Rishi Sunak won the Conservative Party leadership and became UK Prime Minister, becoming the first person of immigrant descent to hold the post. After the announcement, social networking sites began to celebrate Britain’s model of embracing diversity, with the children of immigrants taking over the nation’s top jobs.
And Rishi Sunak’s rise to power has sparked widespread discussion of this successful model for integrating immigrants and their children into the British political system.
Currently, Britain is ruled by Sunak, the son of Indian immigrants. In addition, the mayor of London is Pakistani Muslim Sadiq Khan, and the mayor of Westminster is held by Hamza Taouzzale of Moroccan descent. The city is considered the most important and the richest city.
This political promotion of people of immigrant ancestry and giving them the opportunity to run the country’s most important sectors and cities makes the Anglo-Saxon system how well it handles immigration compared to the way other countries deal with immigrants and their children better. Although the UK has not been immune to the growing phenomenon of racism and hostility towards immigrants. And this phenomenon was also vividly demonstrated in the Brexit referendum. The UK has since enacted laws aimed at curbing the flow of migrants and refugees into the country.
politician
Sadiq Khan’s appointment as mayor of London was once a big event in the UK and Europe. Because it means Pakistani Muslims will rule one of the richest cities in Europe. But his tenure has been met with racist comments at home and abroad, so his road to that goal has not been smooth.
Nonetheless, Sadiq Khan managed to get to that position, even publicly confronting former US President Donald Trump. At the time, Sadiq Khan announced that London would not be laying the red carpet for Trump and allowed a giant Trump balloon to fly when he took office.
Sadiq Khan considers himself an important figure in the British political equation. At the time he won a second term in Mist. Currently, he is both Labour leader and one of the most prominent candidates to lead the party for years to come. Throughout British political history, it is known that the position of Mayor of London is paving the way for him to become Prime Minister.
This is also thanks to the Labour Party. The party used their historic victory in Westminster to appoint a young man in his early thirties as the city’s mayor. Moroccan-British Hamza Tauzaleh became the first and youngest Muslim mayor to take up the post of Mayor of Westminster. This is the UK’s decision-making centre and the country’s richest city.
Touzaleh and the achievement were widely congratulated by the media and the general public without any harassment or racist comments.
Rishi Sunak’s ascension to prime minister remains the largest and most important position for the children of immigrants. This was also highlighted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said the matter reflected the diversity of British society. And he also called on everyone to put aside political differences and celebrate the “achievement”.
At a time when Muslim women wearing the veil are restricted in several European countries, the British Army has launched an advocacy campaign calling for these women to join the military.
There are also women in the UK who wear veils to work in the judiciary and the police, and in all workplaces without exception. However, there have also been hate-motivated attacks on veiled women in the UK. This is still worrying.
Racism destroys their path
In contrast to the Anglo-Saxon model of immigrant integration, the situation in France has experienced 3 failures, the worst racist movement that erupted after women held key ministerial positions in France.
Christiane Taubira, a former justice minister, is of African descent. The woman, known for her ability, has faced racial slurs in far-right newspapers such as Minute. The paper published a photo of Tobila in 2014 with the caption, “Cunning as a monkey Tobila gets her banana”. Meanwhile, a far-right candidate named Leclerc posted a picture of Tobila looking like a monkey on her Facebook page.
Afterwards, Tobila would find herself facing a wave of racism alone, before gradually disappearing from the public eye and even being abandoned by the left to which she belongs.
In addition, two ministers of Moroccan descent were also attacked in the same way, one of them was Rachida Dati, a former justice minister under French President Nicolas Sarkozy. She has been attacked several times, including questioning her abilities and digging into her private life.
Dati has previously said one of her government colleagues was once called a “fascist minister” because of his racism. And Dati’s fate was like that of Tobila, who soon disappeared too.
As for the third figure, it was a young minister, Najat Belkacem, who had served in the Ministry of Education. While she is known as one of the successful faces of left-wing struggles, she has faced a systemic campaign and her appointment is believed to have put French schools in jeopardy. Like Natalie Kosciuszko, a former French minister of Polish origin, she stressed that schools “should continue to progress and be free from any ideological prejudice”.
Like Tobila and Dati, Belkasem disappeared. She no longer holds any political office or even stays away from politics.