While lockdowns have fuelled xenophobia, the effects of new immigration controls will be felt for generations

Lauren Crosby Medlicott, The Independent

Earlier this week, the US president yet another measure to prevent foreigners from entering his country. In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Donald Trump has – in his words – “extended a pause on some green cards and suspended visas for other foreign workers until the end of 2020.” What seems, at first glance, to be a sensible decision to prevent further transmission of coronavirus in the world’s worst-hit nation will actually have a far more dangerous and long-lasting side effect – fueling the fire of xenophobia.

Already with a reputation for being tough on immigration, COVID-19 has given him another excuse to tighten legislation on entry to the US. His actions are breeding a fear of strangers among the American public.

Such a reaction to the coronavirus outbreak is not unique to the US. In the UK, the pandemic has illuminated feelings of fear that were stoked only to recently by the debate over Brexit and immigration. We have been fed anti-immigration rhetoric, devoid of fact and loaded with jargon which, once digested, spews fear and hatred of people from other countries

I am based in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil and there, during lockdown, I have had many conversations with friends who have described how they hesitated to purchase a Chinese takeaway, fearing that they might catch the virus. Their fear is genuine, not necessarily based on a hatred for the Chinese people, but it is of course utterly unfounded based on scientific understanding of how the virus spreads. Nevertheless, repeated exposure to such unchallenged base fears will lead to ingrained fear that will be hard to shake long after the pandemic has wound down. That’s how xenophobia and racism spreads.

I see this first hand every day. At home in Wales, I run a project for survivors of human trafficking in Cardiff and Newport. Most of the women I work with come from countries such as Albania, Nigeria, China, Congo, and Sri Lanka. They have travelled to live in the UK, either by choice or force, yet still face daily discrimination based on their country of origin. The popular debate over immigration tell us that they shouldn’t be here. That people “like them” should be kept out of our country. They are overrunning our infrastructure, draining our resources, not contributing to society – and possibly contributing to terrorist activity too.

Of course, none of these accusers have ever sat and shared a coffee with my clients and hear their stories. They haven’t shared the hell these women endured, haven’t felt the fear of war. They are also missing out on the beauty of the individual; they know nothing of their kindness, tenacity, courage and resilience, or of the wisdom and skill they have to share.

The Brexit debate, deliberately, sidelined this. It saw foreigners as a threat to our safety and comfort, not a huge asset to the nation. Now COVID-19 is solidfying that perspective.

A balance is difficult to strike during this unique pandemic. We must necessarily close borders for a brief time to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as so many nations have chosen to do. Yet we also must aggressively reject the idea that each foreigner entering the country will bring a deadly contagion, and guard against any rumblings of xenophobia. We must protect life, whilst protecting diversity and forging new respect for people who were not born in the UK.

The single best way to guard against xenophobia is to develop friendships with people from different countries. I have observed this is in myself. I can’t say I have ever felt fear of someone from another country, but I will admit I have felt nervous of how to communicate with them, worrying about what we will talk about.

Once we are able to put faces to names, friendships to ideas and beliefs, these fears dissolve. In spite of COVID-19, regardless of Brexit, every nation operates at its best when it fights for diversity and rejects xenophobia. Coronavirus should not be blinding us to that.