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1/25/03:

Snakes and Curtains

From close-to-home to a general overview, I'm feeling quite affected by three recent articles on the US's quite frightening isolation of Muslim immigrants. I'm always loathe to say that current events are analogous to historical precedents (like those that readily reappropriate WWII patriotism into the US's current war fever, ignoring the vast contextual dissimilarity between the two) but as more anti-immigrant policies are absorbed into the US's modus operandi more each week, the crimesand intolerance of the past frequently come to mind and with some quite poignant questions.

Earlier this week, a prominent Muslim leader from a suburb outside of Chicago was barred from re-entering the US where he and his family have lived for 16 years after a brief trip to Jordan. Though alleged to have ties to Hamas, which the man's family fervently deny, the barred re-entry also smacks of political intolerance -

Samirah has been a high-profile spokesman for Islamic causes, lambasting the government for alleged discrimination against Muslims, challenging American policy in the Middle East and rallying fellow Muslims to vote. When First Lady Laura Bush came to town in May 2001, he was selected as the Muslim community's representative to greet her at the airport.

For broader insights into the INS's current policies of selective registration, the Digital Freedom Network posted an article that details the many faults of this policy from its violation of the international treaties, which the US has signed, to questioning its effectiveness as a real security measure -

As an effort to protect US citizens from future terrorist attacks, critics claim that the Special Registration program is misguided at the very best and in violation of human rights at its worst.

"It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack," said a spokesperson for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I don't think the terrorists will go and register."

Amnesty Internaional President William Shulz has criticized that singling out individuals on the basis of national origin is tantamount to racial discrimination and many have equated Special Registration to the internment of Japanese during WWII. In fact, some argue that the US is in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which it is a party.

Thirdly, an article in the Nation by Naomi Klein - The Rise of the Fortress Continent - which (taken with a grain of hyperbole) views these aforementioned policies within an emerging and reactionary re-alignment of global power, rather than being simply immediate and temporary measures -

A fortress continent is a bloc of nations that joins forces to extract favorable trade terms from other countries--while patrolling their shared external borders to keep people from those countries out. But if a continent is serious about being a fortress, it also has to invite one or two poor countries within its walls, because somebody has to do the dirty work and heavy lifting.

It's a model being pioneered in Europe, where the European Union is currently expanding to include ten poor Eastern bloc countries at the same time that it uses increasingly aggressive security methods to deny entry to immigrants from even poorer countries, like Iraq and Nigeria.

Broadening the topic further, at the website of immigration and globalisation expert Peter Stalker, I've found an excellent overview of current world migration patterns, its economic impact to both native and destination countries, and answers to common myths like immigrants and welfare, brain drain, and unemployment. Relevant to this discussion - though the supression the rights of a society's vulnerable members may have the immediate political rewards of greater security (imagined or otherwise), Stalker points out grave consequences to those that attempt to isolate themselves while every other social and technological feature of this century necessitates the convergence of cultures and economies. A high cost for an unattainable degree of security, to be sure.

posted by jeremy @ 9:21 PM