Overcoming Xenophobia?

"deep-rooted fear towards foreigners" (Oxford English Dictionary; OED)

"fear of the unfamiliar" (Webster's) 

I own a few properties. My agent contacted me about one recently. "I've found a really good tenant, but he won't pass a credit check." 

"Oh?" 

"He's foreign."

"Oh, well … ." 

"He's every right to live and work here at the moment. He's EU."

"Okay. So what's the problem?" 

"He only has a reference from a foreign landlord. Our credit-checking agency won't accept that.  But I've looked at his bank accounts and this reference is immaculate."  

This makes me wonder whether we've actually ever really been in the EU. Haven't we always rather only taken on board what suits us? Trusting another EU landlord obviously doesn't. 

Why not? And is xenophobia the answer? 

To say someone is xenophobic seems to be accusing them of being nasty. But any phobia is an involuntary response to something. I'm personally not at all xenophobic about anything or anyone European – I know them so well. But I find myself wary of other cultures, even though I try to talk myself out of it, so can to some extent understand this credit agency. 

We have to make an effort, though, don't we? If we can't cope with other Europeans, who in the end are more like us than many others, how are we going to secure all these wonderful new deals all over the world?     

                 

Language may well be a factor but the Chinese don't all speak English, do they? I always feel slightly uneasy in the US – less so in Canada – because the culture is more different from our own than we'd believe. This isn't entirely mitigated by the fact that we use a very similar language.  

   

So what should we do about this xenophobia? Admit we have it, work to overcome it, think of strangers as friends we've not met yet and gradually exchange experience. I have vague memories of being that way with my friends on the mainland a while ago and certainly I taught my students this process.        

It can't hurt, can it, to work on it a bit that way?

Split in two

I attended my last session as external examiner at the University of Leeds just one week before the referendum. The meeting went well.  We descended into small talk at the close and mused on what we might be looking at in a few days' time. 

"He should never have called for a referendum," said my colleague. 

What? Only now was I beginning to feel a little uneasy. Surely it was supposed to be like 1975 all over again? Surely we would want to hold on to our free trade, the ease of movement, farmer's subsidies, the security of having a European court if the national one fails, being able to work easily with colleagues from other states, all that access to European money and all those very fair laws. 

The night before the referendum I put my thoughts on Facebook. They were well received.  

I had realised all along that this matter was divisive. It still is. I have to speak out but I'm putting my head above the parapet and getting some sharp comment back.

Recently a former Brexiteer said she had changed her mind. I asked her why she had voted to leave in the first place and what was she doing now to help reverse things. These were genuine questions, not a criticism, but of course someone has now made the point that she should be applauded for admitting she made a mistake. Yes, of course. But we also need to rectify that mistake before it's too late.  

And I admit I too made I mistake: I said too little too late.  

I now assume that the Brexiteers blame things such as homelessness and food banks on the EU. I personally think these would all be a lot worse if we hadn't been in the EU and know these problems have more to do with the fundamental causes of the 2008 economic crisis. I keep inviting Brexiteers to tell me why they voted as they did and to date have not heard or read one convincing argument.   

  

The question has divided us and both sides have in places descended into name-calling. Some Remoaners (can we invent a different word please?) are assuming all Brexiteers are racist xenophobes. Some Brexiteers want rid of all of the Eourofans.  "Go and live on the mainland," one said today.  He wants us to leave the Brexiteers in peace so that they can make Britain great again. I personally doubt that that can happen – especially if all the Eurofans leave. The EU never stopped Britain being great – in fact it enhanced one of our main qualities – that of tolerance. History should have taught us that trying to make a country "great again" can lead to disaster. We watch with interest what's happening over on the other side of the Atlantic.      

The majority of the people living on these islands (and indeed on the European mainland) are fair, open-minded and tolerant. 

It was irresponsible if the two Eton boys to try to settle a spat this way. It was also irresponsible of our government to allow a less than 52% majority to be called the demonstration of the will of the people. The 48 / 52 % split clearly calls for a third way which is possibly a good overhaul, transparent to all, of the way the EU works. I guess the other 27 would have thanked us for raising the issue.                              

     

Set theory for global citizens

I was heartened today by seeing a picture on Twitter that showed a Yorkshire flag on the left a Union flag in the middle and a European flag to the right. The caption read "It doesn't have to be either or."  

Indeed it doesn't. 

I woke up this morning with stiff knees and said to my husband: "Bugger Brexit.  I need to live somewhere warmer. Let's go and live in Spain." 

However, I'm not sure that's what I actually want. I love the more highly-marked changing seasons in northern Europe. I love the rich culture in Great Britain. 

For the last ten years we've lived near Manchester and having spent our youth living near Birmingham, we appreciate being near a big city again. Technically, we live in Greater Manchester but our little town used to be postally described as Lancashire.  (Apologies to my like-minded friend who put the Yorkshire flag up on Twitter today.)  That Manchester voted Remain, with a very respectable majority, is a bonus. Becoming Mancunian does not negate my time in the Midlands or the thirty years we spent living on the south coast. We've also lived and worked and generally spent a good deal of time in other European states. All of these places have influenced who we've become. 

But here's the thing. Manchester is part of Great Britain, that is still currently part of Europe – in fact is still will be even after Brexit – and Europe is part of the world. When we finally meet the inhabitants of other planets, we'll do well to recognise that Earth is part of the universe, not something separate from it.   

