Paper Chasers

The word paper is fairly neutral. When we were children, we scribbled on it. We used it to paint, to draw and to create art, with varying degrees of success. I was rubbish at art but I loved paper as there was nothing quite like a clean sheaf on which to scribble my ten year old thoughts. As we grew older, the word paper was adulterated to become synonymous with the cold hard face of currency. Today, the plural form of the word takes on a special significance in the vocabulary of the immigrant. Papers are a whole new currency- it is a hot commodity representing a passport to the right to reside in the developed world. The value of this currency never fluctuates.

There are paper chasers on the streets of Paris: the processions of sans –papiers of Cameroonian men and Ivory Coast women in Barbes-Rochechouart fill the churches of Saint Denis to pray to a God who would wash away old lives and give them new documented ones, in the same way that they fill the bank accounts of unscrupulous avocats who promise every year, next year they will have the legal right to reside and to remain. There are paper chasers in London- Nigerian men and Jamaican women who have overstayed the duration of their permits, armed with either a false British passport or a fake residence permit, or both. They work cash in-hand in hairdressers’ salons in Peckham and on construction sites in Hackney. There are thousands of paper chasers in Brooklyn, New York- Grenadian men and Guyanese women who have literally given up solid, reasonably well paid jobs in the Caribbean or brighter prospects at home, to become one of Patterson’s invisibles- they babysit in New Jersey literally cleaning up the shit after affluent slave-owners employers, they try to fleet in and out unnoticed in Caribbean hair shops and nail shops and takeaways. They make us believe that all is okay with their combination of Baby Phat, lace front weaves, Clarks and Timberlands or all of the above.

Paper chasing has its own rules, its own honour code of conduct and regulations, which vary according to the host country’s norms and mores. I quickly learnt that in the United States, a sophisticated money marriage system exists and it is rare to find a paper marriage for free. When it comes to marriage, there appears to be an irrefutable presumption of illegitimacy. I explained to a friend that someone I knew got married. The immediate question was “Papers?” Wedding photos on Facebook are gossiped and whispered about. More often than not, citizens are paid for their time and trouble, often to sums topping $5000- $10,000. This is presumably to represent the cost of the hassle- mere green card holders do not have permanent rights to reside, so often these arranged marriages subsist for over 7 years to ensure that the deal is seen through to completion. The United States’ Citizenship and Immigration Services is often swiftly on the heels- they require photos showing evidence of long marital life, and I have heard, anecdotally, that the questions they ask require intimate knowledge- what colour is your husband’s toothbrush, what was the colour of the dress you wore on your wedding day? A marriage for papers therefore requires forward planning- an easy familiarity with spouse’s family members and background- it is not for the faint hearted. However, many are unperturbed. I know of citizens who have married three times over to allow spouses to obtain rights to reside. I have heard of couples who plan to migrate and each to marry US citizens to obtain that elusive green card, and then to marry each other after the ordeal. I hope it is worth it and it lasts.

In the UK, there is a more covert, laissez faire approach to paper marriages. There is almost always the ruse of love, and even in cases where there is no ruse- overstayers use the criteria of citizenship to filter out any potential marriage applicants. It is the ultimate economic cost-benefit analysis. What good is it falling in love with someone who cannot help? Older women are often targeted. Lots of Eastern Europeans in economically strained circumstances consent to these marriages and contract them for sums as low as £1,000.

Nothing really surprises me about green card marriages in the US anymore except for the profile of those who overstay and who seek to undertake them. I probably expect them of persons who are unemployed in their home countries or those who really have nothing to lose. College graduates really should know better. Is at home so bad? The bourgeois set from the Caribbean/Africa whose parents sent them abroad every summer. Surely during their many sojourns proper research could have been undertaken as to the myriad ways to enter and to remain legally in the West. Up to two years ago, the UK offered working holiday visas and nanny visas to Caribbean nationals, yet thousands still chose to come through the system illegally. Is it the thrill of the chase or is it pure ignorance, the failure to question and to be informed, accepting this indignity of crouching low in another man’s country as the only way? Papers are ascribed an almost mythical significance- "she ehn fix up yet". Someone I know referred to a mutual friend with a  BA, MA and PhD as "not having shit" on the basis that she did not yet have the permanent right to reside. This, to me, is incredulous.

