ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY WHY IT’S NOT RACIST TO FEAR MASS MIGRATION
THE Archbishop of Canterbury says it is “outrageous” to condemn those who raise concerns about mass immigration as racist.
Justin Welby said Britons were right to fear mass immigration and the influx of refugees.
He added: “Fear is a valid emotion at a time of such colossal crisis. This is one of the greatest movements of people in human history. And to be anxious about that is very reasonable.”
Speaking to House Magazine, the weekly journal of the Houses of Parliament, he took a swipe at liberals trying to belittle those who raise problems about immigration.
He said: “There is a tendency to say, ‘ those people are racist’, which is just outrageous, absolutely outrageous.
“In fragile communities particularly – and I’ve worked in many areas with very fragile communities – there is a genuine fear: What happens about housing? What happens about jobs? What happens about access to health services?”
He said that “genuine fears” need to be listened to and addressed. His intervention comes as Europe is faced with the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War with hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring out of North Africa and Syria.
Prime Minister David Cameron has failed in his attempt to reduce net migration to fewer than 100,000. In 12 months up to September 323,000 more people entered the UK than left.
In his Christmas message the Archbishop had called for “generosity” to be shown to refugees but in the magazine interview he criticised the EU for not dealing with the crisis as it was unfolding
He said: “This is such an enormous challenge that it can only be handled at a European level. I think the lack of a European solution is deepening the crisis very, very significantly.”
He suggested that despite his comments on “fear”, Britain should be willing to take more refugees.
He highlighted the number taken by Germany where there were problems of “Arabic” men sexually abusing white women, forcing Angela Merkel’s government to rethink its open- door policy.
He said he was in Germany last weekend and churches and the German people were doing “the most extraordinary things” to help.
He said: “They took 1.1 million last year. And it does make 20,000 over several years sound really very thin.”
One way to tackle immigration into the UK is to leave the EU and regain control of Britain’s borders.
However, Archbishop Welby refused to take sides over the referendum.
He said: “I don’t think there is one correct Christian view. You can’t say, ‘ God says you must vote this way or that way’.”