Immigration Crisis or Bureaucratic Crisis?

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, physiological and safety needs are the foundations for an individual to develop and achieve self-actualization. In a perfect world, these needs would be satisfied for everybody to ensure prosperity for ALL of humanity. Yet, in many European countries such as the U.K., these necessities are being denied to immigrants as a result of measures taken to prevent illegal immigration. This war against illegal immigration has impacted hardworking legal immigrants caught in the crossfire of the government and illegal immigrants. 
Picture of Asiya Islam; source: nytimes.com

United Kingdoms' Injustice

Asiya Islam, a legal resident of Britain for a decade and a junior research fellow at University of Cambridge, was rejected for permanent residency on account of her spending too much time outside of the country. The premise of the rejection defies ethical reasoning and puts Islam at a disadvantage. The British government allows for "540 days in total to be spent outside of the country over the course of a decade" (Schaverien 2019). Islam sent 647 days outside of the country over the last 10 years, but 330 of those days were for her Ph.D. research. This shows how she is being punished by the British government for simply furthering her own education and the research of University of Cambridge. Also, this puts Islam in a very uncomfortable position because the country she used to call her home has rejected her. Most people would want live where they feel wanted and appreciated for their efforts. The consequence of putting Asiya Islam in such a predicament is that she will no longer feel entirely safe due to the lack of security in her residency. The head of the sociology department at Cambridge, Professor Sarah Franklin, puts it best, stating that the decision is an "outrageous breach of common sense". 

Reference

Comments

  1. Moj GhulamDecember 3, 2019 at 3:01 PM

    wow amazing post i would give it an A+ if i was grading it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna PetersonDecember 11, 2019 at 11:52 AM

    I would love more detail about the ethical issues that you think are raised by this situation. What are the values that are at stake here? Do both sides (Dr Islam and the UK government) have moral arguments in support of their positions?

    ReplyDelete

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