Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist – Illawarra Mercury

21 Apr 2017, 1:41 a.m.

A common feature in these ballots across Britain and France? Immigration.

Election-weary Britons head to the polls on June 8. The French will vote this weekend. Americans only recently concluded their distended democratic ritual. Different countries, different systems, different voters. A common theme? Immigration.

Donald Trump pulled off his unlikely victory by invoking a dichotomy: Americans versus others. The antediluvian promise to make America great again was pitched at a demoralised working class, deprived of a social safety net and denied real wage growth for decades.

It cleverly ignored the yawning gulf between a privileged, tax-astute billionaire and his new electoral quarry by excavating an even bigger hole in which immigration was conflated with national security, free trade with job losses, globalism with US decline.

In France, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front exploits similar tensions by branding asylum seekers "illegal". "They have no reason to stay in France" Le Pen says blithely because "these people broke the law the minute they set foot on French soil".

Theresa May's snap British poll is an aftershock of last year's stunning Brexit quake when ordinary Brits ignored elite opinion to cut ties with Europe. Their disaffection derived substantially from the EU's free movement rules that had foreign labour transforming the British economy in ways that suited capital but left workers feeling worse off.

Le Pen, fanning the same anxieties, frames French citizenship as "either inherited or merited", which may be reasonable coming from a more moderate voice. Most, however, see it as the dog-whistle it is: extremism masquerading as common sense. It is typical of the new xenophobia that parades as an antidote to global uncertainty yet poses an existential threat to French cohesion, as well as European stability.

Against these trends, Turnbull's deification of "Australian citizenship" reflects Australia's more sober debate.

It locates Australian identity as a set of beliefs under the rubric of multiple differences: "We're not defined by race or religion or culture, as many other nations are. We're defined by commitment to common values, political values, the rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and women. These fundamental values are what make us Australian."

Unsurprisingly, Turnbull's new muscularity on Aussie "values", which, rhetorically at least, sits more readily with his predecessor, Tony Abbott, has fuelled plenty of suspicion. Cynical observers will view it as a Clayton's boat people fight, the one you engender once the boats have actually stopped being an issue.

Doubtless an embattled prime minister would welcome any electoral dividend and the extra protection within his own party room. But that does not of itself, make the proposed changes wrong.

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The story Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist - Illawarra Mercury