Go Back to Where You Came From

by Sasha Polakow-Suransky

  2. Andrew Hussey, interview by author, Paris, March 14, 2016.

  3. Ben Judah, “Islam and the French Republic,” Standpoint, August 2016, http://stand-pointmag.co.uk/node/6568/full. In the early 1980s, certain French Communist Party officials voiced anti-immigrant sentiments similar to the FN’s positions today.

  4. Nuttall ran himself in the Stoke-on-Trent by-election in March. Although Labour won, he came in second and got 25 percent of the vote—a respectable showing for UKIP. See also Robert Anthony Ford and Matthew J. Goodwin, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (New York: Routledge, 2014), 108.

  5. Andrew Hussey, interview by author, Paris, March 14, 2016.

  6. James Angelos, “Will France Sound the Death Knell for Social Democracy?,” New York Times, January 24, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/magazine/will-france-sound-the-death-knell-for-social-democracy.html.

  7. Marine Le Pen, interview by author, Nanterre, May 18, 2016.

  8. Ibid.

  9. David Rachline, interview by author, Paris, June 28, 2016; “Livres, Boutiques, Vidéos … Enquête Sur Le Business Alain Soral,” L’Obs, August 26, 2015, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/societe/20150826.OBS4801/livres-boutiques-videos-enquete-sur-le-business-alain-soral.html; “Dieudonné: Son Lucratif Business,” RTL, November 1, 2014, http://www.rtl.fr/actu/les-lucratives-affaires-de-dieudonne-7768716509.

  10. “Alain Soral: ‘C’est l’Iran Qui a Financé La Campagne Du Parti Anti-Sioniste,’” AgoraVox, April 3, 2013, http://www.agoravox.television/tribune-libre/article/alain-soral-c-est-l-iran-qui-a-38594; Nolwenn Le Blevennec, “Les Iraniens Ont-Ils Financé La Liste Antisioniste de Dieudonné?” L’Obs, October 21, 2013, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-politique/20131021.RUE9641/les-iraniens-ont-ils-finance-la-liste-antisioniste-de-dieudonne.html. After declaring in the video cited above that Iran had financed the party, Soral later told journalists that it was “local Shiites” in France who provided financing.

  11. Mathieu Molard and Robin D’Angelo, “David Rachline, Un Ancien Proche de Soral Nommé Directeur de Campagne de Marine Le Pen,” StreetPress, September 15, 2016, http://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1473936987-david-rachline-prochesoral-marine-le-pen.

  12. David Rachline, interview by author, Paris, June 28, 2016.

  13. Nolwenn Le Blevennec, “David Rachline Du FN: ‘Je Ne Suis Pas Juif Selon Les Codes,’” L’Obs, September 11, 2011, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-politique/20110911.RUE4255/david-rachline-du-fn-je-ne-suis-pas-juif-selonles-codes.html.

  14. David Rachline, interview by author, Paris, June 28, 2016.

  15. Marine Le Pen, interview by author, Nanterre, May 18, 2016.

  16. Julien Aubert, interview by author, Paris, May 17, 2016. Indeed when Aubert’s former party boss, Nicolas Sarkozy, attacked the FN in the 2007 campaign, he went after them on economic policy rather than identity issues, trying to tar them with an extreme left label. It had the effect of shoring up the centrist and economically conservative vote even if the FN was drawing votes from the working class.

  17. Mabel Berezin, Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: Culture, Security and Populism in the New Europe, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 119, 132, 219–220. In a 2015 article, Maureen Eger and Sarah Valdez argue: “Results from our voting analysis confirm that welfare chauvinism—not rightist economic preferences—affects voting behaviour. These findings are consistent with recent work that shows voters are not motivated by neo-liberal preferences … and other research that identifies particular parties as welfare chauvinist.” Maureen A. Eger and Sarah Valdez, “Neo-Nationalism in Western Europe,” European Sociological Review 31, no. 1 (2015): 115–130. See also Maureen A. Eger and Nate Breznau, “Immigration and the Welfare State: A Cross-Regional Analysis of European Welfare Attitudes,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology (February 2017).

  18. Julien Aubert, interview by author, Paris, May 17, 2016.

  19. Marine Le Pen, interview by author, Nanterre, May 18, 2016.

  20. Julien Aubert, interview by author, Paris, May 17, 2016.

  21. Lars Olsen, interview by author, Humlebæk, April 11, 2016.

  22. Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, interview by author, Copenhagen, April 15, 2016.

