Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Dear Reader,

I am going to divert slightly from my usual Africa focus and consider Black people or Africans, in particular who live in the United Kingdom. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron's announcement of a June 23rd date for the EU “In or Out” referendum presents a major dilemma to all people of colour, and particularly those from the African continent who live permanently in the United Kingdom.

During the past nearly ten years, massive immigration from the former Soviet satellite countries and Poland has taken the heat off Black people in the United Kingdom. The Africans (to use a more palatable expression) are taking our jobs and houses has become the “bl**** Eastern Europeans are taking our jobs” and houses, with the extra qualification of “abusing our benefit system.” Meanwhile most of those jobs, which mostly pay remunerations below the minimum wage level, are not ones the average working class Briton is interested in. If they did, they would probably call in sick two or three times a week. As for the housing shortage, most Conservative Party supporters who complain about it forget the fact that it was their “darling Girl”, Margaret Thatcher, who sold the council properties en masse in the 1980s, without investing in any new house building.

It is said that while the immediate post-World War II governments of the UK built 350,000 housing units per annum, that figure has dropped to below half today even though the population has increased by more than 37% since then, and growing, thanks to a very high birth rate among the immigrant sections of the population.

So which side do we take?
In the debate about whether the UK was better off in or out of European Union, someone commented in the Metro on 23^rd February as follows, “Boris and the Leave team cannot remember what a dull uncultured country the UK was before we joined the EU. Being in the EU has opened the mind of every industrious person and quashed racism and narrow-mindedness.” And that is very true because all the progressive laws that have been passed in the UK – decent pay for decent work, progressive maternity policies for working mothers, paternity leave for new fathers, protection of the environment, respect for the rights of ordinary workers, consumers rights, among others - have all come from the EU. Directly or indirectly, the regulations and policies about “political correctness” have helped to bring some level of respectability to Black people in the country. The question is which side of the argument do we take as a people? Do we vote on the side of “IN” or do we go with the “BriExiters?”

Increasingly, the presence of the large numbers from Eastern Europe has meant fewer and fewer avenues in employment and housing for Black people in the country. This has been particularly pronounced among Black youth.

In the education sector, the attention that used to be focused on low-performing Black children has shifted to the “new arrivals'' who of a necessity must acquire useful language skills, to be able to integrate into the schools system and benefit from the education system. The increased numbers have meant a major strain on school places. As a result, children at the lower levels of the social ladder are having to move further and further away from home, in order to secure reasonable school places, even at the very basic level. That again means a disproportionate negative effect on Black children. The long travelling distances and unfamiliar surroundings have definitely had their toll on those who were barely surviving in the education system.

In addition to significantly reduced levels of racism, one of the greatest benefits of the EU to British born, naturalised or resident Black people on these islands is the ease of passage at entry points in EU member countries and even outside the Union. The thought of returning to those nightmarish experiences at airports is enough to send us all rushing to thumbprint a huge “NO” on all available ballot papers.

On the other hand, if the majority of the voters of the UK vote to remain in the EU, then almost certainly even more migrants will enter the county from Eastern Europe and from the chaos that is now playing out in North Africa and the Middle East. That will mean continuing deterioration of the lot of Black people, particularly the youth in the United Kingdom.

It is estimated that the population of the United Kingdom will increase to over 70 million by 2030. Due to the particularly high population density of England, the overall population density of the United Kingdom, at 259 people per square kilometre, is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's southeast region. London where a very significant proportion of the United Kingdom's African immigrants live has a population of about 8 million, with a population density of a little over 5,200 per square kilometre.

Under these circumstances, the Black population of the UK is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Overall, my gut feeling is that not only Black people, but the whole of the United Kingdom as well, is better off in than out of the European Union and we should, as a block, vote massively NO on 23^rd June.

I shall return with my beaded gourd, God willing.

Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected], or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.