So if we follow this set theory through, Remainers can cheer. Brexit will make things dammed awkward but it can't undo this bit of set actuality. We are all global citizens whether we want to be or not. Our overarching set is that of the citizens of everywhere.   

As I said recently, maths has never been my strongest subject, but set theory I understand well. Much of it applies to languages and those I know about. Beats me how certain Oxbridge educated individuals are failing to see this.           

A Little Bit of Mathematics

So, we give £350,000,000 a week to the EU. What does it spend it on? Oh, don't we get £300,000,000 a week back for our regions – two of which look as if they want to break off from the UK. The third, anyway, wants independence.  Which leaves merry England divided into two with many Big Towns wanting to Remain. Still, if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave, we won't have to pay for them.

30% roughly of the EU's spending goes on farmer's subsidies. Farmers are important. They produce our food.  It's not an easy life. The subsidy guarantees them an acceptable life style.  No, it doesn't make them rich. Just comfortable. The immediate question for many after the referendum was "Will we still get our subsidy after Brexit?" So, the British tax-payer is to pay that, then? That's okay. We won't have to pay the £350,000,000 a week anymore. Except if Northern Ireland and Scotland don't go they'll still want the £300,000,000 – Wales' bit- a week. And Wales will want her share anyway.

Never mind, that leaves approximately £20,000,000 a week. Okay, let's give that to the NHS and use it to get people off the streets. We can do without the EU- funded projects. Who cares about the Metrolink in Manchester? We don't really need the €10.9bn awarded to us for 2014 – 2020, do we? Guess we'll have to pay some of that back. And won't it be nice not to contribute anymore to less economically developed states? We're the fifth richest nation – let's keep it that way. We might make it to fourth. Oops, maybe not. We've just been downgraded. No doubt we Remoaners are accused of blaming it on Brexit. Yes, I know. It's unbelievable that nurses are using food banks, that young people can't get on the property ladder and that the wages for those working in the public sector are frozen – where exactly is the money in the UK? We must be giving it all to the EU.       

Then of course there is the exit bill. How many weeks of £350,000,000 will that take?  It was already a lot before they went quiet and started hiding the figures.

But what would I know? I only got a B in GCSE maths.       

Citizens of Nowhere

In her speech to the Tory Conference 2016 Theresa May upset a lot of people by declaring that those of us who think of ourselves as global citizens are in fact citizens of nowhere. How to react? Perhaps by doing what I do best – write about it ….

At Bridge House Publishing my business partner, Debz Hobbs-Wyatt and I commissioned stories by people we knew would feel the same way and a few fell into our laps while we were compiling other collections. We have each even included one of our own stories.

Many, myself included, found May's statement disturbing. I'm British. There is much about being British and the British that I love but not quite everything and not at the cost of appreciating aspects of other cultures. I can't help it. I've lived abroad. I've taught modern languages for twenty-six years and in doing so used international friendship and communication as a motivator. I'm married to the son of a World War II / Holocaust refugee. He brings a lot of German qualities and a few Jewish ones to our everyday lives. Many of my teen years were spent with Elaine, Ingrid, Monica, Theo and Rene – all born in Jamaica and I never noticed the colour of their skin. Eating sweet-potatoes at a 4.00 p.m. dinner felt normal. Elaine and Ingrid's mum was a great cook and kept to her Jamaican domestic clock.   

We have a delightful mixture of interpretations of this theme.

Our collection is framed by two stories that make similar points: Alan Gibbons' From Our Own Correspondent and Jennifer Palmer's The Visitors. 

Ea Anderson brings us a story of the global citizen always on the move in Slowly Things Appear.

By contrast, Neil Campbell's These Boots Were made for Walking is firmly set in a Manchester that many of us know so well. It is a multi-cultural Manchester that worries about Brexit. My own story The Wedding Next Door shows how cultures can rub along together thought it's not always easy. Matevž Hönn juxtaposes for us in Perfect Day events across the globe which seem curiously connected. Debz Hobbs-Wyatt's Boarding House is indeed about a boarding house but one where all sorts of people from all sorts of situations have to get along and in doing this they get to know themselves better.  
    

Vanessa Gebbie kindly gifted us a recycled story: her The Kettle on the Boat. This is beautifully told in a child's voice. The story gives us a great insight into another culture. The child moves into another as yet to her unknown culture. We feel her fear. No, being a global citizen is not easy.   
 

Karen Kendrick's The Road to Nowhere presents a modern day problem: political refugees. Her story shows both sides of this problem in very human terms. A similar theme is explored in Vanessa Harbour's Home, but this time we have a child's point of view.

Shqiperia by Jennifer Burkinshaw shows us two people struggling with two cultures. More challenges for the global citizen.   

Sarah Dobbs tackles another form of Otherness in her story Something like Mohammed. Discrimination isn't just about race. Neither is diversity.

Global citizens face many difficulties and in many cases in the stories here they grow because they overcome huge obstacles. Should we not therefore welcome them and perhaps rename them citizens of everywhere?    

So Madam May' outrageous statement also brought us a fabulous title and concept for a book.       

Now I just need your advice. How best to ensure that Madam May gets this very important Christmas present in time for Christmas? And while we're talking about Christmas what do we think Jesus Christ would have made of her statement?