In my three year blogger career (and before that) I have written extensively about Immigration, Refugees (arguably a subset of Immigration) and Globalism (arguably that which has accelerated immigration). What I am going to do now is to go over old ground (but without cross referencing) and bring together various strands. These are subjects that interest me and go to the heart of my community activism. I believe, as I hope will become clear, these subjects are related. While it may be presumptuous to say I offer a unique perspective, I do offer one that does not fit the mould.

As for my credentials, besides having given these subjects more thought than most, these are I think (without wanting to boast) formidable. Ever since my early college days, I have befriended those of non White British ethnicity, especially Muslims. I have worked extensively with BME communities and believe there are those in those communities that will testify to my positive contribution. I have advocated on behalf of asylum seekers, especially those who have been let down by the system. I have organized multi-cultural events which have been widely acclaimed as successful. I belong to a church which includes members from many different BME groups. I am married to an Indian girl.

Yet I believe we as a country take in too many immigrants. While immigration imposed on the UK by virtue of it belonging to the EU was not my main reason for my voting Brexit, it was a reason. I agree, at least on principle, with President Trump’s Executive Orders to build the wall and restrict immigration, on the basis that the first duty of government is the protection of its citizens. I believe there is a problem with Muslim immigration especially, one which the powers that be have been afraid to grapple with or if they do, it is in an inappropriate, politically correct way. They fail to recognise Islam as a political ideology that does not always sit comfortably with western value and while most Muslims are good people, some have malevolent intent. I believe there is a refugee crisis, partly of our own making, and don’t believe the solution is repatriating them to other countries. I believe in national cultural identity and am anti-globalist. I believe in celebrating other cultures but do not believe in multi-culturalism. I believe it was a mistake to let so many Eastern Europeans in to the UK after some of these joined the EU in 2004 and this has led to further problems. I believe the decision to do so was politically motivated and one that wanted to accelerate the move toward globalism, which on the whole I consider as something purporting to be reasonable yet is sinister. I believe it was immoral for the British government to thwart the claims of genuine asylum seekers to the UK, something I have seen too much evidence of.

All the above statements beg elaborating, which I have attempted in my earlier writings. My own views are influenced by my understanding of Scripture, one (or many) texts I offer above. I fear part of the problems we (in the UK) face in assimilating foreigners is we have ditched our Judaeo-Chritian heritage and replaced it with secular wishywashyness. I also reject the type of rhetoric of elements of the far right that demonize the “other” and blame them on our woes. But before we react to a little Englander mentality, we need to understand sometimes legitimate concerns. We could and should have welcomed foreigners based on the principle outlined in Leviticus 19:34. We could have done that as those proud of our traditions, who see kindness and generosity as British values. The fact there is real xenophobia and racism is something I wholly reject but also I regret the liberal tendency of accusing people like me of being racist because I think they spout *******. I believe newspaper publications like the Sun and the Mail do a disservice by overstating their cases and yet there are some issues that need to be debated.

I get it when some friends argue that immigrants bring in a net economic benefit and we benefit by jobs like doctors and nurses and certain low paid, low skilled jobs being filled. It begs questions though, like insufficient infra-structure e.g. schools, health, housing, to take in the extra numbers and this creates problems; it begs the question why these jobs could and should have been filled by those who are already here; and that by assimilating cultures antipathetic to the host one, this can have untoward consequences. My immigration policy would be to allow entry to genuine asylum seekers yet recognize we can’t take in the massive fall out from the Middle East conflicts (yet making it a priority to find solutions to these and appropriate humanitarian responses) and in doing so, we need to redress the balance regarding helping non-Muslim refugees. We need to look sympathetically toward EU citizens who are already here, letting them stay, and the families of immigrants already residing in the UK. While we should encourage students from oversees to come and study, this should not guarantee them the right to remain. In principle, outside of the above, the only foreigners we should allow to remain permanently in the UK are those who offer a contribution to the British economy that may not be satisfied from within the indigenous population.