Immigration

New survey shows Black immigrants bring needed work ethic, entrepreneurial and labour skills to Britain... So why the closed door immigration policy?

Dr Peter Julu

In the normal course of things British journalists and government politicians brand immigrants and asylum-seekers as a plague upon these shores. However, new evidence shows that immigrants of African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian origins have far more entrepreneurial flair than their white counterparts and are much more inclined to start a business and contribute to the economy.

So what's the problem? Why aren't the income-earning and job creating potential of people of colour - like Business Innovator of the Year 2002 Dr Peter Julu - welcomed with open arms?

Restrictive immigration policies
Immigrant defence groups and race equality activists point to the recent history of misguided immigration policies. Post-war Britain fell from its imperial grandeur and called on its colonies for the manpower and skills needed for recovery. But in the 1960s, politicians fearful of social unrest demonised coloured immigrants and the first Commonwealth Immigrants Act came onto the law books in 1962. Further restrictive immigration legislation followed. Now, say many observers, these policies marginalize immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from many lands - based on prejudices and xenophobia enshrined in the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill 2002.

Black people from strife-torn African countries öSomalia, Sierra Leone and Congo - are especially at risk of being turned away from these shores. Newcomers öAfghan Kurds and Eastern Europeans - often fare no better.

New challenge
Arrayed against these restrictive policies are a new generation of activists prepared to lobby, encourage, teach, publicise and do battle in order to ensure that governments are committed to immigrants rights. They criticise the visa black lists that deny entry to African and Asian nationals and Muslims in favour of applicants from the white, safe or more affluent countries in - Australasia, Asia and Central.

Sonya Kahlon and Roy McFarlane

Britain's reputation as a safe haven for refugees is being compromised," says Sonya Kahlon, racial harassment officer, Warwick District Racial Equality Council. Based on his own bitter experience, Roy McFarlane, training and education development officer in Birmingham says: "Race equality workers fear that those in power frequently used immigration control for ill-liberal purposes, not to help disadvantaged or persecuted people".

Ironically, studies show the nation needs more rather than less immigrants to fuel the workforce and the economy, say white liberals, Mary Dines and Ann Dummett, the grand ladies of the pioneering Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. They add that many asylum seekers could provide the skills needed to ensure continuing prosperity. And, they ask the challenging question: "who will do the dirty, degrading and dangerous jobs for low pay that British people others shun, but must be done?"

Targeting wayward politicians, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a press columnist and media personality, has criticised the Labour government saying: "Labour has created a new hierarchy of prejudice in which asylum seekers are the most demonised group today, and there are few instances of positive views about Muslims".

Most immigrant advocates condemn the hostile media. They point to a plethora of negative press reporting which in some cases blatantly stir up racist attitudes. (For example, blatant headlines warning of the "menace from asylum gangs, people traffickers, drugs and gun smugglers".

So, what must be done?
Big City Britain has much to gain from immigrants and residents of Black and Asian backgrounds, academics end economic poly experts agree. They are more likely to be self-employed, job creators; and the spearhead of neighbourhood revitalisation.

According to a government-funded survey, "Africans were nearly five times as likely as people of white origin to be involved in business start-ups, while people from Jamaica and other Caribbean countries were three times as likely to create their own business and Asians were twice as likely to set up a new business, reports the Independent newspaper.

Restaurants, hair dressers, travel agents, food shops in South London are relevant examples. Chinatown in London, the curry houses and rag trade in Bangladeshi areas of East London and the clothing shops and import companies in Gujarati areas of Leicester are other examples.

Supporters point to the immigrant contribution in hard-hit urban areas in America. Dominicans in Manhattan's Upper West side have made Washington Heights a dynamic culturally diverse environment. Cubans have resuscitated Miami's Little Havana. West Indian entrepreneurs have saved Brooklyn neighbourhoods from stagnation. Some New Jersey towns, Maplewood and South Orange, are successfully promoting racial and ethnic diversity as a real estate selling point.

Here in London, Lee Jasper, the mayor's advisor on race equality issues says: "Mayor Ken Livingstone urges this government to pursue a more open immigration policy. The policy should not inhibit migrant entry. On the contrary, it should relieve the perilous condition of many thousands of refugees, asylum seekers here in Britain who live on the edge of poverty, racism and harassment".

Professor Monder Ram, of De Montfort University, Leicester Business School, says "UK Policy-makers and academics now accept that ethnic minority firms play an important role in stimulating urban economic development". They tend to employ co-ethnic labour, usually from the immediate locality. This helps to alleviate the often high levels of unemployment that still prevail within many ethnic minority communities".

Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and industry has welcomed the survey findings and promised more publicly funded support for entrepreneurs of ethnic minority backgrounds. She says, "The new data shows that people from ethnic minority communities make a large and important contribution to the entrepreneurial spirit of our country".

(For example, The booming ethnic cosmetics and toiletries market in which African and Afro-Caribbeans have a prominent share is expected to grow in value from £77.2m in 1999 to £177.8m by 2004, and is the most developed ethnic marketing sector in the UK).

In the end, economic reality will force change, however grudgingly, say immigrant support groups. Britain is lumbered with severe economic and demographic problems. There is zero-growth ö a sharp slowdown of the economy to less than 1.3% - an ageing population and a declining employed workforce. These factors make it impossible to resist an elementary economic imperative.

Britain cannot successfully compete in a globalising economy (against other nations in Europe, America and the world) without a continuous injection of immigrants and ethnic minority groups, and a significant proportion of these will be African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian professional, entrepreneurial and unskilled workers.

Business Innovator of The Year 2002 Dr Peter Julu, of MedifitDiagnostics, has developed the NeuroScope (tm), a microprocessor-controlled device that monitors the functions of the brainstem and the heart together. Originally from Zimbabwe, Dr Julu's work provides medical personnel with vital signs data that is easy to interpret.