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Clash of Civilizations in Europe: Immigration and After - Sunny Singh Sunny Singh was born in Varanasi. She received her education in various parts of India and the world. She has worked as a journalist, teacher, and as a management executive for multinationals in Mexico, Chile and South Africa. For the last four years, she has been writing full-time. She is also a playwright. Her first play, Birthing Athena, focussed on evolving relationships and the price of ambition in post-liberalisation India. The Times of India described the play as "an intensely cathartic experience." Her first novel, Nani's Book of Suicides, had been published by Harper Collins Publishers India. Described by the Hindustan Times as a "first novel of rare scope and power," the novel explores the cultural identity of an Indian woman through a fund of myths, family lore and contemporary reality. Her second book, Single in the City: The independent woman's handbook was released on Dec 22, 2000 by Penguin India. Visit Sunny Singh's website at: http://www.sunnysingh.net/

A steady change has been occurring in much of Europe over the past decades. In some countries, like the UK, immigrants from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa made their presence felt as far back as the 1950s. Now, children of these immigrants have a big hand in renewing, transforming and changing the British society, economy and culture. So “bhangra” has gone mainstream in England, and “ragamuffin” is a familiar term – known across racial boundaries in the country – for Apache’s brand of Indian-reggae fusion.

Not surprisingly, even stereotypically “white” Denmark produces bands like Outlandish who mix Punjabi, Spanish and Arab lyrics and draw on musical styles drawn from Morocco, the Caribbean and India. People of colour increasingly stride through the boardrooms and corporate offices in Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam. And the change is not limited to the northern Europe.

Even in a country like Spain that has historically kept its borders closed against “immigrants” (the country’s anti-immigration law is still one of the most racist pieces of legislations ever), there has been a noticeable demographic shift. In the past five years, the country has seen significant “colouring” of its major cities as immigrants come in from Latin America, Asia and Africa. This immigration has an enormous impact on the economies of Europe. According to statistics released recently by the Spanish finance ministry, a good third of the economy today is “informal” or unregistered, unregulated and undetected by the taxman and the law.

Behind those innocuous economic figure lies the downside of the “colouring” of Europe. The informal economic sector is basically supported by and aimed at the illegal immigration into Europe. And Spain is a good example of this.

Given its geographical location, Moroccans, Algerians, Senegalese, Nigerians, sneak past the tight coast guard patrols. There is a massive population of Ecuadorians, Dominicans and other Central Americans who – given their slight linguistic advantage – form the largest number of illegal immigrants in the country.

The economic and political hardships that pushes the illegals into seeking better lives in Europe wears an overtly ugly face in Spain: Far too many young Central American women can be seen “accompanying” old Spanish men, their sad, painted faces providing a painful testimony to their economic exploitation. The streets of the major cities are lined with young prostitutes from Russia and Eastern Europe, their despair evident despite their garish finery. And Romanian refugees can be seen in every city, often begging on tourist-busy streets, dressed in identical velvet skirts and carrying identical babies on their hips.

There is also a burgeoning population here of illegal Pakistani workers who take the most horrific, menial jobs possible, even though many of them have graduate degrees from their home country. Perhaps, Mian Musharraf should be called to task on why twenty-five year olds Pakistani men with a masters in Physics, speaking four languages (as in case of a young man I recently met) must work as waiters in rather run-down neighbourhood bars of Europe. Another young Pakistani boy works in a Syrian restaurant in my neighbourhood, despite speaking three languages (including English and Spanish), and holding an advanced degree in computer science.

Of course, these are mostly economic refugees, driven from their homes by economic necessity. And not surprisingly, the European Union – for all its continuous bilge about human rights and dignity of the human being all over the world – is not about to grant them refugee status in its member countries. Instead, they are put in prisons, deported back to the countries that can barely feed them, and often attacked by racist goons. Worse still, instead of the “betterment” that they seek, they find inhumane living conditions in the heart of the “First World,” living in stuffy flats, often in numbers that exceed human imagination, and in squalor that is – in some cases – worse than back home.

