BRITAIN –
July 2016's EU referendum was pointed at from all sides, accused of being an attack on migrants. While it is debatable how much of an influence immigration worries had on the result, Freedom of Information requests are a testament to the extent of damage campaigning has had on communities at a social level. Alisha Jackson explores how the political event that divided a nation made Britain more racist.
It is no question that the lead up to the EU referendum caused a hostile environment. The United Kingdom before, a progressive society of tolerance to cultural diversity, now a state with overt racism, threaded throughout British politics. Figures that show a radical increase in police reports for racism year on year in June and July 2015 to June and July 2016 are striking. They are evidence in numbers that the political discourse throughout campaigning fed courage to closet racists in airing their views openly, with Britain’s 'free speech’ as a defence to vent.
Throughout campaigning, social media was the playground for the spreading of fake news, falsities and bigotry. The media assisted politicians in scaremongering the public and Remainers point the finger of blame to the Leave campaign for scapegoating migrants, producing the outcome of a more racist Britain.
"We're in a period of identity politics," says Jude Kirton-Darling, the Labour MEP for the North East. She explains how it ran throughout the Brexit campaign, the 2017 French election and was a big part of Donald Trump’s campaign, referring to his use of the term “illegal aliens” about Mexicans. “It’s politicians, certain politicians feeding on people’s insecurities. It’s very dangerous and it’s very divisive. It’s very difficult to undo and to tackle,” she says. Sunderland, with its loyal Labour support and some of the least-diverse neighbourhoods in Britain, was cast in the spotlight after a resounding 61 per cent voted to leave.
The vote went against the grain of all progress Sunderland has made so far in its bid to become the new City of Culture from EU-funded innovation and revival efforts for the city, including grants to the University of Sunderland, Washington Business Centre and Sunderland Software Centre. Still, anger over unemployment, which remains the highest in the country since the death of the shipyards, meant constituents looked for someone to blame to make sense of the issue.
Kirton-Darling says: "In areas which are very mixed and there are larger migrant communities including Newcastle, the university cities, London and so on, you actually had a bigger remain vote because the fear mongering around immigration didn't echo as loudly because people had their own personal experience of migration.
“The North East and parts of Sunderland are some of the most modulus places in the country and I think that fear mongering plays in areas where there isn’t the direct experience."
However, Leave campaigner for Brexit capital Stoke-on-Trent and former Tory candidate Joe Rich argues that the EU Referendum did not make people more racist, however, admits that immigration was a significant player to the result.
He said: "I think that it played a significant role because I think that people felt that the European Union was failing to enforce its borders. I don't think it’s extremism that has fueled Brexit, I think it’s the desire for sensible controls."
In regards to the scapegoating of refugees and immigrants, he added: “It may have happened but certainly it wasn’t the thrust of our campaign. It wasn’t part of the vote leave campaign, no.”
To the accusation that Brexit was an attack on migrants, he said: "I totally disagree with such a proposition. Absolutely not. It makes me very cross when I hear things like that because it's completely untrue and has nothing to do with me or the campaign I was responsible for."
For EU citizens working in the North East of England, the referendum result is causing indirect change. Simona Stancheva, a 24-year-old woman from Bulgaria who has lived and worked in Sunderland for four years, says that at least half of her friends, also EU citizens, have left the United Kingdom following the referendum result.
She says: “I feel less welcomed here. I feel like people don’t want us here.”
She believes that in the last year, people are more open to racism, and blames the media for its portrayal of EU migrants. “It’s like the result gave a green light to people to talk about immigrants in a more negative way than before,” she added.
“In a way, it turns out to be a humanity issue, saying 'we will get only the right people, only what we need’.”
However, not all EU migrants feel this way. Gabriela Plamenova, a 23-year-old hotel worker from Poland and member of society 'EU Citizens in the UK', hopes to remain living in London and finally be granted citizenship.
"Every country wants to protect their own, regardless of their tolerance for others," she said. "It's true that EU migrants have enriched Britain in ways: they work, pay taxes and contribute to society, but on the other side, some European citizens only come here to take advantage of the system, and this unfavourable group of people has impact on the image of all European citizens in the eyes of British people."
She disagrees that any Brexit fallout in the form of intolerance towards EU workers holds a great social impact on anyone's emotional safety, despite the rise in hate crime.
She added: "In every country there are racists and people who do not like foreigners. I am sure many British have voted for racism reasons, since the referendum has given a voice to racists and xenophobes to express their views loudly and rudely, but Brits voted leave for a number of reasons, such as preserving their own rights and quality of life, economic reasons, health reasons, safety reasons. It is wrong to assume that leaving the EU is only based on racism."
Gabriela seems to be one of few EU citizens who hold this view, but nonetheless, says that she is making an effort to uphold the spirits of fellow EU citizens in the UK, maintaining that they not be intimidated or put off by the advent of Brexit.
“I like the diversity the UK provides in terms of different nationalities and that's one of its charms. For me, this diversity is a major factor when choosing a place to live,” she said. Diversity in the UK may be its charm, but when that novelty wears off, the levels of racism that have already made an impact on migration, could have a long-lasting effect that could be critical to the British economy.
