Immigration Controls, Capital and Producing Illegality
by Serene John-Richards 10/2/2014
Politicians target immigrants while capital and de-regulated market forces seem beyond their reach, leading to policing of borders and peoples and producing a bipolar regime targeting people on the basis of race and class.
When the new Rolls Building, Britain’s state of the art commercial court, opened in London, the justice secretary Chris Grayling said "People all over the world know: for dispute resolution, you come to Britain.”
Grayling hailed London as the world ‘international’ court, the legal equivalent of the City of London. Elites regularly fly in from Moscow and Saudi Arabia to settle legal disputes, contributing £3.5 billion to GDP. One particular court case, worthy of a Hollywood epic, concerned a Saudi Prince’s alleged attempt to fund Hezbollah as well as allegedly smuggling about $3.5bn-worth of precious stones out of war torn Congo, made possible through an extensive network of shell companies.
Britain is open for business indeed. Other hobbies include luxury mansions that are bought and sold, and left empty as investment outfits. Travel is as easy as online banking, with yachts docked in St. Tropez. Top tier international itinerants are welcomed with Cheshire cat grins as wide as their wild bank accounts.
For their part, the lowest tier wayfarers who are fleeing persecution, with no bank accounts to their name, end up in detention. With extensive cuts to legal aid, they are unlikely to be able to challenge this decision or determine how long they are likely to be detained. For those not seeking asylum, life is confined to a precarious existence on zero hour contracts, like the University of London cleaners from Latin America with Spanish citizenship, who suffer discrimination and unpaid wages.
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