Yet, these economic refugees – call them “illegal aliens,” or “sin papeles” (without papers) or by another name – do contribute significantly to the “western” economic powerhouses. They perform the necessary but much derided jobs: as construction workers, garbage collectors, waiters, cleaners, cooks, house maids, and in many cases for the lack of another option, sex workers.

And with dropping birth rates among much of “white” populations in these “First World” countries, more people are needed each year to replace the old, the dying and the retired. Immigrants – legal and illegal – are the only viable solution. The outgoing Catalunya president, Jordi Pujol recently remarked that “in the near future, Spanish old-age pensioners would be paid for by black workers.” That racist remark was glossed over in the local media, which focussed on the “horror” of such economic necessity of the future.

Worse still, for all the rhetoric about human rights and “working conditions” in developing countries that emanates from European organizations and NGOs, the economic refugees in Europe work at their jobs without the protection of law. Rather telling is the fact that Amnesty International, and other similar “guardians” of human rights have never focussed on their plight.

So no social security benefits come to them from these “enlightened” Western states. These illegal workers are also not covered by basic standards of work and occupational safety statutes. Instead, they are mercilessly exploited in the work place, by their employers. Just two examples should suffice: Maria is a twenty-three old Romanian, working as a cleaning woman in a Barcelona hotel. She is paid twenty euros a day, and works for as long as her boss wants her to. This can easily extend to sixteen-hour days. She can’t protest, or complain, because she has learned that she has fewer rights than in the dictatorial regimes of her native land. In her previous job at another city hotel, she protested the long working hours, and was fired on the spot. Her boss also decided to withhold her salary for the month she had worked as “punishment” and an “example to the others.”

Arif, is a thirty-year old Pakistani. His story is fairly typical of the genre: a family of eight to support back in a village in Baluchistan. His parents pawned everything to buy his passage to Europe, and grease the necessary palms on the way. He now works in Barcelona delivering gas cylinders to residents. His job involves carrying cylinders to flats – often five or six floors high – through the narrow, steep stairwells typical to Barcelona’s traditional buildings. For a twelve-hour work-day he is paid five euros a day plus tips. The only problem is that Catalanes are not generous tippers (or rather aren’t tip pers at all). He has been here for a year and a half, and already suffers from a constantly painful back injury brought on by the inhumane work conditions. Worse still, his income barely covers his own living expenses, and he has yet to start sending back money to pay off the loans that his family has incurred in Pakistan.

Ironically, Arif works in a residential area famed for its “leftist” ideology and commitment to various “humane” causes. The people he delivers the gas cylinders to are often members or leaders of NGOs that fight against “child labour” in Asia, Africa and so on. The same people contribute to causes around the world, in terms of their time, energy and money. Yet they never notice the man who needs their help in their own lands.

You might well be wondering why I am recounting what for many of us is an “old story.” Well, because Maria’s boss is also a leading member of his church congregation. And his diocese contributes shocking amounts of money each year to Church-backed NGOs to “help” the poor in India, Africa and other “underprivileged” countries. He proudly explained to me how he was helping bring “God’s word” to the poor in these places, so that they may be saved from their “ignorance” and “barbarism.” Needless to say, the interview ended fast when I mentioned the work conditions for his “illegal” employees.

And that is perhaps the first change that I have been noticing in the past months. The hypocrisy in the West stands revealed more starkly than ever before. Perhaps because with greater influx of economic refugees from the areas of the world they have long exploited, it has become harder to retain their traditional postures of superior moral distance. For every platitude on human rights, every Amnesty International report on abuses in Somalia/Iraq/Sri Lanka, there are a dozen examples of similar or worse abuses of human rights within the exalted boundaries of the “civilized Western” world.

