What about the immigrants who aren’t world winning athletes?

The dichotomy between characterising immigrants as either “profitable” or “leeches” is essentially turning human beings into currency. And that’s why non-English folk are used as pawns for political gain.

I don’t think enough people have really understood that you can’t choose where you’re born. People who don’t understand that have tend to have never wished they were born in another country. I decided to trawl the ever trustworthy Reddit and see if anyone had actually done any maths to determine the likelihood of being born in a wealthy country AND being above the poverty line. Without showing next man’s working, the percentage chance of ending up living in a ‘rich’ country whilst living above the poverty line was at 12.55%. Which theoretically leaves the chances of being born in a poor country or being born in a ‘rich’ country under the poverty line sits at around 87%.*

For me, the moment really hit home on one of my family trips back to Nigeria in the mid noughties. I remember chilling with my cousins in Abia State, Eastern Nigeria. I can’t even recall who said this but we were playing in the compound when one of them said: “you’re so lucky you were born in the UK.” But was I? On a surface level I could see why I’d won the conception lottery — out of all my dad’s siblings, he was the only one who left to go to the UK.

But the sacrifices he made included:

• Putting up with racism in an unfamiliar culture
• Working menial jobs when you’ve got a degree from your home country
• Temporarily leaving your child in your home country while you “grind” in conditions unsuitable for raising a child
• Fasting — but not for religious reasons, (see: poverty)
• Living in sub par accommodation: (my father recently told me that shortly after he and my mother moved out of an overcrowded apartment block in Amsterdam, an ill-fated plane nose dived into it, leading to multiple fatalities.)

I’m not convinced it was luck that brought us where we are today. However grit, determination and perhaps for him, faith played a significant role. Yet the immigrants who make it that don’t end up being famous and are just ‘normos’ or ‘squares’ working the same 9–5 grind like everybody else are used as pawns in the political game. Many immigration stories are a success in themselves. Carribeans moved to the UK en masse during the Windrush era, and they arguably helped keep the NHS on its feet during a time when the UK was recovering from its rationing era. Many others kept London Transport Services running before TfL as we know it today. Even to this day, Asian and African doctors continue to keep GP surgeries and out of hours services afloat. Despite resistance, despite “no blacks, no dogs, no Irish.” Despite giving up a livelihood at home and making sacrifices for their children. They may not be famous but I’ll bet you they have stories of how they worked their way up and gained citizenship, only to be dismissed as ‘not British’ because of an accent.

Even if you don’t have an accent, like myself — no matter how long I’ve lived in this country that I was born in, my dual nationality and ethnicity are constantly at odds with each other. It doesn’t help that when some people ask where I’m from, my response is met with “but where are you really from” as though my nationality is a facade.

I remember I put out a tweet when Danny Sturridge scored a winner against Wales during England’s short-lived Euro 2016 campaign:

I had to block the surprising torrent of abuse that came from Engerlahnd supporters who either a)decided to be racist, or b) don’t understand the concept of immigration is not offensive, (particularly coming from me, the child of Nigerian-born parents) it is the political application and perception that is. What was interesting was that it was only once a person of colour with a British passport had scored a goal for his country that he was considered English enough for Jack and the lads to get behind. It was interesting to see hoardes of English fans backing the assumption that Danny Sturridge is ‘English’ — but I know for a fact that if he wasn’t playing football for this country that would be a subject of debate.

Sir Mo Farah is another prime example, even being knighted shows the lengths to which he is considered British. But if he ever was to be found to have used performance enhancing drugs to win races, watch how the narrative will change to “Somali-born”. This supports the “good immigrant/bad immigrant” argument. That those who have moved to a country are compartmentalised in two distinct boxes. Either:

• You’ve done something worthy enough for the country to praise and use in political arguments as to why you should remain in your new country
• You’re a bad immigrant because you committed a crime, or can’t find a job or perhaps you failed to complete formal education (like any other person may do as a matter or circumstance)

If you look at the bare bones of immigration, the majority of people are economic migrants when they move to the city for jobs. For example, I grew up in an Essex seaside town but moved to Southampton for higher education. I have now ended up relocating to London because of work. I’ve yet to come across someone who thinks they are superior to me because they were born in London but I moved here for a better quality of life. By this logic, why should someone who moved to this country for the sake of finding work be seen as inferior to someone born here? The only answer I can think of here is either xenophobia and/or racism.

Overwhelmingly it has been the case that overseas workers have been complimentary rather than competitive to British-born workers. There were up to nine studies Theresa May suppressed because the results were inconvenient, instead reducing human beings to pawns for political gain. Yet right wing media continues to pedal out anti-immigration rhetoric, which flows down the public’s throat smoother than pineapple Ciroc. I also found it interesting that an anti-immigration stance is needed to win over the public if you want to gain political following. Even the Liberal saviour Jeremy Corbyn had to include a narrative on reducing EU migration during the last General Election debates to gain additional backing.

5 years ago London was the dream during the 2012 Olympics. The reason? The fact that London (and the UK in fact) was open, available to anyone and everyone, a true display of globalisation.

I just want to know what happened.

*Of course these numbers are to be taken with a pinch of salt as I don’t quite think there’s a way to actually quantify this — go speak to a statistician. However it does give us a ballpark figure.