In recent years, national identity in Britain has hardened. A struggling economy is somehow being blamed on asylum seekers—a fraction of one percent of the population—even as a bureaucratic system traps them in limbo for years. In his essay for New Lines, Tam Hussein visits one of Britain’s asylum hotels, where residents are made to feel increasingly unwelcome. An immigrant himself, Hussein reflects on how belonging in Britain has become increasingly conditional.
And if we were to apply this Khaldunian theory, the U.K. is at the tail end of this cycle. The country has been at peace for a long time and produced generations raised on good times. And now the economy is in tatters, and society is coming loose at the seams. The presence of these foreigners has become a focal point…
In recent years, national identity in Britain has hardened. A struggling economy is somehow being blamed on asylum seekers—a fraction of one percent of the population—even as a bureaucratic system traps them in limbo for years. In his essay for New Lines, Tam Hussein visits one of Britain’s asylum hotels, where residents are made to feel increasingly unwelcome. An immigrant himself, Hussein reflects on how belonging in Britain has become increasingly conditional.
And if we were to apply this Khaldunian theory, the U.K. is at the tail end of this cycle. The country has been at peace for a long time and produced generations raised on good times. And now the economy is in tatters, and society is coming loose at the seams. The presence of these foreigners has become a focal point for identity politics, because what do English people, if you will, have in common with them exactly? Group solidarity, to apply Ibn Khaldun, is fraying because these migrants look different, speak differently, have different cultures, etc. Forget, for a moment, history and Britain’s colonial legacy — the fact is that the “indigenous” population cannot deal with this apparent influx of outsiders, even if they are just a fraction of 1% of the population. There is no great war or world war that glues your average English person to, say, an Afghan or an Eritrean living in the country. The only thing that inspires this group solidarity, as Orwell rightly pointed out, is football.
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To perfect a culinary staple as ubiquitous and timeless as the sandwich “is a question of using tenacity, knowledge, know-how, flair.”