Of course, few mentions of these ever find their way into the mainstream media. There are few headlines granted to them by CNN, or BBC, or any other influential news media. I am still waiting for Amnesty International to start pursuing police abuses in Spain, Italy, France or Germany with the same fervour that they bring to “human rights violations” by security forces in India.

And of course, there can be an argument made that illegal immigrants have always suffered, at least until they could enough economic power to fight back. But even there a change has occurred. The reality is that there is a far greater “non-white, non-Western” population in the world, and that population has increasing access to information, to travel (even by illegal boats), to movement beyond the limits of their birth-place.

For the first time since Renaissance – when capitalism, Christianity and colonialism – came together to create the formidable machinery of oppression, Europe is experiencing a reversal of the tides. More people are coming to this continent than ever before in its history. And when they arrive, they “mix” with the local populations, bring the “mestizo” to their own shores, and not left behind as bastard children of the colonial enterprise in distant lands. And every year, every month, every day, there are more of “them” walking the very streets of the “old world.” And every day, more of “them” have the power to speak, to protest, to resist.

An interesting phenomenon is developing in Europe as a reaction to this “foreign” presence. Countries that traditionally defined themselves as “non-racist” (such as Spain) are facing up to their deep-seated prejudices about other cultures, peoples, colours.

Because they need the immigrants to power their economic growth, the states are taking up “sensitisation” programmes. In Catalunya, immigrants can take free classes to learn the language, to “adjust” to the culture. Interesting enough, no state in Europe is willing to learn from the experience of others. As a result, the English experience of immigration is ignored as Catalunya (and other European states) attempt to “integrate” the immigrants, assuming that the foreigner can be “re-educated” enough to turn “native.”

The governments are also spending enormous amounts of money to sensitize the native populations about “multiculturalism.” These fairs, seminars, festivals and programmes are basically intended to undo a couple of hundred years of propaganda: they tell the native populations that the Asian/African/Latin Americans are not quite as “barbaric,” “backward” or “savage” as they have long been considered. That they can be “integrated” in to the European lifestyle, society, culture. Of course, this in itself gives rise to interesting situations – something we can discuss in a different column. Yet, perhaps we ought to be grateful for the tiny step in the right direction, or at least one step away from the wrong one.

Yet, the stage is set for another “clash of civilizations.” This time not between states, and not far away in the Middle-East where bomb-victims never have identities, faces, or humanity. Instead the new conflict is set to occur in the near future in the very heart of Europe.

The current xenophobia, nationalism and paranoia sweeping through western Europe is a reflection of this pending clash. Local racist, exclusivist parties win votes because the people can see the changes. And racist attacks against people of colour are increasing even in countries that have been traditionally described as “non-racist” or “tolerant.” At the same time, the Europeans who have long championed the post-Enlightenment cause of “humanitarianism” are enacting laws that are draconian at best, outright savage at worst: Spain, for example, is considering a law aimed at “foreign” criminals which is allow immediate and mandatory deportation even for “petty” crimes, including purse-snatching or pick-pocketing. The enormous potential for abuse o f such a law requires no articulation.

Yet, there has been a change from the past centuries when European decisions were impossible to resist or defy. After all, its easy to talk of the “noble savage” while he walks in distant lands, doesn’t speak your language, dresses in a ragged loincloth and can be killed with Gatling guns. But when the “noble savage” walks your own streets, shops in your supermarket, speaks your language, dresses in “your” clothes, and lives next door, he is harder to dismiss and ignore. And when he does all that in large enough numbers, he is even harder to threaten, oppress, even kill. More importantly, the “savage” now has sheer numbers on his side, along with increasing access to information and technology. And that alone is enough reason to ensure that the pending “clash of civilizations” will have very different results from those that Europe is accustomed to.

Till we connect again...

This is the fourth article in the series of 'Shorter Route to India' by Sunny Singh. To read the earlier articles by sunny Singh please visit her mezine Sunny Side"

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