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The Status and Welfare of Immigrants

Tony Blair's Christmas present!

THE STATUS AND WELFARE OF IMMIGRANTS
By Dr. J.P. Burnside
The Jubilee Centre. 87 pages
Research paper

If you want to send Tony Blair a Christmas present, look no further; this is it. Only why wait till Christmas? Dr. Burnside has formulated a race relations policy drawing analogies from the biblical mode of Israel, with solutions to which neither the political right nor the left could lay claim.

The first two thirds of the paper are taken up with a scholarly in-depth look at biblical law with regard to the immigrant's place in Israel, explaining extensively the different Hebrew terms for the various categories of foreigner. This is quite technical but should be of more than academic interest to the Bible student, in view of its bearing on the broader subject of God's dealings with, and ultimate plan for the nations generally and one's own in particular. The rest of the paper covers controversial topics, including analyses of trends in racially-motivated crimes, policing, sentencing, equality in employment and immigration policy.

The writer warns against a slavish commitment to multiculturalism. We tie ourselves in knots to be politically correct, when 'to give equal value to . . . an opposing belief is to devalue one's own.' Do we give equal credence to a culture where widows are supposed to jump on their dead husbands' funeral pyres?

While warning against the type of nationalism seen in Nazi Germany, Dr. Burnside sees the sense of nationhood, displayed in the Israel model, as of prime importance. It was so uplifting to read of the history of Britain in terms of 'the blessings of a thousand years of Christianity, the deliverance from paganism in the past: from Islam in the Middle Ages, from apostate Catholicism in the 16th century and from fascist and Marxist dictatorships in the 20th century. It is because of this sense of history that we can welcome the immigrant and encourage by incentives (social, economic and legal equality with the native born) if, in the manner of the stranger in Israel, they will voluntarily assimilate into the host country's heritage. This would bring with it mutual benefits and discourage cultural enclaves and ghettos which have the effect of separating and alienating people groups to the point of racial disharmony.

Above all, and especially if we are Christians, we are commanded by God to love and protect the immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker. 'Love the alien, therefore, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt' (Deuteronomy 10.19).

Christine Gobbett