Maybe it's the Brits who should go back to where they came from

If the United Kingdom cannot offer the same hospitality many countries around the world have offered them, then maybe it's the Brits who should go back to where they came from.

Picture of Buckingham Palace taken by yours truly xx

British people everywhere
No matter where you are in the world you will always run into a British person. Some were like me, just travelling around the world for the fun of it, but there were also a lot living abroad to escape the cost-of-living crisis back in the UK. Throughout Asia I met a lot of British people who were either on their way to Australia to do a working holiday or working abroad in Southeast Asia, usually somewhere with great weather, cheap amenities and friendly locals. Throughout Europe a lot of Brits were travelling on a recently acquired EU passport and scouting countries to work remotely from.

A lot of British people I met were super friendly. I ended up running into one British girl in The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia and every time we did, we would often do fun day trips together. While teaching in Bari, Italy I had a roommate from the UK who had lived in Spain for two years teaching English. As well as working together we went to a language exchange evening together and befriended some of the locals and formed a little friendship group. There have also been numerous times where I have met a group of British people travelling together in my hostel dorm and they ended up adopting me for the day, letting me join in on their adventures.

I think it is great that a lot of British people love to travel and want to see if they can set up a life somewhere else. The freedom to move around, either for travel or migration is something everyone should have the right to do. However, while the British love to visit and live in other countries, they aren’t too keen on people coming into the UK. About half of the British population want their government to reduce immigration numbers, yet 1 in 10 of its citizens is currently living abroad. It is extremely hypocritical that for a country that has so many people living abroad, they are not willing to offer the same hospitality to people wanting to come to their country.

The hypocrisy of the UK closing their borders
Recently, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has launched a crackdown on the country's borders. In a series of xenophobic tweets claimed, "Settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right" and that "If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English. That’s common sense.”

All this talk about settlement being something you earn and that those who come over need to assimilate to the culture is a bit rich coming from the nation that colonised 105 countries which resulted in the eradication of many native cultures, languages and people. It is even more hypocritical when a lot of the countries people are migrating to the UK from are countries that are enduring political and economic turmoil caused by British colonisation.

When the United Kingdom enforced borders in both Africa and Asia they did not take into consideration the different ethnic groups living there, which has resulted in internal conflicts in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ghana. Furthermore, the recent escalation between India and Pakistan this year is a long-lasting consequence of the UK’s careless departure from the region.

Vox video explaining Britains role in causing tension between India and Pakistan

According to The Migration Observatory in 2021/22 India and Pakistan were respectively the first and third most common countries of birth of UK migrants and Nigeria was 6th. Given that the United Kingdom is responsible for the civil unrest and political and economical struggles of these countries, the least they could do is let them migrate to the UK to increase their opportunities for work and study.

In regard to whether these migrants need to learn English before arriving, I wonder how many of the 302,020 British immigrants living in Spain knew Spanish before arriving, or know any Spanish now? The same question can be asked to the 55,000 British immigrants living in Thailand or the 19,040 living in Japan or any other British immigrant living in a non-English speaking country. How many of them knew the language before arriving and how many have bothered to learn? As for assimilating, if everyone else has to put up with the disrespectful and drunken antics of British immigrants and travelers then the British can work around other people’s cultures.

The British can be extremely friendly, but they can also be a fucking nuisance. If someone is being loud in a hostel corridor at 3am in the morning, or vomiting in the common room area, or yelling at a local working in a restaurant or at a reception desk or starting a fight at a bar, odds are that person is British. Well, at least they were based on my experience.

Why countries need to stop closing their borders
The UK isn’t the only country wanting to close its borders. The Trump administration is also cracking down on its borders, both for travelers and people looking to immigrate. They have also been going on a deport frenzy, kicking people out, even if they have their visas and paperwork in order. Italy and Spain are looking to introduce legislation to reduce the number of tourists and there have been many alt-right parties throughout Europe like Germany and France whose platforms have strong anti-immigration policies. Australia also has a history of strong border control laws (anyone else remember Tony Abbott’s ‘stop the boats’ campaign) and still makes it difficult for people to migrate or even travel here. Except of course for people from the UK who can get a 3-year working holiday visa within the blink of an eye.

Keir Starmer

According to Starmer the UK is at risk of becoming “an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together”. While he might think closing the borders will fix this, in reality it is just going to make the UK and its citizens more isolated. It is going to encourage a mentality of not letting new people into your life and further perpetuate this us versus them mentality which often leads to a rise in racial violence. This is why borders need to stay open. Yes, the people arriving at first may be strangers, but allowing people to move freely all over the world promotes the exchanging of cultures, language, art, food, music, sense of humour and ways of thinking. The coming together of people helps break down any preconceived notions we may have had about each other, embrace each other's differences and helps us realise there are many things we have in common, the main one being we all want to feel a part of a community. This recognition allows people to form friendships with people from anywhere around the world and build a community based on empathy and understanding.

However, if Starmer and the UK government are still so adamant to shut its borders to the rest of the world, then maybe the world should shut its borders to the UK. Maybe all those Brits living abroad or taking a gap year throughout Southeast Asia should be deported and those with both EU and UK citizenship should be made to sacrifice one to help ensure the UK moves forward as one nation. If the United Kingdom cannot offer the same hospitality many countries around the world have offered them, then maybe it's the Brits who should go back to where they came from.