Public Comment

Britain’s New Caste System

Jagjit Singh
Saturday March 07, 2020 - 06:11:00 PM

Racism, xenophobia and outright hostility to immigration have reached the shores of Britain. An unhealthy - “I’m all right jack” is a sentiment often expressed by the offspring of recent Asian immigrants.

Using the Trump playbook, Priti Patel and Sajid Javid are backing new immigration laws that would have barred their ‘unskilled’ parents from entering the UK.

Sajid Javid’s father, a poor Muslim immigrant from Pakistan unwittingly promoted the false belief that the Tories were the party of social mobility. Sajid immigrated in the 1960s. Much like their American cousins, the Hispanics and other minorities, British immigrants served as the backbone of UK’s economic growth. Sajid senior was a bus driver who worked hard to ensure his children received the best possible education.

Under current immigrant rules, Sajid senior would be denied entry by rules promoted by his son. The new rules bar all unskilled immigrants especially those who cannot speak English. His “Judas’s son, become a spectacularly successful businessman and politician. He spoke enthusiastically that we are “very optimistic about our future because … we will remain the global-outlook nation that welcomes people from across the world.” But people like his dad would now be unwelcome. Priti Patel, another successful politician bluntly stated that her parents, Indians from East Africa, would no longer be welcome. The new crop of influential Indian immigrants are now changing laws that would have barred their parents from seeking a better life. Has the offspring of Indian immigrants ushered s a new form of caste system dividing immigrants as good, highly skilled Brahmins and bad unskilled untouchables?