  23. Søren Espersen, interview by author, Copenhagen, April 13, 2016.

  24. Thomas Gyldal Petersen, interview by author, Herlev, April 13, 2016.

  25. Søren Espersen, interview by author, Copenhagen, April 13, 2016.

  26. Kenneth Kristensen Berth, interview by author, Copenhagen, March 4, 2016.

  27. David Goodhart, The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics (London: C. Hurst, 2017), 79; Ford and Goodwin, Revolt on the Right. Jeremy Corbyn’s strong showing in the 2017 election may reverse this trend.

  28. Michael Collins, The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class (London: Granta Books, 2004), 246–247, 8.

  29. Roy Kerridge, “Me and My White Mates,” Spectator, July 24, 2004, https://www.spectator.co.uk/2004/07/me-and-my-white-mates/; Mike Phillips, “Rivers of Crud,” Guardian, July 24, 2004, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/24/highereducation.biography1; Nigel Farndale, “The Salt of the Earth Turns Sour,” Telegraph, August 2, 2004, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3621549/The-salt-of-the-earth-turns-sour.html.

  30. Owen Jones, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class (London: Verso, 2012), 6–9.

  31. Ibid., 116–118.

  32. Ibid., 225, 102.

  33. “To Their Manor Born,” Independent, July 24, 2004, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/to-their-manor-born-49060.html; Mark Simpson, “The Return of the White Working Class,” Mark Simpson’s blog, April 19, 2006, http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/2006/04/19/to-their-manor-born-mark-simpson-reviews-the-likes-of-us-by-michael-collins/.

  34. Daniel Trilling, Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right, 2nd revised ed. (London: Verso Books, 2013), 137–141.

  35. Jones, Chavs, 88.

  36. Ford and Goodwin, Revolt on the Right, 72–73.

  37. John Harris, “Britain Is in the Midst of a Working-Class Revolt,” Guardian, June 17, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/17/britain-working-class-revolt-eu-referendum.

  38. John Harris, “‘If You’ve Got Money, You Vote In … If You Haven’t Got Money, You Vote Out,’” Guardian, June 24, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/divided-britain-brexit-money-class-inequality-westminster.

  39. Ford and Goodwin, Revolt on the Right, 108, 138, 176.

  40. Harris, “‘If You’ve Got Money, You Vote In … If You Haven’t Got Money, You Vote Out.’”

  41. John Harris, “Britain Is in the Midst of a Working-Class Revolt,” Guardian, June 17, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/17/britain-working-class-revolt-eu-referendum.

  42. Harris, “‘If You’ve Got Money, You Vote In … If You Haven’t Got Money, You Vote Out.’”

  43. Collins, The Likes of Us, 233, 242–246.

  44. David Goodhart, “The Outers’ Message Resonated with Those Who Feel Left Behind,” Financial Times, June 24, 2016, https://www.ft.com/content/14ee0dd6-39e8-11e6-a780-b48ed7b6126f.

  14. XENOPHOBIA BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE

  1. David Goodhart, The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-War Immigration, Main ed. (London: Atlantic Books, 2014), 247.

  2. Louw invited me to join the group in August 2016. I have been privy to the entire group discussion since then, including thousands of messages.

  3. Mary Louw, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016.

  4. Buthelezi is the leader of a Zulu nationalist party that clashed violently with Mandela’s ANC during the early 1990s and nearly derailed the transition to democracy.

  5. Michael Neocosmos, From “Foreign Natives” to “Native Foreigners”: Explaining Xenophobia in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Oxford: African Books
Collective, 2008), 97.

  6. Roni Amit, “Paying for Protection: Corruption in South Africa’s Asylum System,” Migration Policy Institute, November 5, 2015, http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/paying-protection-corruption-south-africa%E2%80%99s-asylum-system.

  7. Loren Landau, “South Africa’s Tough Lessons on Migrant Policy,” Foreign Policy, October 13, 2015, https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/13/south-africas-tough-lessons-on-migrant-policy/.

  8. Amit, “Paying for Protection.”

  9. Richard Stupart, “Is South Africa Home to More than a Million Asylum-Seekers? The Numbers Don’t Add up,” Mail & Guardian Online, August 15, 2016, https://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-15-is-south-africa-home-to-more-than-a-million-asylum-seekers-the-numbers-dont-add-up/.