Many who migrate do not tell us the real story, they present a skewed picture of what they romantically term the “hustle”. They do not tell the truth- that the hustle is really a sale. It is a trade in peace of mind for economic gain, without which many of our families would probably not have advanced, but this does not make the choice any more viable or sane. They do not say that the wheel of the hustle is notoriously difficult to climb atop because there are thousands, if not millions of hustlers running along for that chance, to do the job for longer hours than they would, at a pay vastly cheaper than they would, and yes, probably better than they would. They keep quiet the fact that not many employers would take the risk so that for every yes there are maybe one hundred no’s. That to pay bills and to keep on top of rent and demands at home, the hustle becomes two and three and even four hustles, with no time for rest. They keep it on the down low that they are often paid less than permanent residents for doing the very same job. That unscrupulous rich families in the East side would try to hold on to their passports and make them work for more than their contracted hours because they knew that they do not have a choice. That every hustler knows of at least one mother or father whose sons or daughters died whilst they were abroad and that he/she could not come home to bury their own children. And that yes there are no taxes, but undocumented there is also no NHS, no insurance, no services if you happen fall sick. That the hustle may also involve having sex with a man you do not like or love. That very often you learn to love the man you are having sex with, because only that offers a way out.

I do not judge our paper chasers. I envy their audacity and their resilience. I could not do it. I have too much pride to eat at the crumbs that fall of the table of another man’s country whilst its citizens dine Michelin-style. I judge instead the failure of our own countries to harness the skills of its citizens, to create employment opportunities, to encourage initiative among our people so that it won’t be necessary for us to leave. If all the “hustlers” hustled at the same rate in the same way in their home countries, the Third World would be buzzing with vibrance and economic actitivy. I judge the developed West with its McFoods and McJobs and McEducation that lure us with McPromises. And I hope, that by the Grace of God, I would never be placed in a position where all I feel I can do is to paper chase. No one should.

(Pic from www.paperchase.co.uk. All rights reserved. Paper Chase has nothing to do with paper chasing or illegal immigration).

Britain is Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. There are 54 recognised shades of blue but it is uncanny that in the English language, blue often represents the human emotion of sadness. Today, the morning after the one night stand off that were the General Elections, Britain appears to be heading towards a blue state.

Will it be Eton blue, an odd mix between Oxford blue and Cambridge blue? A society that tacitly valorises class, privilege and elite education for a select few? A Big Society that is hemmed in between the boundaries of West Hampstead and Chelsea? Where parents and civil society will build and own their own academies and where teaching will become a profession reserved to only the elite? I wonder who will build the academies and schools for the families in Peckham and Camberwell where parents are disenfranchised and unable to provide the first building blocks for themselves or for their families. Very often, there are no parents at all, but this is unfathomable to the azure thought process of David Cameron.

It might be the cornflower blue of the blue-blooded privileged. An annual cap on non EU migrants every year will ensure that Britain does not turn black or Asian and that it is not flocked by immigrants from Africa, India and the Caribbean. Likewise, the English language test to be taken by anyone who wishes to marry a British citizen will ensure the survival of pure English stock and to assure, as my neighbour put it to me this morning, that there won’t be the case of “no English people in Britain any more”. It could also be the cooing baby blue of the married baby boomers, who would be spending their 150 quid extra on decaf double caramel extra hot skinny lattes as they herd Maclarens across parks and into Starbies. Or it might even be the harsh steel blue of cuts in public spending and more job losses.

It will certainly be a blue period for the most vulnerable in our society because Cameron’s Big Society is small enough to leave them outside it. The homeless, the disabled, single parent families, the unemployed, pensioners and children whose parents cannot afford good schools do not have a certain, steady place within it. If we believe David, schools will be open to private initiatives and prisons would be privatised. The media will be totally deregulated. Solid British institutions like the BBC will be under threat as commercial channels will also be subsidised. We will see the advent of a British Fox news. We will enter a new period of private sector contracting for essential services and significant welfare cuts will be made under the guise of protecting Britain against incapacity cheats and benefit scroungers. Due to pressure from the Conservative bourgeoisie, social housing in affluent areas will disappear(a la Boris Johnson style) leading to mass ghettoisation. Inner city estates will see unparalleled neglect. Hospitals will be run as foundation trusts with budgets allocated by results- riskier, potentially unprofitable procedures will be abandoned.

