Migration Watch - NO TO RACISM ! NO TO EUGENICS ! - Manchester University

Anti Racist Rally 12.00 noon to 2pm May 17 2007 Show full header

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NO TO RACISM ! NO TO EUGENICS !
Rally against Migration Watch and the invite to David Coleman by Manchester University
Thursday May 17th - 12 noon to 2pm
Rally at Hulme Hall on Rusholme Place, off Wilmslow Rd, Manchester
(turn left at Tescos opposite Whitworth Park)


People are also meeting outside Manchester University student union at 11:30 to walk up to Hulme Hall.

We are protesting against the invitation to Professor David Coleman to speak at the conference entitled "Segregation or integration - what's going on?" organised by the Centre for Census and Survey Research at Manchester University.

While Coleman likes to present his racist and eugenicist views in an academically respectable form, his membership of the council of anti-immigration campaign Migration Watch and his long-standing connection with the Galton Institute, going back to the days when it called itself the Eugenics Society, are not just a hobby pursued in his spare time Coleman uses his academic 'respectability' to gain a broader audience for these views, which would otherwise be seen as what they are - those of the far right. This is clear from a look at what he says.

COLEMAN ON INTEGRATION
Let's start with Coleman's views on integration, the topic of this conference. In an interview with Kenan Malik (See:  http://www.kenanmalik.com/tv) he said:

"... the general issue of relatively rapid growth of populations of foreign origin is one which is troubling all of Europe to varying degrees and not just BritainŠ It's a problem because some of those populations bring with them very distinct cultural habits which create difficulties for themselves and for any welfare state in which they are situatedŠ the numbers are so large it gets transmitted to the second and third generation in Britain and also throughout Europe where these problems are quite widespread.

" It is a question of the as it were dethronement of what the ['ordinary British people'] take to be their national identity and their history - because, after all, there are now substantially growing areas in many of our major cities which are in some important respects rather more like foreign countries than those of the ordinary English domestic scene. They're not parts of the country where most English people will want to go."

Again, from the Galton Institute Newsletter (March 2001): "Europeans think they know who they are and unlike (say) Australians, do not want to become something different. Post-war immigration has already turned large sections of European cities into foreign enclaves." (While such sentiments may be acceptable to members of the Galton Institute, this sentence disappears from the 'academic' version of the same article published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. (Phil. Trans. R. Soc Lond. B (2002) 357, 583-598))

RACISM AND EUGENICS
For Coleman, opposition to immigration has its roots in his eugenic approach: he is concerned with maintaining the racial and genetic make-up of the British. This can be seen from Coleman's 1978 PhD thesis "Sociological, demographic and genetical (sic) aspects of the geographical origins of marriage partners in Britain since 1920" and also some of his recent writing:

"Šthe scale of immigration is now much greater than during any period since the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions of the 1st millennium, the impact of which upon the genetic structure of the population is still very evident." (Population and Development Review, 30(4),580)

" Finally, in 2000 the question of ethnic replacement was raised in the national press: whether the high rates of immigration and the high level of fertility in some immigrant groups, would cause Britain to cease to be a white country, with all that would entail for cultural transformation." (World Economics, 4/2, 83)


The fascist BNP refer to Coleman as making a "valuable contribution to the debate on immigration."
Coleman's preferred response to a lower population growth in Europe is, in true eugenicist fashion, that European women should be helped to have more babies: "The root cause of excessive population ageing is very low birth-rates. An effective response must make the workplace, the tax and welfare system and gender relations as a whole more favourable to women, so they can fulfil ambitions, repeatedly stated, to have more than one child." (Galton Institute Newsletter (March 2001))

STATISTICS
These eugenicist views are not sealed off from his concern with and analysis of population statistics. "Estimating the vital rates and future size of ethnic populations" (today's talk) becomes central to his projections of the impact of immigration on the UK as can be seen from the statement in the abstract that "the growth of populations of increasingly complex mixed origin will make the definition and elaboration of ethnic groups as currently understood increasingly meaningless."
Statistics do not speak for themselves. The questions addressed are a matter of choice and interpretation and projections must be based on assumptions. According to one critic Coleman is "preoccupied with how the non-British populationŠ can be prevented from increasing" leading to a "methodological xenophobia" in which "foreignness" comes to be the "crucial variable" (Nigel Harris, World Economics, 4/2, 85,93).

PETROL ON THE FLAMES
Without Coleman's academic reputation and status his views would be less likely to win access to the Mail and Telegraph. They occur in a context where the whipping up of anti-immigrant sentiment can spill over into physical violence or demands for further restrictions on asylum seekers who already face internment and deprivation of their human rights. Coleman - "a very distinguished demographer whom we trust" according to the BNP - throws petrol on the flames by his support for Migration Watch and its ridiculous claim that British government policy is to encourage large scale immigration. To give him a polite hearing as an a fellow academic is to bolster and give legitimacy to his claims to 'independence' and 'scholarly objectivity', claims which cannot be justified and conceal his racist and eugenicist views.

WHAT TO DO
If you agree with us that is wrong to have invited Coleman to speak, you can register a protest by:
o Making your views known to the organisers, either in person or by email to  Ludi.Simpson@manchester.ac.uk. Send a copy to the University Vice Chancellor on  president@manchester.ac.uk and to Mark Elliot, head of the Cathie Marsh Centre on  ccsr@manchester.ac.uk;
o Leaving the conference when Coleman speaks and joining us for a rally outside the hall.


No One is Illegal -  info@noii.org.uk /  http://noii.trick.ca/ / 07946 460778 / 07730 8069003