I’ll be honest, I’ve never really understood people’s problems with immigration. Immigrants, migrants, expats, whatever. I just don’t see what’s wrong with it. My logic is that this world is full of land, and humans should be allowed to go wherever, but we’ve just created all these laws and divisions that try to bar us from going to certain parts of the world. Most likely we’ve created these laws for practical reasons; there are too many of us in the world to be in one place at the same time. Fair enough.
But some people get so obsessed with their country (which really is just land and concrete) and act as if it’s ‘so great’ to be from America/England/Russia/Tanzania/Ukraine/China etc. I’ve never been a patriot or a nationalist, so I can’t relate. I’ve never felt this whole-hearted sense of pride for being born in Britain, or having parents from India and Tanzania. Perhaps I used to feel a sense of pride for growing up in London because it was familiar territory, and now that pride has transferred to Guildford where I live. I love Guildford because I’m happy here, I’m doing a course I want, and I’m in recovery. I also love the aesthetics; the scenery, the mix of the trees and the river with the commercialism and shops.
But that doesn’t mean I’m prepared to die and fight for Guildford if war strikes. I’m not going to lay down my life for land and concrete. The phrase ‘dulce et decorum est’ meaning ‘it is right and proper to die for your country’ in Latin has always sounded absurd to me. Why should I be proud of my country? Why should anyone? Being from a certain country is not an accomplishment. I feel proud of my personal accomplishments. I’m pretty proud of this blog, for example. I’m proud of my musical abilities. I’m proud to be sober. These are things that I’ve done. Being born in a certain place with a certain skin tone is not an achievement.
Maybe I’m just too individualistic. Maybe something inside me rolls her fluttery brown eyes as she hears people cheer for England winning the world cup or the Olympic Games. The thing is though, England didn’t win that. Athletes won. Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah are the ones that should be proud. They trained hard and achieved greatness. Their personal gain has nothing to do with me. It’s inspiring, and it’s admirable, but it’s an accomplishment of individuals not ‘England.’
The same goes for something like the Slave Trade. That happened hundreds of years ago to millions of people, and it was horrible. (We must bear in mind that throughout History humans have always exploited other humans for labour; slavery doesn’t only apply to this demographic that we all know I’m speaking of). The Slave Trade was disgusting, but just because I have dark skin why should I feel some sort of ‘pain’ because of it? It didn’t affect me or anyone I know. I should feel upset about things that have affected me directly as a person and deal with those. It happened a very long time ago and it was horrific, but that was then. The people that were affected by it are long gone. Same goes for the ones who partook in it. Those white slave owners and racists back then were disgraceful, but why should people with white skin who exist today have to feel some sort of guilt for something that didn’t even concern them? It happened hundreds of years ago, most white people that live today agree that slavery is a bad thing, but why should they have to feel ‘sorry’ for something that has nothing to do with them as individual people?
And herein lays my problem with nationalism/patriotism. When we tie ourselves to a country, and act as if it’s oh-so important, we are creating problems and conflict that doesn’t need to be there. If we can remove ourselves from these superficial things like country and skin colour and other stuff that we can’t decide, then we will then be able to look past them and see the person inside.
But what about culture? Well, what about it. I don’t have a culture. If anything I’m culturally British, whatever that means, because I was born and raised in this country. I don’t really view culture as that important, and if I’m honest I never have. People ask me where I’m from and I want to just say I’m from London, but I 'have' to say India and Tanzania. I’m not from those countries, I’m from the UK. My dad is from Tanzania. He was born there and grew up there. My mum isn’t from India either; her mother was from there, but my mother was born in Britain like me. I’ve never even been to India. Does this mean I’m not proud of those countries? No, I’m not ‘not’ proud of those countries, but I’m not super proud of them either. They're just countries. They won’t tell you about who I am as a person; the music and films I like, the books I read, the things I’m afraid of, the way I think, the way I treat people. They don’t really make up my identity.
I could have ethnic origins from anywhere. Point is; does it really matter? It matters in a descriptive sense, sure, and in terms of general human curiosity and looking at how different people live their lives it is nice. It is nice that the world isn’t all the same, that we have people living in a mixture of manners. And those cultural variations will usually be for a reason. For example, tropical countries are hot so it would make more sense for people to be more laid back. They’re more likely to leave their doors open which makes it easier to interact with neighbours and speak to other people. England is cold so we have to leave our doors closed all the time meaning people are less likely to interact as regularly. When you strip it down cultures adapt usually from places of practicality and common interests.
So to go back to my previous point, I don’t have a problem with immigration because in my silly utopian head this world is everyone’s world. I know most of the world doesn’t agree with me because if it did I wouldn’t be writing this post, but it makes sense to me. I just don’t get why people are so proud of coming from a certain place. ‘LOOK AT ALL THE GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF X COUNTRY!’ No, look at all the accomplishments of individual people who happened to be born in a certain part of the world. Woo-hoo, ABBA are from Sweden so I’m Team Sweden! China invented tea! Karl Marx was German! BUT NO! Hitler was also German so all Germans must be evil! America are the greatest country in the world because they, like, just rule init! BUT THEY’RE EVIL COS LIKE SLAVERY AND MURDER OF NATIVES INIT!
When will humans realise that all the greatness and evils that happen in this world are simply caused by other humans.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
- John Lennon
Do you agree? Are you more of a patriot? Is race socially constructed and just designed to divide us? Give some thoughts to what you think!