I find it pretty depressing how immigration is presented as a problem in so many countries. It seems every far right political group on the planet wants to build walls around their own country and keep any foreigners out. Why? Because people who aren’t born in the country where they now live are a problem to be solved?
Personally, as an immigrant myself, I think everyone who live in the same street, the same village, town, or city, the same country even, should be treated equally. I’m not a problem because of my genealogy or my genes. We are all inhabitants, we who live together, sharing the same roads, the same shops, the same activities. I prefer the concept of “inhabitant” or “resident” over that of “citizen” if, by the latter term, we mean people who have passed whatever administrative and/or economic rules a country applies to people who weren’t born in that particular part of the world.
In fact, more than anything geographical, I feel I am a member of the human race, and a unique expression of Life, just like all the other human beings who I share this planet with, just like all the other astonishing forms of life I share this planet with.
I don’t think immigration is a problem to be solved. The problem to be solved is “integration”. Here’s the definition of integration I work with – “the creation of mutually beneficial bonds between diverse and well differentiated parts”. In other words, how do I live with my fellow “residents”, fellow “inhabitants”, fellow “citizens” in the part of the planet which I call home?
When we don’t create healthy, positive, creative, and caring bonds between each other, we all suffer. We humans have always moved around the Earth, and we always will. Yet, most people who live in a particular part of the world would prefer to stay there – it’s war, violence, and utter poverty that drives out those who would rather stay.
I think we should put our energies and our resources into living well together – that would include treating people in the same place equally no matter where they were born, actively helping immigrants to integrate by teaching them the language, customs and laws of the country, and encouraging their full participation in society. And we need to develop mutually beneficial, caring, creative relationships between countries, instead of hostility, hatred, fear, competition and violence.
We humans are superbly adaptive creatures and we’ve evolved to be able to inhabit almost every corner of this little planet. But we’re going to have to adapt better if we all want to survive….or at least, if we want our grandchildren and their grandchildren to survive. We’ll do that through integration – by the creation of mutually beneficial bonds between ourselves and others.
So, I reject the dominant narrative that immigration is a problem, and I say, loud and clear, that what we should address and “solve” rather, is integration – integration in our streets, our villages, our cities, our countries, and our planet.
Heroes Not Zombies 