It was Ruyard Kipling who coined this very colonial and imperial expression in an 1899 poem in which he justified the domination of the “white man” over the colonized as a noble and thankless enterprise, as an altruistic obligation and a mission of civilization, like a burden. Their descendants have long wanted to come, regularly or irregularly, to their former metropolises. But no, the new walls of globalization, those which do not allow entry compared to those of the Cold War which did not allow exit, are erected higher to block their passage. Limiting immigration, especially that involving cultural or simply phenotypic differences, has become a central part of policy in so-called Western democracies, and not only in these.
Immigration has been placed at the center of the ongoing political battle. You don’t need to be good-natured or naive. But we must recognize that there is a problem. If immigration is not well managed, the far right can contaminate everything, not only the center, but the left (see Germany) and come to power (see Italy, see the election results in Austria). This is what Tony Blair, who, despite his big mistake in the Iraq war, knows politics, warned Keir Starmer when the current Labor Party won the election: he had to address the issue, otherwise he would be overwhelmed by the demands of this far-right wing which is growing in the United Kingdom and other countries. But this is not about following Meloni and losing the essence of Labour. Paying for others to accept returned items is an immoral course.
