The parade of nations at the Olympics is bound to invoke the inner patriot in us all -- seeing a nation’s foremost athletes marching along, proudly hoisting a country’s flag up, all to represent the sacred soil that you claim as your own.
And perhaps in those moments, you get to cheer just a bit louder, holler with that extra bit of enthusiasm, and jump a tad higher in giving your national heroes their duly earned support.
Yet, this Rio 2016 saw something heart-warming. The group that was cheered the hardest and given a standing ovation bore a flag that stood for no one nation. The Olympic flag entrusted to them to be carried did not and could not represent a shared nationality, but the common journey that had brought them to the Olympics. A journey that is at times called immigration.
A journey that is not for the weak of heart, and demands an intrepid soul. Yusra Mardini, the 17-year-old Syrian swimmer, now a resident of Berlin, had to flee for her life from the deadly Syrian Civil War. Her harrowing journey might have met a tragic end had her indomitable spirit not allowed her to prevail against fearful odds. Undaunted, she and her sister pushed the boat with a failed engine for well over three hours to its destination, saving her life along with others’.
This year, the visual feast and eye candy choreographed by Fernando Meirelles, Daniela Thomas, and Andrucha Waddington paid tributes to immigrants and gave the descendants of migrant Japanese and Arabs their part to play.
A pleasant change, since the former were not received warmly, used to be excluded from society at large, forced to live in squalor, and officially classified as “not white enough.” Now they are faring better. Amidst their community, one can find accomplished people. Say, Hugo Hoyama, the table tennis player who holds the Brazilian record for the most gold medals in Pan American Games.
The Arabs too had left a noticeable mark on Brazil, providing their share of noteworthy people, like Wallid Ismail, the accomplished mixed martial artist and jiu-jitsu specialist.
Yet, it amazes me that, in stark contrast to the spirit of tolerance and inclusivity at the Olympics, a certain politician wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out and ban Muslims from the US. That a significant fraction of the British populace threw themselves in with the “Leave” campaign on the EU referendum out of fear of immigrants. If they are looking for a good pro-immigration case, they only need to look at their Olympic teams.
Phelps is American irrespective of his bloodline. Mo Farah is British, in spite of Somali parents. Mamun’s Bangladeshi heritage is irrelevant to her success
No doubt Americans feel a stirring of patriotism now that team USA has topped the Olympics table and earned itself the lion’s share of the medal tally, earning a grand 121 medals out of the 971 that were on offer. While in the runners up position, we have the UK with an impressive medal count of 67.
And it is only with patriotic pride that they watched their beloved Olympians sing to the Star-Spangled Banner on the stands with a gold medal on their necks, or shed tears as God Save the Queen played out on the stadium when the proud Union Jack went up.
Only if they looked a bit closer, if only.
Michael Phelps’s impressive run in Rio 2016 ended with five golds and one silver, bringing his total count to 28, and so we have ourselves the most decorated Olympian of all time. He just happens to be of Irish, German, Scottish, Welsh, and English descent. His compatriot Katie Ledecky, who finished her campaign with four gold medals and a silver in the swimming events, inherited Irish blood from her mother and her paternal grandfather emigrated to the US from Czechoslovakia.
Another notable US medalist and swimmer in Rio 2016, Medeline Dirado, is the daughter of an originally Argentinian father and a mother of Norwegian descent who fled from Italy after World War II. Then there is Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah, known to the world at large as Mo Farah. Born in Mogadishu, Somalia he immigrated to Britain with his father at the age eight barely speaking a word of English.
Far from being a free loader, he went on to represent the UK at the Olympics, and added to two more gold medals to his personal record in Rio 2016. To say nothing of Margarita Mamun who played for Russia: It does seem immigrants can have a positive influence, giving back well in proportion to what they take from their host nations.
If one is under the impression that I am here to make Michael Phelps less American or Mo Farah more Somali and assert the dubious claim that Bangladesh had made any contribution whatsoever to Mamun’s gold medal, you are mistaken.
It is the reverse that I am here to say. Phelps is American irrespective of his bloodline. Mo Farah is British, in spite of Somali parents. Mamun’s Bangladeshi heritage is irrelevant to her success. Each tells an I-made-it-here tale, one that certain politicians and policy-makers need to pay heed to.
It also needs to be borne in mind that it is not only the top notch Olympics-destined immigrant that can do their part.
Jan Golding of University of Oxford said to New Scientist: “The logic driving this idea is the idea that migrant workers present additional competition for scarce jobs.” A belief that is rooted in misunderstanding of modern capitalist economics: If the immigrants win themselves jobs, get successful, buy houses, and have children -- the natives lose. However, that is not how it works.
The World Bank estimates that if the workforces of wealthy nations accommodate for immigrants resulting in 3% growth, it would boost world GDP by $356 billion by 2025. While the same article provides one analysis after the other that immigrants do not reduce job opportunities for the natives -- their net contribution is positive.
Michael Clemens at the Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington DC, who did meta-analysis of several independent mathematical models suggests removing barriers to migration can increase the world GDP from 50% to 150%, and weighs in on the debate with the following words: “There appear to be trillion-dollar bills on the sidewalk.”
Therein lies the point: Build the wall and put up restrictions at your own peril. The next Mo Farah could be lost. Even your typical Patel or everyday Wei could have given a country an economic boost.
Syed Raiyan Nuri Reza writes from Tehran.
