john eden
male pale and stale
Thank you for asking luka.what do you think about 'free movement' John Eden?
I think it's complicated and is one of those slippery words like "flexibilty" that sounds great but you have to look at who gets what out of it.
We live in a world where Kylie Jenner can go wherever she likes, whenever she likes and have pretty much all of the material comforts she can dream of. Even in a global pandemic she can jet off to a remote island for some much needed downtime.
I imagine that is a very different existence from the Polish lads you see standing outside Wickes on Seven Sisters Road first thing in the morning trying to pick up labouring work. Their "freedom" to leave their families and communities to come here for more remunerative work is predicated on economic inequality - across countries and across classes.
So these two types of movement are very different:
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
― Anatole France
And of course there isn't actually freedom of movement for everyone - even on those terms, which is why some (usually browner) people risk their lives crossing the channel, or die in the back of an articulated lorry.
None of this is especially new, mind. You only have to look at the way that people from the commonwealth were encouraged to come here to help with the post war reconstruction, and how they were treated when they did. Or the Irish lads who built half of London.
"Man has the right to eat what he will: to drink what he will: to dwell where he will: to move as he will on the face of the earth." but for that to happen we need to live in a different world.