The last time the Conservatives were in power, there were over four million unemployed and the NHS was on its knees. The rail infrastructure was in shambles. The Conservatives record on how they vote in Parliament also reveals a lot about its current priorities. Despite their alleged commitment to building a stronger economy, they voted against the Business Payment Support Service for small businesses and against the Strategic Investment Fund to protect Britain’s strength in industry. Despite their lip allegiance to families, they voted against increased paternity leave and more flexible maternity leave. They also voted against a House of Lords Bill that removed the right for hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. Newspaper articles from late 1995 show that the Conservatives removed government grants for at risk schools, that the NHS faced a funding crisis and that the police were facing massive cuts. Spending on education was cut. Teenagers were opting out of Further Education. The wages council which set minimum wages was scrapped. People in Yorkshire were being paid poverty wages. Government housing spending was slashed. Labour had to spend so much quite frankly, because the Tories spent too little.

All this I thought as I passed by the Catford town centre today, towards the train station, when I noticed a  sign that I had not previously noticed before. It was a glaucous blue sign reciting “Catford Conservative Club”. Souped up and scrubbed up, it was hedged in between a Turkish kebab joint and a Afro hair supply store but still managed to look dated and out of place. It is for this reason that I believe that the Tories’ courting of the Liberal Democrats will not ultimately, make Britain any more fair, egalitarian or compassionate. The Lib Dem-Tory coalition is a fragile one and is a worthless empty oxymoron as there is no such thing as a Progressive Conservative or a Liberal Conservative. There is a wide chasm of difference between the founding ideological principles of both parties. I am a democracy whore and believe that where the people have not spoken loudly enough or strongly enough, we need to ask the question again. Sweetener deals and agreements in closed rooms do not a mandate make and the governing of a nation cannot be founded upon a discussion between two public schoolboys in their royal blue ties.

The Face of the Immigrant is Mine

According to the quality journalistic broadsheet that is Daily Mail, the face of the immigrant is a fat, lazy, scrounging Somali woman who is awarded a six bedroom semi by the council in Chelsea, and who takes self righteous, almost religious reproductive pleasure in pushing out an Aisha every year for an additional £86 a month in benefits. The face of the immigrant is the builder Pole who works on weekends at a dirt-cheap rate and who has stolen the honest British man on the Clapham omnibus' living (irrespective of whether or not the man actually wants to make a living). The face of the immigrant is the man or woman on permanent job seeker's allowance who spends it buying trainers at JJB sports, teenage moms with gold teeth in Brixton who frequent Chicken Cottage, the Jamaican "bad-bwoy" youth in Walthamstow stabbing innocent locals, the Pakistani who refuses to speak English and whose only contribution is a good curry, the "hordes" of Bangladeshis who "swamp" the local area and reduce house prices. Well, surprise lads, the face of the immigrant is mine.

On my first impression of the UK, I did not want to live in it. Who would? It was permanently grey, sublimely murky, and unfashionably dull. I wished the Siberian winds in Cambridge could blow me back home. The weather was depressing and the stiff British upper lip contrasted starkly with the belly rolling laughter of island life. I could not get the fascination with tea- coffee was so much better. I couldn't understand why people walked so fast all the time even if they were not in a hurry. I didn't like Marmite. Or baked beans on toast. Or velour track suit bottoms. The taste, the smell, the colour and the vibrance of the Caribbean stayed with me like the memory of a good lover, they were gently pulling at my heartstrings and wooing me back. I certainly had no intention to stay. Grenada was and still is home. And certainly, New York or Miami seemed brighter, more cosmopolitan, more colourful, more fun. Europe was my adventure into culture much in the same way as backpacking around Thailand or Africa was the adventure for many British young people.
Almost ten years later, I am still here. Why? Because I was taught that success was not the birthright of any one, least of all, those who because of the lottery of birthplace feel so entitled. Britain is one of the places where I can obtain myriad opportunities and have the chance to be successful in my field and I deserve the right, as long as I am honest and hardworking citizen of the world, to prepare a better place for me and my family. British workers once flocked to the West Indies to capitalise on our sugar- they bled us dry, they congregated on the shores of India and the Far East seeking expensive spices and silks, 17% of the UK population swamped the United States for commercial opportunities in the nineteenth century. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Brits leave the UK to take up hallowed status in embassies, government, industry, around the world. They drive up house and land prices in Barbados and St. Lucia, they have changed the cultural fascia of the coastal towns of Portugal and Spain. It is for the same reason we come to Britain, with a steely glint in our eyes. Why should we let arbitrary factors like nationality and geography determine our fate and our place in the world? Just like you, we want to be where it's at. And quite frankly, I don't give a rat's arse if anyone has a problem with that.