  10. Dominic Frisby, “Zimbabwe’s Trillion-Dollar Note: From Worthless Paper to Hot Investment,” Guardian, May 14, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/14/zimbabwe-trillion-dollar-note-hyerinflation-investment; “Zimbabwe Inflation Leaps to Hyper Level,” VOA, October 27, 2009, https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-05-13-voa20-66555532/554752.html.

  11. Jonathan Crush and Sujata Ramachandran, “Xenophobia, International Migration and Development,” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 11, no. 2 (May 2010): 6. doi:10.1080/19452821003677327.

  12. Ibid., 4–9, 31–37.

  13. This does not do justice to Steinberg’s book or Abdullahi’s story. It is well worth reading in full. Jonny Steinberg, A Man of Good Hope (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2014).

  14. The last time a term like that was used was in Zimbabwe in 2005 when President Mugabe declared a vicious attack on opposition supporters known as Operation Murambatsvina—throw out the filth—that left hundreds of thousands homeless.

  15. Emmanuel Camillo and Lynsey Chutel, “South African Police Arrest Thousands in Raids Following Attacks on Foreigners,” US News & World Report, May 15, 2015, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/05/21/south-african-president-apologizes-to-mozambique; Khadija Patel, “Operation Fiela and Our History of Kicking Out ‘Illegal’ Immigrants,” Daily Vox, May 28, 2015, http://www.the-dailyvox.co.za/operation-fiela-and-our-history-of-kicking-out-illegal-immigrants/.

  16. Crush and Ramachandran, “Xenophobia, International Migration and Development,” 17–22.

  17. Baron Mukeba and Prince Abenge Médard, interview by author, Johannesburg, August 2, 2016.

  18. Amanda Khoza, “Zuma’s Son Wants Foreigners out of the Country,” News 24, April 1, 2015, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Zumas-son-wants-foreigners-out-of-the-country-20150331.

  19. Marc Gbaffou and Prince Abenge Médard, interview by author, Johannesburg, August 4, 2016.

  20. Ingrid Palmary and Jean-Pierre Misago, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016.

  21. Marc Gbaffou, interview by author, Johannesburg, August 4, 2016.

  22. Mary Louw to Proudly SA Citizens group on WhatsApp, various dates August–December 2016.

  23. Mary Louw, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016. Louw herself tirelessly publicized one such killing; when a young ANC leader in the area killed his girlfriend, she mobilized local women to attend the trial.

  24. Ibid.

  25. For a broader discussion of this phenomenon, see Jacob Dlamini’s excellent book Native Nostalgia (Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2009).

  26. Ingrid Palmary and Jean-Pierre Misago, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016.

  27. Ingrid Palmary, Gender, Sexuality and Migration in South Africa: Governing Morality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 79–99.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Ingrid Palmary and Jean-Pierre Misago, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016. As Palmary argues, “There had to be a distinction made between what was crime and what was politics” on the grounds that “if it’s politics we have to take it seriously. If it’s crime then … we write it off.”

  30. Palmary, Gender, Sexuality and Migration in South Africa, 79–99.

  31. Mary Louw, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Samuel and Pascal (leaders of Reprenons Calais, no surnames given), interview by author, Calais, June 15, 2016.

  34. Mary Louw, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 28, 2016.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. The stridently populist Economic Freedom Front, South Africa’s closest thing to an openly populist party, which one might expect to profit from xenophobic sentiments, has actually been the most outspoken defender of immigrants, largely because of its stated commitment to Pan-Africanism, the movement to which it traces its roots.

  38. Ngqabutho Mabhena, interview by author, Johannesburg, July 29, 2016.

  39. Penelope Mashego and Moipone Malefane, “All Illegal Foreigners, Leave My City—Herman Mashaba,” Sowetan Live, December 2, 2016, http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/12/02/all-illegal-foreigners-leave-my-city—herman-mashaba.

  40. Mary Louw to Proudly SA Citizens group on WhatsApp, December 3, 2016.

  41. Ibid.

  15. WILLKOMMENSKULTUR VS. GUANTÁNAMO

  1. For a broader perspective on extralegal violence and extralegal spaces see, for example, Mateo Taussig-Rubbo, “Outsourcing Sacrifice: The Labour of Private Military Contractors,” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 21, no. 1 (May 8, 2013), http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol21/iss1/3 and the Israeli film directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, The Law In These Parts (Cinema Guild, 2013).

