We cannot lose faith in our shared humanity

When I landed in Melbourne Airport last week, I was surprised to see lots of notices in Chinese, and to hear the airport announcements being made in Chinese. Maybe it was because it was Chinese New Year, but it was still a shock. I mentioned this when I bumped into one of my fellow travellers at the baggage carrousel, who was Australian-born and coming back from a primary school conference in Europe, and she surprised me all the more by replying: “We have lots of Chinese and Asians in Australia — they make great citizens — they are family oriented and very hard-working.”

It was very refreshing to hear such uninhibited approval of immigrants expressed without any forethought and coming naturally from an Australian answering a casual query. For me, it was exciting after following years of poisonous diatribe from the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) in Britain, which forced Britain out of the European Union (EU); after a year of Europe agonising over how to handle the refugees seeking entry from its war-torn neighbours; and most noticeably after a terrible year of listening to United States President Donald Trump’s election tirades against migrants and in favour of anti-Mexican walls, topped by the presidential entry ban on seven nations once he won power.

The global wave of xenophobic hatred is a phenomenon that has to be resisted, but the counter argument to the narrow-minded has often been lost by default. In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel led the way with her welcoming message to the refugees, but then spent many months forced onto the defensive as nationalists sought to force her to reinforce their German identity by stopping or excluding immigration. And the same is happening with Marine Le Pen whipping up sentiment in France, and the whole anti-EU debate in Britain being largely defined by the fear of incoming refugees and migrants. None of the politicians in these countries is coming out with a full-throated argument in favour of new citizens.

‘Values of openness’

Having returned to the UAE, the government announced new visa rules earlier this week that are specially designed to attract worldwide talent to the UAE by creating categories of visas for professionals and entrepreneurs in a rolling series of targeted industries, with the explicit aim to improve the UAE’s global competitiveness by welcoming people from around the world. “We always strive to entrench the values of openness and tolerance and will never step back. We welcome the great minds from the 200 nationalities living in our country,” said His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Such hopeful words stand in stark contrast to the anti-immigrant statements coming out of so many countries. They join with the honest excitement of the Australian who though of immigrants as a genuine benefit to her country. And they join with the statement of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who welcomed immigrants to Canada with a Twitter message saying: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.”

Such faith in humanity makes a real contrast with Trump’s order temporarily banning all refugees and the citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations from travelling to the US. Such a clumsy tool is in no way to either restrict immigration or to stop terrorism and it sends a deliberate message of exclusion based on race, with a strong sense of Islamophobia because even if technically Trump’s order was secular, it targeted seven majority-Muslim states. Even if the executive order has been rescinded in court, it has still sent a powerful message to every would-be visitor to the US that they might be targeted in the future and that this administration cannot be trusted to leave them alone. No-one knows which countries or faiths or social categories may next attract the notice of the president and this is a tragedy that is still unfolding as the chaotic Trump administration blunders further into its term in office, and the rest of the world has to scramble to catch up. However, it is important that the essential faith in the humanity shared by us all is not lost as we struggle to resist the current wave of hatred.