How Does Immigrant Become Illegal

They had different reasons for migrating to Britain. Some were seeking greener pastures for themselves and their families. Others were not interested in settling in Britain, and therefore had planned to migrate, earn money and return to their home country. There is another group of people who went to Britain as workers for the transport system infrastructure, hospitals and postal service due to a shortage of such workers in Britain. It’s important to note that Britons didn’t very positively welcome the West Indies, most especially due to their skin color. However, more than 50 years later the commonwealth citizens found themselves facing deportation despite the fact they had lived in Britain all of their adult lives. It’s important to note how a member of Parliament recently stood up in the house of commons and gave an extraordinarily passionate speech, in favor of the commonwealth citizens who have been currently facing threats of dispossession and deportation.

The primary reason for these threats are lack of papers proving their immigration status despite their working in Britain for decades and paying taxes. Consequently, this has led to most of them losing their jobs, health benefits rights and even the possibility of losing residence rights. This therefore raises a very critical question, where was the British government all this time? Despite this, it’s important not to forget that it’s the British Nationality Act of 1948 that had granted all the citizens of the British Empire an exclusive right to live and work in Britain. John Dewey and Walt Whitman, had utopian dreams and believed that there is a ray of hope for a decent civilized society. Social justice according to post modernists, mainly affects social groups such as the migrants.

For Marxists, moral excellence resides among the marginalized and the oppressed in the society (Galston 2002). Ensuring that the oppressed groups such as the migrants in the society are respected and live in a decent way encompasses social justices. Richard Rorty, a postmodernist, takes into account Dewy and Whitman’s ideas about their utopian dream though these were not post modernists, to bring about his own ideas and political hopes. For Castells (1997), through self-construction, identity provides meaning and experience via cultural attributes in a power relationship context. According to Castell, there are three forms and origins of identity; legitimizing identity is introduced by a dominant institution in a society, such that the social actors end up being dominated over; resistance identity is usually as a result of feeling oppressed and hence leads to formation of a resistant group, in response to the oppression; and project identity which involves social actors redefining their position in a society, with regards to the available cultural materials (Appiah 2005).

No correct definition has yet been established about what globalization is. The western political system is a successful and a viable one and it is for this reason that many countries all over the world have adopted it. Moreover, traditional customs have been replaced by the western culture (Barry 2000). Migration is influenced by economic and sociologic factors. Accepting immigrants and giving them rights is something that countries should focus on (Honig 2001). However, it’s important to consider the fact of “liberal paradox”, according to which a competitive advantage for any country lies on the openness of trade investment and migration. Immigration I however associated with great political risks. Liberal paradox establishes that the failure of a country to control its borders poses a great risk to social factors and the liberal state itself.

However, they do not assume that cultural practices should be disrespected but rather imposing cultural ideals on individuals should be opposed (O’Brien 2005). Post-modernist framework establishes that there is decentralization of the objective rationality of the people in power, hence marginalized people are able to express themselves in a sensible manner. The postmodern theory disregards the ability of the United Nations to protect human rights, since each country has the ability to self-determine what actions should be taken (Balibar 350). Therefore, in the case of Windrush citizens, with regards to the postmodern theory, there fate lies only in the British government. In light of the above argument, how then can a legal migrant become illegal? And what can a country do to ensure the safety of immigrants? The Windrush citizens also referred to as the Commonwealth citizens were at the time not subject to Immigration control.