Behind the West’s rising dislike of Indian migrants

An ethnically assertive and prosperous community - very aware of and very vocal about the rise of the country of its roots - has invited native wrath

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The surge of hatred for immigrants across the world is almost unprecedented. It is not just the HIB issue. In the UK and Australia, the streets have recently seen hundreds of thousands of protesters gather to decry immigration. Disturbing clips of Indian-origin persons being assaulted have gone viral. In Europe, countries as far apart as Poland and Ireland have seen similar protests and attacks on Indian-origin persons. There are wider issues at stake here, all of which will impact the Indian expatriate community.

The Right, throughout history, has risen amid economic suffering, discontent with the ruling elite, corruption, and unemployment. Europe, traditionally the base for such exclusionary sentiments, had been warning of the rise of the far Right and introduced a Resolution in 2023 on ways to combat it. But that year, unemployment was at a historic low, indicating that other factors were at play.

Official figures show 334 of 426 people arrested in 22 European Union (EU) countries for terrorism-related offences were linked to jihadist terrorism. Rabid Islamist preachers such as the UK's Anjem Choudary have functioned with impunity. Choudary continued his radicalisation lectures across North America despite the banning of his group, Al Mujahiroun. A question was raised in the European Parliament about the two million euros of foreign funding received by the Örebro Mosque in Sweden, where the preacher was found to be an ISIS recruiter. At the al-Muhsinin Mosque in Bonn, radical preachers encouraged the faithful to attend "al-Qaeda training camps". Mosques, institutes, and study centres with links to the Muslim Brotherhood were also funded in France.