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World Cup 2018: Why success of Mbappe, Pogba and others can't solve Europe's immigration problem

The French, Belgian and English squad are powered by immigrants.

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At a time when the immigration debate is dominating national politics in Europe, three out of the four semi-finalists at the World Cup 2018 have a fair dose of immigrants.  The colonial exploits of France, Belgium and England have come home to roost in a strange way – bolstering their national teams.

78% of the French squad, and 48% of both the Belgian and English team are from migrant backgrounds. 17 players in France’s squad are the children of first-generation immigrants.

Mbappe, the 19-year-old livewire who burst onto the scene with a brace against Argentina on the day both Messi and Ronaldo were knocked out, is the son of a Cameroonian father and Algerian mother.

The world’s most expensive teenager, he grew up idolising Cristiano Ronaldo and already looks like a gene-spliced super clone of Thierry Henry and the Brazilian Ronaldo.  

Mbappe with Messi (AFP)

Paul Pogba, once the most expensive footballer in the world, is a devout practising Muslim whose parents emigrated from Guinea. Both his brothers play for the Guinean national team. Kante, the defensive juggernaut of the French squad has parents from Mali, while Varane, Real Madrid’s star defender is from Martinique, located in the West Indies.

Umtiti, the other centre-back, was born in Cameron, while Benjamin Mendy is Senegalese.

When Zinedine Zidane’s France lifted the trophy on home soil in 1998, the defining chant was black, blanc et beur (black,white and a term for Arabs of North African descent).

 20 years later, the young French squad is flying thanks to a multiracial squad, uniting a nation where Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Policy is emerging as a strong force.

Romelu Lukaku with Thierry Henry (AFP)

Like France, its neighbour and semi-final opponent Belgium also have its rich plethora of immigrants. Seven of the players of the squad can trace their roots to the former Belgian colony of Congo, with Romelu Lukaku and Vincent Kompany the leading lights.  

They are not the only ones. Marouane Fellaini, Nacer Chadli, Dedryck Boyata, Michy Batshuayi, Mousa Dembele, Axel Witsel and Adnan Januzaj are all second-generation immigrants.

Felliani, born to Moroccan parents, and the first Muslim player to captain Manchester United, has often been the butt of unfair jokes for perhaps not having the requisite technical ability but against Brazil, the big player reminded the team why his kind is needed as he shackled the Neymar’s creative juices.

Most of Belgium’s squad are global superstars playing in the Premier League, and have bridged the country’s uneasy linguistic clashes by making English the Lingua Franca of the squad. The breakdown in barriers has helped Spanish manager Roberto Martinez harness the potential and take Belgium from dark horses to major contenders.



Raheem Sterling ( Reuters)

The same goes for the English squad, the first one to make the semi-final since 1990. A nation torn apart by Brexit, which has been unwelcome guests at more nations than they would like to remember, is suddenly looking suspiciously at foreigners. Yet, on the field, it is being led by a diverse bunch of English lads whose parents have come across the world. The multicultural English squad stands in diffidence against those who want to shut down their borders.

Raheem Sterling was born in Jamaica, Danny Welbeck in Ghana, while  Danny Rose and Ashley Young have Jamaican blood. Fabian Delph and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are of Guyanese origin.

 Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford have blood from Caribbean Islands. Dele Alli’s father is Nigerian, while Eric Dier grew up in Portugal. Harry Kane, their lead scorer, has Irish blood and was eligible to play for Ireland.

Meanwhile Southgate, who has emerged as a positive British model in the times of Boris Johnson and Piers Morgan, hasn’t shied away from discussing and praising his team’s racial diversity.

Quite aware of the capacity of a national team to unite, he said: “We are a team with our diversity and youth that represents modern England. We are the reflection of a new identity and we hope that people connect with us. We can influence even bigger things.”

Yet it’s ironical that most of these young men wouldn’t even be here when post-Brexit England’s harsh immigration laws come into play. And the treatment meted out to these young men over the years, is also a reminder of how nations have a different set of rules for immigrants, particularly when they are coloured.

Raheem Sterling, who used to help his mother clean toilets by waking up at five in the morning has been the harshest victim of racially-motivated tabloid pressure and dog-whistle racism, with his everyday purchases and tattoos being questioned.  The leitmotif has been quite clear: 'migrant know your limits'.

As Belgian Lukaku wrote: “When things were going well, I was reading newspaper articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker. When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent.”

Football fans have shown a tendency to scapegoat those who are different, most clearly seen in the treatment meted out to be German footballer of Turkish descent, Mesut Ozil.

Ozil, who is of Turkish origin was slammed for ‘not singing’ the German national anthem, and after Germany was knocked out in Kazan, greeted with the banner: “Ozil and Gundogan, go and play for Erdogan (Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan).”

The team’s director Oliver Bierhoff went as far as to suggest that Ozil should’ve been left out of the squad, for simply being pictured with Turkish president Erdogan.

Ozil’s pained father lashed out at Bierhoff saying: “This statement is insolent. In my opinion, it is aimed at saving one's own skin.  He no longer wants to explain himself, he no longer wants to have to defend himself all the time. He has been playing for nine years in the German team... including becoming world champions with the A-team. He has contributed a lot for this country. It has always been: if we win, we win together. But when we lose, we lose because of Ozil? He is now getting whistled at and made a scapegoat. I can understand if he feels insulted.”

Mesut Ozil (Reuters) 

And that reminds of us the latent bigotry that continues to exist in football fans and supporters.

They are more than willing to embrace players of different origins when they win but are quickly willing to make them scapegoats when teams lose.

That sadly remains the plight of immigrants around the world who’ve to go out of their way to prove their worth beyond citizens, much like the Malian immigrant who had to scale a building to get French citizenship. Racists it appears want the best of both worlds, the immigrants to power them to victory and to boo and humiliate when things go wrong, in some way reminiscent of their ancestors who were paraded in circuses and treated as sub-human.

The immigrant song it appears is only palatable when things go well.  

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