Why Brexit, Part I

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Clarissa

June 28, 2016

What I find truly contemptible is that even after the Brexit debacle some people can’t bring themselves to utter the reason why Brexit won at the polls. Some people have gone to the insane extreme of saying that Britons voted Leave because they were so overpowered with compassion for Greece. I mean, you’ve got to be a lying weirdo of the first order to come up with that idiotic explanation.

The real reason is, of course, immigration. There, I said it, and nobody died. Britons freaked out because of immigration. And the ruling classes are still not ready to acknowledge that and start doing something. It’s as if they were waiting for actual pogroms.

I have to run now but I will continue.

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11 responses to “Why Brexit, Part I”

Shakti

June 28, 2016

My hot take:

I think Britons, especially the older ones in the majority, were freaked out by the post nation state fluidity that EU accelerated. It’s not just immigration and racism since Britain already had many people immigrating as a direct result of its colonial past (don’t laugh) and not through the EU. When the immigrants start running to actual boat people and economic refugees and not highly skilled workers that are part of other countries “brain drain” and who would’ve have done well in their native countries, the Britons freaked out. The gyrations of a markets in Spain and Greece affecting British financial policy because it’s tied to several nations freaked people out. Everyone’s for fluidity when it benefits them and against it when it doesn’t.

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1. Clarissa
  
  June 28, 2016
  
  Yes, absolutely, it’s about fluidity. Nobody symbolizes fluidity better than an immigrant. The reaction is that of a deep anxiety. Now the question is, how moral is it for those who are comfortable with fluidity, well-traveled and cosmopolitan, to ridicule those who haven’t been out of their village and are disoriented and scared?
  
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Stringer Bell

June 28, 2016

https://twitter.com/alecshea/status/746850069027110912

Favor policies that cause a world-wide economic crisis.
Impose an austerity economic regime as a response to 1.
Blame immigrants when, shockingly, things don’t turn around.

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cliff arroyo

June 28, 2016

Could you define “immigration” (as distinct from other kinds of human movement) please?

Technically there is no immigration within the EU – there is the free movement of people but there is no requirement for new arrivals to learn the local language or adopt local norms of behavior (beyond following local laws). If there are children they are expected to go to local schools but the results are not always… what one might imagine. A couple years ago I knew of a Polish student who’d spent almost half their life in Ireland (including going to school and passing) but couldn’t pass advanced English exams (modeled after the Cambridge proficiency exam) in Poland.

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1. Z
  
  June 28, 2016
  
  Correct. It is migrants, not immigrants, who go with fluidity.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    June 28, 2016
    
    Well for me “immigrants” are a force for stability. The economic, physical and psychic strains of moving to a new country and learning to adapt (esp outside a narrow fellow immigrant community) are so demanding that few people want to go through it even twice (let alone more often).
    
    As I keep saying the classic immigrants are gone. They’re being replaced by people who move around physically but not socially. They might frequently change countries but they don’t localize, they seek out and spend as much time as possible with people like themselves (linguistically, socially, religously, etc).
    
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    1. Z
      
      June 28, 2016
      
      Right. A lot of university faculty are like this, whether or not they are foreign
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        June 28, 2016
        
        It’s a psychological defense mechanism. If you don’t get attached, it will be easy to move on when needed. This is why I talk so much more to people on my blog than to people on my street. The ones on the blog have already followed me through 3 major interstate moves.
        
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        Z
        
        June 28, 2016
        
        A good reason to have social media. Before the Internet, these of professors used to really suffer because they would only socialize with each other and it would lead to high drama due to emotional incest and ensuing conflicts. I always purposefully sought out people and activities outside the department because whether you are permanent or not, the kinds of things you do to put down roots are healthier (even in the shorter term)
        
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        Clarissa
        
        June 28, 2016
        
        Very true about the deranged incestuous environments of academic departments. Things can get really toxic.
        
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2. Clarissa
  
  June 28, 2016
  
  Yes, you are right, immigration is a concept that belongs to the nation-state era.
  
  What I suggest is that we recognize, on the one hand, that impenetrable borders are gone and the fantasy of erecting walls and splitting up into ever-shrinking nation-states is a waste of time. And on the other hand that we recognize the anxiety of those who are confused by the rapid flows (of everything – people, capital, information) not as stupid bigotry but as legitimate anxiety. Dismissing them outright does not lead anybody to a good place. We will all pay dearly for trying to shut them up and mock them into a resentful silence.
  
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