I worked hard for my degrees and for my job and so did most of my fellow migrant workers. Whilst most students I knew got a loan to pay for the LPC, I had three part time jobs and juggled the role full time student. I spent days, if not weeks poring over job applications, proving and overproving my worth. I trained for a number of years. I poured tea and coffee for senior management. I spent hours lost in hundreds of thousands of documents. I did my time. For six years. Most immigrants I know are like me. Even those migrant workers I know who are what we would term unskilled workers and who arrived via the student or marriage route are not content to sit at home to wait on the government for a measly weekly cheque. We came here for a better life, not for an easy one. We often work jobs way below the skill and education level of that which we are qualified to do. The security guard at a law firm I know is an ACCA qualified accountant. My cousin, who has an MBA manages a shop. Sometimes, even when we succeed in finding a job, we are often paid less than British workers. Fact. We live in a country that is for the most part, not the most welcoming and discard ourselves from any hubris all because we are jealous and envious. Jealous and envious of opportunity. The money that we earn often does not belong to us, they belong to our families, our communities and we are therefore more watchful, more focused, more driven.

We are not entitled to claim benefits. We do not qualify for government assisted housing or special payment schemes to get on the housing ladder. We do not have access to student loans. We pay our fair share of taxes but have no safety net if the proverbial shit hits the fan. If we are made redundant we cannot use government funded agencies like JobCentre Plus. We are not eligible for most grants and tax allowances. In higher education we pay four times as much as home students. We pay our national insurance without complaint. We pay exorbitant "visa" fees. We work very hard and face the same challenges that you face, plus more. After saving up tooth and nail for a deposit, we are more likely to be refused credit for a home purchase. We are refused what most people take for granted- a telephone contract, a credit card, a store card, a free bank account. This seems to make no difference to the average Jack on the street. Immigration is the biggest single issue in British politics.

According to the Daily Mail, 98% of the new jobs created over the last few years were awarded, on a platter, to immigrants. The fact that this statistic is implausible and quite frankly, ridiculous did not matter to the 2,495 zealots who commented on the report and cried shame on the UK government. Equally, The British National Party, a party whose founder John Tyndall describes Mein Kampf as his Bible, foams at the teeth: non white people must absolutely not be allowed to stay, even if their parents were born on British soil, they should be regarded as "permanent guests". The BNP's immigration "policy" (if you can call it that) wishes to not only deport over 2 million illegal immigrants, but also to review all recent grants of residence and citizenship (a breach of the rule of law), to offer generous grants to persons of foreign descent who wish to leave the UK permanently, to stop all new immigration and to reject all asylum seekers who pass safe countries on their way to Britain. I knew Nick Griffin is off his rockers but if he thinks that genuine asylum seekers have a choice in where they choose to escape he is worse than I thought- a crazy idiot. What is scary is that the BNP appears to be appealing to lots of voters. How exactly do they intend to execute this neo-Nazi campaign to keep the bloodstock of Britain pure? Because for sure, this small group of Britons who think like this would not have a chance in hell of rounding up us black people on the streets of Peckham, Brixton, Lewisham and Catford. In no uncertain terms: we will get them before they get us.

Even the ones who were once regarded as moderate are up in arms. The Tories are vituperative and wish to entice potential BNP voters with their rhetoric. Immigration is out of control. Britain is being swamped. Uncontrolled immigration is leading to higher crime rates. It is a strain on the demand for more housing. The environment is suffering. Educational standards are being compromised. Immigrants drive down wages. Britain is suffering higher unemployment. There is a loss of British identity, a breakdown in community spirit. Immigration, it is alleged even causes higher council taxes, long hospital waiting lists, a shortage of council homes, and in general, wait for it, higher levels of stress and unhappiness. In the last election it was set out in no uncertain terms "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" In short, let's Blame The Immigrant for Everything. Jay Leno joked that the problem with immigration is not new and that the Indians in the United States had a short term name for it “white people” but on a more serious note, as Margaret Mead an American writer explained: “Society is very like a fish society. . . . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers”. It was telling that the first question in the first Prime Ministerial debate was “What formula would you use to assure a clear working immigration policy?”

