Watching Mary Beard on the television last night reminded me of the power and sophistication of Rome and its empire. ‘Meet the Romans’ is a ten year old repeat yet still enjoyable and took me back to my early school days when Romans were very much on the curriculum. To be honest I have always found them more fascinating than the Greeks or the Egyptians.
What struck me most from the programme was Rome’s ability to build its empire on the back of immigration. Yes, I know, it was a bloody and callous regime, where slavery was rife and people often short lived, yet the vast majority of the city’s population arrived from outside. Of its million inhabitants some 800,000 were from outside its boundaries. It was the world’s first truly multicultural city.
Slaves were needed to do the work that others didn’t want to do. Many were freed yet remained in the city as Romans while the dynamism of the economy sucked in many more outsiders. Rome’s growth was almost entirely on the back of immigration and it was as if individuals were encouraged to arrive and serve an apprenticeship before becoming full Roman citizens with all the privileges that entailed.
While you may have arrived from Greece, Spain or North Africa, your desire was to be Roman and it seems that the regime excelled at bringing together a melting pot of humanity to create a single entity. It was a long time ago and rose tinted glasses are helping yet immigration was the driving force behind the city’s growth. Immigration wasn’t a problem because everyone was from somewhere else.
The UK could learn something from this. An ageing population and labour shortages have led to stagnant growth and a gradual slipping down the league table of prosperity. We need more people to keep the system going and this has to either come from an increased birth rate, which wouldn’t feed into the market for another two decades, or from increased immigration.
This country is composed entirely of immigrants or the children of immigrants but where we have gone wrong is in the way that we think about those that arrive at our shores these days. They are seen as and labelled as outsiders, an unwelcome drain upon our economy yet what Rome shows us is that the opposite is true. Without immigrants our economy is doomed to long term decline.
There needs to be controls in place and the pace of immigration needs to be such that the country can adapt but we need to change our attitude to those who make the journey. We should learn from the Romans.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 