I have nothing against foreign workers ..but

They will litter the area and make too much noise. They will molest our children. They will crowd up the buses and sleep with our maids. They will pose a security hazard. Basically they will just generally fuck up this pretty little nieghbourhood we've built for ourselves here. Our harmonius little enclave of tolerance and budding cosmopolitan culture.

Its just makes me angry. These residents getting together in their little groups, making their little petitions with all their horrendous claims of monstrosities that will occur once these people invade their neighbourhood. Dont get me wrong, I hang out at gardens all the time and I like it the way it is.. The laid back kind of chill out vibe, I want that to stay. But at the same time there is something to be said about tolerance and basic human decency.

Oh we have nothing against them. We respect what they do for our country. We just dont want them anywhere near us. On some level its understandable, its a reaction to a change most see as affecting them negatively. Im sure these people are good people on most days but come on .....dont couch your words with pleseantries and assume you are justified. Dont throw baseless accusations and paranoia driven "fact" around as evidence. Take one step back and call it what it is. Racism. Bigotry. All these "justifications" seem so rational at the time I suppose but they also sound eeriely familiar. These precepts are founded in ignorance and double standards. The same foundations of things like jim crow laws. Hindsight, history, education, tolerance all these seem to have no value when its at the cost of some inconvenience towards us I suppose.

I just have one question. What if it were you? What if you were the foreigner living in a strange land, miles away from your family and all that is home to you. What if a group of people ganged up against you and said that they didnt want you to be there ,whether it was because of the colour of your skin or the menial jobs that you slog at to send money back home or because of the horrible things groups of you might do. What if these people who dont speak to you or interact with you loudly hail judgements about "you and all your kind". And be very clear it is you and your kind that the protests are against. There are no petitions going around to prevent the other kind of foreign worker from invading the heartlands. You see we call them expatriates. They make the area more cosmopolitan, you urinate in the streets. Let just be honest about the situation and call it what it is. Maybe then I might have a minute ounce of respect for all those signatories. Im sure they are all good people. They always are. And they have potentially falling property prices to be concerned about as other like minded folk would inevitably steer clear of the area.

Im not saying there arent going to be issues and stuff to be concerned about. Yes. But in a nation that depend on these people for the development of our country there has to be a better way. We cant just keep them away, keep moving them somewhere else, where they are separate but equal-thats the kind of bullshit they threw around justifying racial segregation.

Maybe I am being unduely critical I mean every city has its problem with the unwanted, the immigrants, the homeless, just those people you would rather not live near by. But I'll remain the idealist and say there is a better way and its starts with checking yourself and your perceptions of other people. It starts with looking at your own prejudices and recognising them as just that; prejudices. Perhaps its too hard to always lead principled lives but sometimes its too dangerous not to try. Im sorry but separate and equal just does not fly.