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OpinionsTWENTY per cent of the population living in the Cyprus Republic is foreign, according to interior ministry estimates. Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said there were currently 66,000 non-EU nationals working legally in Cyprus and some 34,000 illegal immigrants; there were also 97,645 workers from EU countries registered with the state.
This is a big number of foreigners in a country whose population does not exceed 800,000 and which until 15 years ago lived in an ethnically and culturally homogenous society. Some two million tourists arrived every year but they stayed in the coastal resorts and were never seen as a serious threat to our way of life. On the contrary they were welcomed as they spent their money here and did not live among us. The foreign workers, on the other hand, live among us, are part of our daily life and, whether we like it or not, have become part of our society.
It was inevitable social problems would have been created by the mass influx of immigrants and that the local population would not always be welcoming, even if the majority was brought in because of the needs of the economy. We seem to forget that we invited the majority of them here to do the jobs that Cypriots refused to do. In fact we would never have achieved the pre-recession high rates of growth without the lowly-paid immigrant work-force.
The availability of jobs also attracted impoverished people from developing countries looking for a better future. When caught they would claim they were political refugees seeking asylum, knowing that they could buy time until their applications were examined by the authorities. Many of them were given shelter and state benefits, in line with EU directives, sparking the hostility of many Cypriots who resented their taxes being ‘wasted’ on asylum-seekers. Cyprus was not unique in this respect; this type of reaction has been evident across the EU.
Since the recession this hostility has grown. With unemployment figures rising, more and more people have been complaining about immigrants taking ‘our jobs’, which is not strictly true. How many Cypriots – recession-hit or not - would be prepared to do the low-paid menial jobs that immigrants are given? How many Cypriots would work as farm-hands (job reserved for asylum seekers) or domestic helpers (about 33,000)?
The rising xenophobia has been cultivated and encouraged by newly-formed extremist, nationalist groups with an overtly racist agenda. With names such as Movement of Greek Resistance (it organised the anti-immigrant march in Larnaca), Movement for the Salvation of Cyprus and National Popular Front, these groups have been recruiting youths and indoctrinating them with ideas of racial superiority and hatred for other ethnic cultures. They also have a political agenda – stirring hostility towards the Turks because they are opposed to a federal settlement.
They are no different from neo-fascist groups in the rest of Europe, inventing conspiracies and non-existent threats to our society. To cover up their racist agenda, they claim they are only against illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, arguing that their influx is part of a Turkish plot to ‘Islamicise’ the free areas. They cite the flow of illegal immigrants from the occupied area as proof; one of the extremist leaders described this as ‘an act of war by Turkey’. This is the type of language that is used in order to stir the hatred of impressionable youths.
The separate attacks on five foreigners, by youths in Nicosia, 10 days ago, were a worrying indication of the growing influence of the extremist groups. There have been isolated incidents in the past – Africans and Asians being attacked; cars with Turkish Cypriot number plates being pelted with stones – but the events of 10 days ago suggest that the situation is veering out of control. Four days ago, in a copy-cat incident, an Asian was attacked in downtown Nicosia by a group of thugs
Unfortunately, nobody apart from the Immigrants Support Movement (KISA) and a few individuals has taken a stand against this disgraceful racism. Quite the contrary, populist politicians, sensing there are votes to be won from xenophobia, are constantly protesting about lazy immigrants collecting state benefits. While there may be such cases, the sweeping generalisations only encourage racism, especially as the demagogues never mention the important contribution foreign workers make to our society.
The influx of large numbers of immigrants has indeed caused a host of problems which our society was unprepared for. Solving them will take time, but the racist violence must be dealt with now, before it gets out of hand. Society must take a clear stand against the extremists groups and the racists they are producing.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
our View: Time to lance the boil of burgeoning neo-fascism - Cyprus Mail
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