By Ameer Ali –

Dr. Ameer Ali

It was in 1980s when Global North was caught in a whirlpool of rising inflation, unemployment and falling rates of profit – an economic phenomenon called stagflation – triggered by the oil crisis, that entrepreneurs were looking for greener pastures to invest their capital and management strategies at least to prevent further decline in profit levels. China’s conversion to a market economy, dissolution of the Soviet Union, re-unification of Germany, and above all a new wave of technological and electronic innovations came to the rescue. George H. W. Bush exuberantly announced that a New World Order had come into place and territorial borders were becoming increasingly porous. The neoliberal philosophy of deregulation, privatization, and free market became the magical economic mantra of economists and diplomats. From 1990s, rising levels of trade and investments and proliferation of Transnational Corporations became the visible identities of globalization, and to Francis Fukuyama it marked the “End of History”.  

Although this borderless world was meant chiefly to promote financial mobility, cross border investments and trade flow with little or no restrictions, the demand for skilled and unskilled labour in Global North and in oil rich countries also gave a boost to the movement of people from Global South. In addition to the Northern pull factor there were also push factors from the South such as grinding poverty and political and social unrest that encouraged this migration. US, UK, EU and Australia in particular, became favoured destinations. Unlike in the Middle East, Global North was prepared to accept this peripatetic labour on long term contracts and even prepared to offer them citizenship eventually.  Also, as economic disparity between North and South continued to widen instead of narrowing in the New World Order and made living conditions unbearable for millions in the South, the able bodied among them risked their lives and whatever savings they had to get them smuggled out to Global North. People smuggling became a lucrative business to the unscrupulous in the South. The upshot of these developments was the increase in migrant population in the North which has started ringing alarm bells in Global North. Trump’s deportation orders, EU’s temporary border controls beginning with the Schengen area and UK’s White Paper on immigration all reflect an underlying fear that the metaphorical wall built by imperialism and globalization separating those living in zones of conflict and tragedy from those living in relative peace and prosperity, which in other words is the international division of humanity is beginning to crack.      

Even before the globalised liberal era and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the MP for Wolverhampton, Enoch Powel, in UK was warning his government of the danger of increasing waves of people of different colour, beliefs, customs and traditions into imperial Britain. His vocal criticism inside the parliament and emotional outbursts outside produced a group of lawbreakers called Skinheads who went on attacking Asians and in particular Pakistanis and their retail businesses in London. Those Skinheads were the successors of the Teddy Boys who led the 1958 Notting Hill riots against dark skin West Indians. Powel would have turned in his grave with horror when Rishi Sunak of Indian origin became the Conservative Prime Minister of UK in 2022.

The fear of immigrants enjoying a disproportionate share in the employment sector and economy as well as their rising influence in the politics of host nations has led to the growth of anti-immigrant violence and agitation from far-right white supremacists in US, UK and EU. Donald Trump’s fuming over the victory of Uganda born Zohran Mamdani at the New York Mayoral Election and Trump’s deportation orders against so-called “illegal aliens” from Latin America, Pacific Islands and even South Asia while welcoming White South Africans are part of this growing fear. Trump wants to make America Great Again by making it whiter.

It is in this context that one should also consider the virtually unanimous support from Global North to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Despite the latest call for an immediate ceasefire from 28 foreign ministers (shamefully and not surprisingly there was not a single Arab country minister in that list) for an immediate ceasefire the long silence and support to Israel from Global North is legendary and part of an imperialist agenda to preserve the international division of humanity. The exposure by the UN expert Francesca Albanese of how Western Business Corporations are shamelessly profiting from backing this genocide, and Trump’s sanctions against her need no more evidence to demonstrate the hypocrisy behind that ceasefire call. However, pro-Palestine protests are unstoppable and have captured even entertainment arenas like UK’s Glastonbury Festival and Royal Opera House performance. They are further symptoms of cracks appearing on that metaphorical wall pointed out earlier. Global North’s support for Israel is ultimately to strengthen that wall. Deportations, border and immigration controls are other instruments helping the enterprise of an international division of humanity. Trump’s pullout from UNESCO for the second time is the latest in this globalist agenda. That is the zeitgeist.