David Cameron promises to drive immigration down to tens of thousands and to place limits on the numbers of non EU migrants. That means I, and the other non EU graduates who are in law, investment banking, and medicine will have a tougher time of it, for no reason at all, even though our fields need the best individuals, irrespective of nationality. With respect, Tory Boy, we are not the ones that you need to target. Under European regulations, EU job seekers need to leave the UK if they do not find a job within three months. This is very scarcely utilised. Surely, it is a waste of resources to kick out functioning contributing members of the British economy? He then proposes tightening the belt around the already tight student visa system which will more than likely cause it to implode. Your universities already cannot function without our overinflated fees because the government refuses to award more funding to higher education. He then suggests English language tests for persons who marry British citizens. What is it with the Tory party and marriage? If I wish to marry a person who cannot speak English I think I have a constitutional right to do so. His backwards politics are certainly out of touch with the proletariat viewpoints (maybe in touch with his Eton alumni?) and probably only looks not out of place in his Royal Reader style manifesto. Him emphasising that he spoke to a 40 year old black man- he did not mention race in any of his other anecdotes- demonstrated the mindset of the Tories. We are always the “others”.

Nick Clegg, in the just concluded debate, appeared almost Obama inspired. Campaigning on fairness, and a change in the status quo, he was real and refreshing. The Lib Dem’s immigration policy appears fair and workable. They wish to reintroduce exit checks so that Britain can have a handle on who are leaving. Fair enough. They wish to accord citizenship to families residing in Britain and living in the paperless exploitative limboland for over 10 years. Fair enough. They also wish to improve the National Border Force. Fair enough. He then wishes to introduce a third element to the current points based system where migrant workers would only be allowed to enter in areas where there is a shortage. On first glance, this system appears fair but from a pure selfish point of view, it is here I depart with Nick- he seems to be penalising the City and workers like me.


Labour, because of their experience probably have the most detailed policy on the issue. My score is Must Improve. Their recent reform of the points system was decried as too harsh so the 1 April revision has succeeded in ensuring that Britain continues to retain the best and the brightest. Gordon closed the bogus colleges that gave student visa beneficiaries a bad name and he took action against rogue employers- the precise persons against which action should have been taken. I have concerns about the Migration Impacts Fund, which is no more than a tax by stealth. Labour’s reliance on ID cards to prove identity of foreigners also has an aura of the Deep South about it. Otherwise, electronic improvement of Border Controls seems fair.

It was heartening to see both Brown and Clegg dismiss Cameron's cap on immigration as unworkable. Talent would inevitably be stifled. Statistics issued by the BBC clearly show that Britain needs migrant workers. At the top end of international law and finance, people who can dialogue in different languages and across different cultures are the lifeblood of the industry. Migrants are needed to prop up the construction industry especially with the advent of large projects in London like Crossrail and the Olympics. The fruit picking industry would not survive without the Poles, who pick fruits in summer on British farms for low wages- jobs Britons feel entitled enough not to want to do. British people are not the ones doing catering, childcare and cleaning. The NHS stands on its legs thanks to foreign workers- Indian doctors, South African nurses and Caribbean administrators. Immigrants. Even private companies like Sainsbury’s are high in praise for foreign workers- they usually have a stronger work ethic. This is for the most part because we are more grateful. Vacancies in social work and counselling are also highly dependent on migrants- very few "indigenous" Brits wish to work in these highly valuable but poorly paid roles, or let’s be honest, have the inclination to pursue the qualifications necessary. For a lot of young British kids to whom I have explained my career path, the consensus is that university is "long" and a job requiring you to put in the hours is "nang". There are 7.7 million economically inactive Britain- persons who can work and who are not working, nor are they are not looking for work. This figure dwarfs the hundreds of thousands of migrants who come in every year.

Immigration is also the most sincere form of flattery. We want to stay in Britain because for the most part, this is a fair liberal-minded country. Britain is the hub of Europe; it thrives in culture and the arts. We stay because we build communities, families and friends. We stay because we grow to respect and love this way of life. How much greater would Great Britian be it would be if the British would overcome their fears. We are here to build not to destroy, to add not to subtract.

As Jean Jacques Rousseau said:

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not anyone have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, “Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”