The New World of "Them vs. Us"

Dear All fellow humans,

Welcome to the New World !
It is with great interest and concern I listen to voices all over the world promoting "our jobs for our workers". In any economical downturn there is an increased support for it. In America politicians use slogans such as "America for Americans" and in Great Britain we hear "British jobs for British workers". Typically these two countries are the ones we associate with liberal economies and economical ingenuity. If there was a downturn in the past pressure groups would urge the government to protect jobs at home and not like now forge a dangerous split in the home community. The trend this time around is much more alarming than ever before.

"British jobs for British workers" was a phrase Gordon Brown used back in 2007. His ill-chosen wording has been taken up by workers on strike over the last couple of weeks. Three weeks ago workers at the Lindsey oil refinery went on strike. Their grievance was a contract made by Total, the refinery's French owner, to Jacobs, a US engineering firm, for an expansion of the plant. They in turn subcontracted the job to an Italian company who would carry out the expansion. The Italian company, IREM, has since brought in its full-time employed staff to carry out the work. Its employees are mainly Italians and Portuguese. This has upset the workers and their union, which claims Britain already has the skilled workers for the job.

To me this is beside the point. We are now part of the EU, in which we have signed up to a free movement of goods, people and capital. The fundamental idea of the EU is to promote peace and stability. It has since it was created been taking up other causes too, but one cannot forget the fundamental idea. The three pillars of the Union promotes this cause. The Italians working in Lindsey is a product of it and helps integrating Europe. In fact there are more British workers working outside the UK than Europeans working in Britain.

When British workers start screaming "British jobs for British workers" a dangerous undertone is heard, "we are not like them". Any type of "Us against Them" mentality opposes integration and breeds xenophobia. If it is allowed to continue it can very likely prove contraproductive for our workers abroad and seriously damage our economy when foreign workers leave the UK.

Yesterday Bloomberg published an article discussing Americas answer to the "British jobs for British workers" row, which is the H1-B visas. Last week Chuck Grassley, Republican senator form Iowa, asked Microsoft "If they lay people off, are they going to think of Americans first or are they going to think of the world first?". He wrote it in a letter to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, and also demanded the company to fire visa holders first. According to statistics Microsoft is Americas biggest employer of visa holders. It is therefore an easy target for populist politicians to attack. I think it is irresponsible to do such a thing, since it will certainly only spur on the racial tensions in society and within the company.

Last month a blogger running the Mini-Microsoft blog angrily argued the company should first fire visa holders before Americans. The blog's author has since had to block all messages since the debate "got downright nasty". According to Intel's CEO, Stancy Smith, the industry needs to be able to hire the best people in the world otherwise it would not go forward.

I want to finish this weeks blog by citing the Economist. In an article about the strikes in Lindsey they foresaw the new era in politics; "The cosy prosperity of the past decade was barren ground for political extremes; the coming years might not be true."