, the restrictions meant that workers from these countries would need to apply for an ‘accession worker’s card’ from the Home Office in order to work, were not eligible for benefits and were restricted in the forms of employment that they could accept. Now, with the maximum seven years for these restrictions having expired, Romanians and Bulgarians will be able to live and work here with the same rights as citizens of other EU member states. The response from parliament and the media has been an avalanche of racism, reaction and scaremongering. JAMES BELL reports.
Alongside the overtly racist insistence of tabloids like The Sun that Romanians are travelling to Britain for nothing more than ‘stealing scrap metal and raking in benefits’, the media has painted a panorama of racist paranoia. The BBC has run a series of programmes on immigration, alongside its regular news coverage. BBC political editor Nick Robinson advertised his new documentary The Truth About Immigration in The Telegraph, claiming that the BBC was ‘not getting it right’ on immigration due to a ‘deep liberal bias’, and that ‘one-sided reports’ meant viewers’ concerns about immigration lowering wages and threatening jobs were not addressed. Robinson even suggested that the British aren’t racist enough, stating that the public had ‘decided these are not acceptable views. And that was a terrible mistake’. The result of this entrenched reaction has been an increasingly hysterical series of broadcasts. An episode of the BBC’s Panorama aired on 21 January was entitled ‘Immigration Undercover’ and portrays immigrants, almost without exception, as violent criminals.
British media reaction has mainly centred on the number of Romanians and Bulgarians that might arrive here, and whether or not they will claim benefits. Regardless of source, the British press has unanimously focused on the Coalition’s refusal to release or commission estimates about how many immigrants will travel to Britain. Most frequently cited are estimates from the reactionary organisation Migration Watch, predicting an influx of 50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians per annum. On 20 January 2014 the Romanian ambassador to Britain estimated that fewer than 30 citizens had migrated since the restriction was lifted. Coverage of this in the British press was minimal, racist scaremongering being preferable.
This onslaught of reaction is complemented by tapping into reactionary anxieties over state welfare. On 1 January an article on the BBC website cited David Cameron stating that he wants to make sure that migrants come to Britain ‘for the right reasons’, immediately adding ‘not just to claim benefits’.
Racist press to racist policy
Predictably, the response of the Coalition government has been to push for further racist controls of state welfare. On 1 January, the same day as the restrictions were lifted, emergency legislation came into effect to prevent any EU migrant from claiming out-of-work benefits until they have been here for three months. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) also now has increased power over deportation and movement of EU migrants. Where previously EU migrants could be deported if found in the streets begging, UKBA may now also ban them from re-entering the country for up to a year following this.
On 19 January, Secretary for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith and Home Secretary Teresa May used The Daily Mail to announce further plans to restrict EU migrants from accessing benefits. The article, filled with jingoistic rhetoric, claims that ‘[under Labour] the number of foreign people in jobs rocketed to record levels – while thousands of British workers were left on the sidelines’ and directly links immigration control with the government’s devastating austerity programme: ‘Welfare reform and controlling immigration are at the very core of this plan – and if we are to strike the right balance for a strong, sustainable economy, we cannot look at these issues in isolation’. The changes to benefits justified by this nationalistic rubbish include limiting migrants’ entitlement to Jobseeker’s Allowance to six months, unless they have ‘a genuine prospect of work’ and ‘removing entitlement to Housing Benefit altogether for [EU migrants]’, a prospect that fits neatly with the heinous Bedroom Tax and proposed measures to prevent under-25s from claiming Housing Benefit. These measures will come into effect in April.
The Labour Party response has been absolute approval. Labour has stated that the three-month ban on benefits is both ‘reasonable and achievable’. With regard to the proposed changes to Housing Benefit and further restrictions of Jobseeker’s Allowance, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves stated that ‘[Labour is] supportive of policies that protect the integrity of the welfare state’ and that state welfare should be ‘based upon the contributory principle’. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, whilst agreeing with the conditions laid out by the Coalition government, stating that the system ‘needs to be fair and seen to be fair’, offered Labour’s only criticism: ‘Labour called for these benefit restrictions nine months ago. Yet David Cameron has left it until the very last minute to squeeze this change in.’ The Labour Party clearly has no intention of providing an alternative to the racist manoeuvres of the Coalition.
Divide and rule
The racist paranoia generated by the British media is being put to ample use by the ruling class to justify further austerity measures, undermine working class solidarity and provide a breeding ground for the reactionary politics which allow British imperialism to thrive. As FRFI has consistently argued, racism in Britain is the domestic expression of British imperialism around the world, and this persists regardless of which political party is in government. It is only by building a working-class movement which is both anti-racist and anti-imperialist that this can be challenged.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 237 February/March 2014
