Immigration And The Civil Rights Movement

Most people today are aware of how globalised the world has become in many ways. People, goods (such as clothes, food, electronics and cars), media and money travel across the world daily. Globalisation is however not a new concept. People have migrated across the globe for at least the last couple of centuries. Some of this migration has been voluntary and sometimes beneficial financially to those who chose to move such as in the case of the Irish diaspora or Indian migrants in Chapter 4 (Murji, 2008 p.151-188), some migration has been involuntary or forced such as the enslaved people in Chapter 6 (Pile, 2008 p.237-287) and in many cases migrants and their descendants have suffered racism, inequality and injustice. Past injustices such as …show more content…
(Lambert, 2008, p. 291) One of the reasons that this form of slave trade existed was because at the time many white people believed that they were superior to black people who they perceived to be sinful and inferior. This racism has continued over the years and still exists globally today. Black and White American students fought during the American Civil Rights Campaign in the early 1960’s to gain equal rights for Black people and put an end to segregation at public toilets, restaurants, schools and universities. (Kerr, 2000, p.66) Chapter 7 describes how different groups of people try to ‘make the past present’. Globally, organisations such as ‘Millions for Reparations’, Black Consciousness Centre, N-Cobra and ARM-UK demand reparations for their ancestor’s suffering and their loss of earnings as well as aiming to prevent any further forms of exploitation happening in the future (Lambert, 2008, …show more content…
Reparations are sought for the loss of thousands of lives of both Tutsis and Hutus but unlike the slave trade, Rwanda’s genocide happened in recent times (April to July 1994) and people therefore can and have been held responsible and found guilty for their part in the genocide (. The delay in using the word ‘genocide’ to describe the mass killings meant that the UN was not permitted to assist earlier which may have prevented so many lives being lost. Bill Clinton’s delay in intervening in the Rwanda genocide earlier may have been due to several reasons. A failed UN operation in 1992 may have lowered international confidence in the UN. 40% of the worlds UN military troops and police are based in America, putting cost as a factor in helping poorer countries when the 5 states that make most of the decisions in the UN security council are wealthier states and the poorer countries are unable to contribute as much financially to the UN. A major factor is that some poorer countries like Africa have little in the way of lucrative resources such as oil to offer so richer countries may wish to make the problems of poorer countries more