  2. Ben Doherty, “Call Me Illegal: The Semantic Struggle over Seeking Asylum in Australia” (Oxford: Oxford Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2015), 43–47.

  3. Jeremy Thompson, “Australia, Malaysia Sign Refugee Deal,” ABC News, July 25, 2011, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011–07–25/malaysia-signs-refugee-deal/2809512.

  4. John Menadue, interview by author, Sydney, January 21, 2016.

  5. Anna Burke, interview by author, Canberra, February 3, 2016.

  6. Waleed Aly, interview by author, Melbourne, January 29, 2016.

  7. Waleed Aly, “Comment: The Australian Solution,” Monthly, August 2012, https://www.themonthly.com.au/australian-solution-waleed-aly-5858.

  8. Julian Burnside, interview by author, Melbourne, January 28, 2016.

  9. Ahmed and Marwan and other detainees (#1), series of interviews by author, Villawood Detention Centre, Sydney, January 14, 2016. (These names are pseudonyms; both men prefer not to be identified.) Australia announced in May 2017 that the Manus Island facility will be closed. See Ben Doherty, “Manus Island Detention Centre to Close by Year’s End, Inquest Told,” Guardian, February 15, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/15/manus-island-detention-centre-to-close-by-years-end-inquest-told.

  10. Madeline Gleeson, interview by author, Sydney, January 15, 2016.

  11. Melissa Parke, interview by author, Canberra, February 3, 2016.

  12. Daniel Webb, interview by author, Melbourne, January 27, 2016.

  13. Waleed Aly, interview by author, Melbourne, January 29, 2016.

  14. Paul Farrell, Nick Evershed, and Helen Davidson, “The Nauru Files: Cache of 2,000 Leaked Reports Reveal Scale of Abuse of Children in Australian Offshore Detention,” Guardian, August 10, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/10/the-nauru-files-2000-leaked-reports-reveal-scale-of-abuse-of-children-in-australian-offshore-detention; Daniel Webb, interview by author, Melbourne, January 27, 2016. The whistleblower laws have since been softened somewhat.

  15. Gillian Triggs, interview by author, Melbourne, January 27, 2016. Triggs is reviled by people like the conservative columnist Chris Kenny for what they regard as partisan favoritism. Triggs kept quiet about detained children under the Labor government and then spoke out when the right came to power in 2013. To Kenny, this is a cardinal sin and a sign of impartiality. As Triggs tells it, she didn’t hold an inquiry, because the government had pledged to move them out of detention. “Although the numbers were high, t
he government was actually moving them out in what could be seen as a reasonable space of time. We didn’t like it, but they were moving,” she told me. When Tony Abbott trounced Kevin Rudd in the September 2013 election and didn’t end the detention, Triggs went after the government. The government went on the attack and tried to force her to resign—even offering the incentive of a senior position. “The only way they could get me out was to show that I was bankrupt or that I had committed a criminal offense of some kind,” she says. They filed freedom of information requests for all of her phone communications but couldn’t find grounds to remove her.

  16. See Parliament of Australia, “Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014,” December 5, 2014.

  17. Daniel Webb, interview by author, Melbourne, January 27, 2016. A group of thirty-four babies in this category became the focus of mass protests by citizens and clergy in early 2016, and they were permitted to remain in Australia.

  18. David Manne, interview by author, Melbourne, January 28, 2016.

  19. Ahmed and Marwan and other detainees (#2), series of interviews by author, Villawood Detention Centre, Sydney, February 8, 2016.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Daniel Webb, interview by author, Melbourne, January 27, 2016.

  22. Ibid.

  23. This is a pseudonym; he asked that his real name not be used.

  24. Mark J. Isaacs, The Undesirables: Inside Nauru (Richmond, Australia: Hardie Grant, 2014), 83.

  25. Philip Ruddock, interview by author, Sydney, January 12, 2016.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Steve Cannane and Brigid Andersen, “Federal Government Repatriates Former Military Interpreter to Iraq, Despite Fears His Life Is in Danger,” ABC News, November 9, 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015–11–09/khaled-iraq/6923434; “Australia’s ‘19th Syrian’ Injured in Shelling Back Home While His Father Is Killed in the Same Attack,” Lateline, October 20, 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4335593.htm.

  28. Descriptions of these medical conditions are drawn from official medical reports and doctors notes provided by the detainees.